First time shifting 10 speed

I had one who was badly in need of vacation in Amsterdam or something. Basic 10 speed.

Finally lost my temper, blew my stack, cursed him out and said shut the F etc and in additon if you want it done right your way ,you drive the #### thing Im walking. Thats enough of you (The trainer..)

When my employer got ahold of that he bawled me out, I told him save it. find another driver to abuse. I quit.

You quit?

Yes what part of quit don't you understand? Is there a echo in here?

Life is too short to be all bent that badly. I think it develops a modern term "Breaking bad."

 

We've been over this and over this, however, with automatics being offered, it's refreshing someone still wants to drive a manual, so I hope this helps. As X1 sez, you have to remember, you are only working with a couple hundred rpm difference between gears, unlike a car, where it's a couple thousand. You probably figured out, you are either over revving or not enough. After about a million times, you'll see where the next gear will be, you have to get good at it, it's the only way to delivering point. Don't worry, I doubt you'll kill it, but when it does mesh, make a note of the rpm, that will be the "sweet spot" for further shifts. You'll be fine, and when on your own, you can forget all about the double clutch, only rookies use the clutch. While I never condone gear clashing, you can kind of "ride" the gear with the shifter, and you'll feel where it will mesh. Sometimes, if road speed drops off, you have to be quick. Again, I wouldn't get too hung up on shifting, that's the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the other things in trucking today.

 

Maybe?? I think they can dock you some points for floating vs. double clutching. but a examiner I talked to where I am from said he wouldn't fail for floating. It's more important to show you are in control while shifting, not coasting out of gear.

 

I trained a couple freinds over the years to help them get their CDL. One Freind during a downshift, would push the clutch down and hold it didn’t, before pushing the throttle to speed the engine up..... lol, I had a time getting him to understand that did no good, But why he ask..... Because, when you disengage the clutch before raising the rpm’s only the engine changed rpm’s, not the input shaft of the transmission. And that’s the whole idea, change the rpm’s of the input shaft to match the output shaft (driveshaft) according to which gear you are selecting. He eventually got it though lol.

Good luck as you go along. Keep your ears open, your eyes peeled, and hold it between the ditches!

 

One thing you might try is gradually picking the rpm up instead of stabbing the throttle up to the rpm you need. That's how I've been downshifting for a while I use both methods depending on situation but if I'm coming off on a ramp so much easier to use the gradual over stab method. Every truck is different and shifts different so don't worry you'll get this one down and make hamburger out of the next transmission for a couple weeks.

When I was a company driver I'm pretty sure I called every new truck every name under the sun. Even told one transmission if it didn't go into gear I was going to pull the ####er and blow it up. We have all been in your shoes

 

Once you spend some good quality time with the truck you can feel when it needs to shift. That will be harder to do until you have a dedicated truck.

Every truck has its own personality, the basic shift points will be the same for each type of truck ( i.e.. engine & tranny combo )

If you made it back on your first trip, consider it a win and keep it up.

 

You will get it. Sounds like you have the right attitude. Like @379exhd said you will be starting this all over again in the next truck. Whenever I jump into a unfamiliar truck at work I usually try to make some metallic mulch a few times on my way out of the parking lot.

 

And we get to the middle of the shrubbery maze, therein lies the problem. People today don't understand what the driveline( and driver) is trying to do, matching engine speed to road speed to transmission speed. Again, used to be, farm tractors, before all this hydra-shift baloney, had similar setups. Farmers were natural born leever pullers and made great drivers. Just no call for it today.

 

I once recovered a tractor off someone who really should be in the ICU but chose a motel anyway. My Pa provided the transport.

What was really crazy that day was I had to bobtail about oh. 4 miles to get trailer. (A covered wagon) The entire bobtail trip was a total display of why I should not be a trucker. Left lane at 30 grinding the mother out of that box.

I was eventually able to master it. But it was a sort of a tired tractor and not given to revving. The more you revved the worse it got.

 

The joys of driving a synchronized transmission