Climbing

Just preselect your low range a couple seconds before you are actually gonna shift down. Then shift down like normal. If you wait to long, and it is a steep hard grind..may want to rev slightly higher and skip to the next gear lower on the bottom side and keep it pulling.

 

I think I've only done it once or twice. I always had 9 or 10 speeds before my autos. Just take a look at what is happening next as soon as you get into the last gear in high range and pre-select the splitter so you don't forget. But make sure you know you are going to drop into low range before you pre-select. What I did, if I wasn't sure about changing ranges, was keep my hand on the shifter and my thumb where it was ready to move the splitter.

Remember, the RPM shift points are different between high and low range.

 

mountains are the best place to practice your shifting.. its better to miss a gear going up than going down. but u got to learn how to recover from both. if u going upwards and miss a gear ur probably gonna have to try and grab the next gear lower if ur to slow.

 

If you're going uphill and you know your speed is dropping, shift a couple hundred rpms sooner than you normally would. If you wait until you're 'in range' you'll miss it and have to go down another.

 

Kinda depends on weight and grade.

Only time I actually had that issue was once with a load of paper rolls coming out of the North East. Had to climb a mountain road on the way back to the highway. Got down to 5th fine but then missed 4th due to the quick speed drop and had to stop and start at first. Got to 3, couldn't get into 4th again and had to stop again. Just went up the hill in 3rd.

 

There was a hill in PA. SW somewhere. A u.s hwy I think. Been over 10 years. I remember being empty and struggled at 10 mph in a 525 hp 379 long nose. I was starting to think I might slip backwards a few times. Dry and all, but sheesh

 

It's a serious hill if you're dropping below 35mph to get up it. I only drove one truck (for a company that won't be named, but their main terminal just got hit by a tornado) that was so gutless that I lost that much momentum. I wouldn't fret too much about having to go to the lower 5 (9) gears.

 

I screwed up a couple downshifts with my 10 speed. Raw milk could get moving around but 50 thousand of condensed seems it could screw me on downshifts.

Shoot for fifth and you get a hard surge back and next thing I'm clambering for 4th and now I'm toast because I lost my momentum and got the cream bucking.

I only pulled a van once as a driver, nice the way they ride and track and don't move when loaded, always smooth bore tanks the rest of driving.

Got thrown to the Wolves after a 15 minute warm up with fully loaded tank with my tester to get hired, than he routed me towards 131 and brought me through the S curve in Grand Rapids Michigan and after that exit to Anne St and climb the 8%grade and catch the red light.

This was me at 14 seconds, I told him my shifting was bad. He said Yep. But we can work with that. Test he made me able clutch no float.