Clutch, When at a red light do you wait in neutral or in gear?

There was a rule about being out of gear for too long in the Iowa dot manual in 2010, when you were moving.....like maybe a truck lenthg. I dont know if it is still there or not. I cannot find that rule in the PA dot manual currently.

 

Thank you. Can you cite the regulation, please?

 

Yes, I was also looking at the Virginia Manual on page 2.8 that seems to support pushing the clutch in while stopped. So I would take it as a given this is a test standard. However, I see no law or regulation mandating this.

2.2.3 – Stopping Push the brake pedal down gradually. The amount of brake pressure you need to stop the vehicle will depend on the speed of the vehicle and how quickly you need to stop. Control the pressure so the vehicle comes to a smooth, safe stop. If you have a manual transmission, push the clutch in when the engine is close to idle.

 

If you are sitting at a light on a decent downhill, you can have it in neutral, let off the brake when the light turns green, and slip it into gear without having to even push the clutch in.

 

As a rookie, if you are still inexperienced at shifting and gear layout, you should ALWAYS keep it in 1st with the clutch pedal in. It also doesn't hurt to carefully engage the clutch and creep forward a hairs length to make sure you are in 1st and didn't accidentally put it in R. I've seen rookies back into someone because they thought they were in 1st gear but were actually in reverse while waiting for the light to change...

 

If my truck is stopped, and my foot is on the service brake, I am in control of my vehicle.

Now, a lot of drivers fail driving tests when they take a truck out of gear and allow the engine to idle as the truck is rolling to a stop. That is because the truck is moving. Once the truck is no longer moving, maintaining control is keeping the truck from moving.

If there is a rule that opposes what I have said, please cite it, I am genuinely interested.

 

Need to wait in neutral and not in gear so you do not ruin clutch break.

 

1st gear? don't think I ever use 1st. 2nd maybe, 3rd usually , loaded.

always in gear and never ruined a clutch or needed one replaced before 500K ,in 35 yrs, as a road driver.

 

There is a guy that I see at the VA from time to time. He is almost 100 years old and one of the last WW2 vets in the area. He spent most of his post-war career working as a diesel mechanic. I had a chance to speak to him once on the topic of clutches and brakes! I'm not going to get too deep into this topic. However, he told me some of today's drivers would never last back then because yesterday's clutches and brakes were not as tough as they are today. Back then if you ever got a reputation as a clutch burner or being hard on brakes you lost jobs because of it. Another thing that could tell on a driver was breaking an axle and/or universal joint.

My point in regard to the comment quoted is trucks of that era were not as forgiving of "mistakes" and poor driving techniques in regard to today's units. Old timers could get hundreds of thousands of miles from a clutch.

 

yup, learn not to lug the engine. doubt people even know the term now.