Double clutch or Float. You decide.

The reality is it's going to turn into a crapfest if it hasn't already.

As for myself, I've been floating gears since about a month or so after I got into my own truck. No one showed me how to do it, I just figured it out on my own based on knowledge of how transmissions operate. If you ask me, floating or double-clutching is just two different ways to the same god. Either method will do no harm as long as its done properly. However, being that I am in a local "rough service/vocational" line of work, if I used the clutch I will need knee replacement by the time I'm 40. I don't train students on my truck anymore because the transmission is getting old and worn out, (I take an OTR truck with an auto) but for the couple that I did train on it I gave them the choice of floating or using the clutch. They both chose to use the clutch. Fine with me.

Single clutching seems to be pointless. If you're going to press and hold the clutch to shift, why not punch it twice or not at all? And how do you downshift by single clutching?

 

And the irony is I could probably drive circles around some of those clowns that give road tests (company or state) but I would never pass the test because there is a difference between "book" and "real world". And also because I only use the clutch for starting out, and that's if I'm not pointing downhill!

 

Only problem with that is that the more RPMs = More fuel burned..

and one more note.. its always best to know at what RPM you started the downshift in.

 

A little more RPMs is more fuel true, BUT braking when you don't really need to amounts to more service brake wear... so it's a trade off really. Plus it's easier to not hit the brake every time you downshift.

But let's not forget this either: if you brake before a downshift you've slowed the truck slightly. Then you'll have to give it a bit more fuel, perhaps, after brake-downshifting if you want to maintain the speed you had previously. This depends on road conditions like hills, safe speed, etc. etc. etc. So how much fuel are you really saving by break-downshifting anyway?? I'm not sure there really is any savings.

Personal preference, really. I prefer revving a bit higher and not braking first. Right now. That could easily change in the near future.

I agree totally.

 

These days.. brakes are a lot cheaper than fuel! LOL

 

I agree for experience hands who know how to leave themselves room and slow down and let the RPMs drop naturally and shift as they come.. The newbies who are intimidated by downshifting tend to carry too much speed into the places they need to be slowing down for.. without the brake they sometimes pull the truck out of gear with too much speed at too high an RPM and then the get that "oh shiet" look on their face..

 

Here's my 2cents; Three ways to shift the trans and I use all three, it just depends on the situation. I usually float them in low range taking off from a stop. If I'm climbing a hill or descending, it's hard to break it out of gear sometimes because there is drag, so I single clutch (break it out of gear) and quickly float into the next. Sometimes in other circumstances, I'll double clutch. Then, other days; they've got me in an auto shift tractor and I find myself constantly reaching for the gear shift but it's not there which is annoying. I don't know who came up with that auto shift. That thing revs way up to 1900 and then shifts. I would never rev the engine that high with a manual trans, I'd be shifting between 1400 and 1500. Just me, my opinion and nothing more. Drive safe! I'll see you out there!!

 

They can change all the shift points with a computer.. we have had to do that several times with our tractors.. Not sure who set them up.. but they also revved WAY too high.

 

Well, when you put it like that, and knowing that safety trumps everything, breaking or coasting down in speed prior to downshifting is better, of course. Funny you should mention the "oh shiet" look. Just yesterday in the truck a new CDL holder who had been driving (afraid to downshift much) took a turn at too high a speed and got it dangerously close to tipping over. Did I say funny? No, it wasn't and I was in the truck at the time observing. He obviously got his ### chewed off by the instructor.

 

I'm pretty sure I'd hate an automatic on a tractor. I like it for my car but I wouldn't trust the dang auto on a semi. Especially when descending the mountains. 1900? That's nuts.