Anyone else hate shifting?

No truer words were ever spoken.. nobody cares about you..or me.. or anybody else..yes you look out for your best interests.. that's why I tell guys to do their best to keep their records clean the first five years..and your entire career.. all the good jobs require that clean record.. don't try to be a hero..bad weather..shut it down..that's how you make a life in this profession..

 

Yup.

 

That was pretty obvious

 

My dad who started in the late 40s strongly recommended I use the clutch, so I learned to do it that way. I know that all the drivers I have ridden with who do not use it are not in the same league as any of the drivers I grew up, my dad, my uncle, Jackie Banks (he could drive smoother in a parking lot of potholes than anybody else could on glass), they all used the clutch. My dad was a mechanic too and he told me that not using the clutch wears a groove in the input shaft. Tbh, I dont know what difference that makes, but there's that.

And in truth all the guys I rode with who didn't use the clutch, couldn't shift anyway. They weren't bad because they didn't use the clutch, they just were bad!

 

Wasn't that so much, I drove an R model Mack, that required both feet on the clutch pedal at a stop, so I never used it. My 1st boss told me that crap too, about the groove in the input shaft, but told him where to stick HIS input shaft when I couldn't walk due to a sore leg. Seemed double clutching was necessary in slow going, and gently applied the clutch on a 13 speed splitter, but otherwise, starting and stopping only.

 

I think you have it backwards, left pedal is called the clutch but it is for the two gears, low and high, no engagement in the middle of that pedal like pushing a regular clutch all the way in. And, right is the brake.