10 speed to 18 speed

This post sounds like your getting ready to learn to drive. It depends on the gear ratios ordered, not a big difference on technique between them.

Drop by utube lots on videos on both.

 

Forget about the gears and just drive the truck, you don't use the exterme low range much unless your doing heavy haul.

 

Just drive it as a ten and don't use the splitter on the side if you are just road testing empty.

 

Yup, just drive forget the lowend till you learn to drive it.

 

Forget about stopping the earth.

PAY ATTENTION to whatever cautions exist on your transmission plate.

No need to split if the engine is happy and the tractor is purring without that horrible bounce house HOPPING.

In time you will become for lack of a better word become intimate and one with the 18 speed.

 

Do you know what engine is in the truck? Find that out. You can see the serial number and specs on a plate either on top or on the side of the engine. Then look up the rear end ratio. Those two pieces of information are more important to me than the type of transmission.

I drove hundreds of trucks on a drive away basis for the oil industry, with a wide range of specs. Almost always the rpm's to upshift were north of 1500, sometimes around 2000 rpm's. Try shifting at 1500 and you end up lugging it and having to drop a gear or two.

If you are hauling construction equipment in the Seattle area the trucks are likely going to be specced like an oilfield truck, since you have a lot of steep hills to contend with.