Downshifting help

You are right, I know ARCO has an impeccable safety policy and program. Never worked with the cable issue, so I will take your word on it.

Will give you a wave next time through Vegas. Do you work nights or days?

 

My two cents about shifting in a turn is...........dont. Although I do sometimes I have found for me it is better to be in your gear before the your turn and gas on it through it and out of it.

Localtrucker, you will find that truck easy to shift in no time at all and with that engine you can bring your rpm's pretty low before you start lugging it.....good luck

 

This works well for downshifting, though I always let my speed get a little bit lower, like 40 for 9th and then use a shorter quicker RPM bump.

Upshifting, you will have to account for your weight and or terrain, especially with a 10 speed engine and a low Horse power engine. If you are really heavy, you will push the RPM's quite a bit higher while upshifting(but the higher the RPM, the faster the RPM will fall when you release the accelerator). You will have to move your stick a little quicker to compensate. The opposite is true for light weight loads, you can shift at lower RPM's and you can move the stick a little bit slower.

 

I agree...my question is I must be doing something wrong with with my foot or something cause when I try to downshift sometomes works well and other not so well. Some gears are easier to downshift than others, it not that the truck shifts hard or anything I think its just me, I dont think that I get down to the right speed when I try to downshift for a particular gear whats the trick to nailing every downshift perfect without thinking about it? How do I work my foot on the throttle? I know I can get this figured out with just a little more help...Its all been very appreciated...localtrucker

 

I was one of the lucky ones and got a golden handshake retirement. So I haven't been there for awhile since we moved out of that stink hole. I guess I took it at the right time because ARCO pulled their trucks out of that town and hired contractors to do the work. I could have moved to any terminal but I took the retirement. I'm much better off now because I made some good decisions with my pay and I make the same now as I did when driving including OT.

 

I had that problem in the begining. My trainer said look at the speed, say 45 take it out of 10th gear get rpm's up to 1600 atleast and move to 9th. My problem was not getting rpms high enough. I would pat the fuel and try it but it would grind. Now I push it a little harder to really get them up. I was just getting the rpm's up to maybe 1100 or 12. Try the speed chart and really get the rpm's up. I think that is the problem. Also don't try downshifting unless you are at or just below the speeds on the chart. These trucks are geared low so 53 in 10th is very differant than 47. Don't seem like it would be but it's not a car.

 

Before you downshift, ask yourself, What will the truck sound like when I let the clutch out if I was to downshift right now? Its all about matching engine speed with road speed. I think you may be mis-understanding shifting by sound. When you shift by sound your not shifting at any certain RPM, your just matching your engine speed with the road speed,("When you DECIDE to shift, and your in nuetral, gas it, and make the truck sound like it will when you let the clutch out and it will fall in gear") Its hard to explain, but try humming with the truck as you go down the road when you shift, once you get the rythem in your head youll be fine, not to say you won't mess up here n there. Listen to your truck.

 

Lets examine this: This all started when localtrucker was asking for help making turns. He said he was making turns in 6th or 7th gear and losing momentum, (obviously to high of a gear). You responded with a long winded feature story about 35mph, slowing down, shifting in the apex etc. You never answered localtruckers' question!!!! Futhermore, GasHauler disagrees with your comment in his next post. I DID NOT CRITICIZE YOUR POST, I DIDNT SAY A WORD!!! I just offered localtrucker a short concise and fairly accurate answer on how to determine what gear to be in depending on the transmission, how heavy he was and size of the intersection........and you criticized me for that? Boy did you. You spent a whole page and about 7 paragraghs criticizing almost every word.

Lets take another example: pascual was responding to a post and offering his suggestion on how to shift a super 10. Now its obvious pascual speaks english as a 2nd language. Although his post was hard to understand, after reading it a few times, I understood it...and you not only criticized him, you made fun of him. I repeat.... You Bitter Old Fart!!!!

 

Guess I laughed at pascual to. I read his post several times myself, and I followed it up to the last part about going back to 6 and he lost me there. But laughing beats crying I guess. Sorry if I offended anyone but I still gotta laugh about that one.

 

There seems to be alot of questions about shifting so I'll give it a shot. To make perfect accurate shifts all the time you have to use the tach. Now I dont use the tach (because I'm lazy) unless the shift is crucial like going uphill or downhill. I listen to the engine on the upshift and guess on the downshift cause you cant listen to the downshift so the bump you are giving it is a guess.

To use the tach first you have to figure out engine Operating Range. Most engines have an operating range of 1100-1500 RPM or 1200-1600 RPM. Lets use the 1100-1500 RPM range as an example. Its called an Operating Range because thats where we should drive the truck and try and keep all our Flat Land shifts within that range. If we are driving below 1100 RPM we might be lugging the engine (not good), if are we driving above 1500 RPM we are wasting fuel and causing excess wear on the engine. Do not confuse operating range with the Power Band or Range. Most engines continue making power over 2000 RPM, that doesnt mean that we should run it that high though.

Next we have to figure out the RPM spread between the gears. Truckers call it by different names, I call it the RPM spread. Its easy:

1. Choose a gear, any gear say 7th and we are in a 10 speed. Take it up to 25 MPH and hold it and look at the tach. Make sure you're doing exactly 25 MPH and write down what the tach says. Lets say the tach says 1550 RPM at 25 MPH. Now upshift to 8th gear but stay at exactly 25 MPH. Look at the tach, it has fallen 300-400 RPM, we will say to 1200 RPM. Now subtract 1550 RPM minis 1200 RPM = 350 RPM. So in this example our RPM Spread between the gears is 350 RPM and thats what we use to match Engine Speed to Road Speed.

2. Now to Upshift we take it up to 1500 RPM (top of the Operating Range) shift to neutral and let the RPMs fall 350 (in this example) and then complete the shift.

3. To Downshift let the truck slow down on its own or step on the brakes (make sure clutch is out), when the RPMs get to 1100 we shift to neutral, bump it up 350 RPM ( clutch should be out when we are bumping up RPMs) and complete the Shift.

I hope this answers some of the questions. Next weekend I'll talk about RPM spread on hills