Downshifting

It is abusive. Believe me. I know it's abusive. I agree with your points.

One of the trainers I had in my lifetime was very good. One day I crunched across a set of tracks in Ohio THUMP THUMP THUMP really badly on the suspension etc. He cursed me out and said I was too hard on the equipment. The result was for the remainder of my time with him which was a couple of months roughly was all about not beating up the equipment.

I actually got better for that. So there is that.

It would not be the first or last time I tore out a set of rears doing stupid stuff like abusive shifting or hard clutch work against a uphill off a light. That would be my one flaw. Ive learned to ease off that.

 

Some of the stinking railroad crossings around the country are horrible anymore, 5 mph and it feels like the tires are falling off or you're hitting badger holes in a field.

 

I am old and feeble and still not entirely sure what a meme is. My 1st initial is K and since I was a little kid I was usually called KK. If it's official paperwork or something I spell the words as I was taught.(back,smack,check)Otherwise it's just another habit that has stukk with me.

 

Im sorry to hear that.

You should see the few we have in this area. You really should not take a big truck across.

You would think the railroad would build the rails to match the road height. But no. Where the rails fall on the ground is where they go even if they are a foot or two above the streets sometimes.

One company in Baltimore had a container yard over a old railroad yard with switches buried in gravel. When it finishes with rain sometimes there is a hole where if you are not careful you can and will trap a tractor inside the switch. Ive broken several tractors trying to get them out of them. It got to where no one yells anymore. They just send the broken truck to the junkers, pour more gravel and issue another.

You would think instead of filling the same hole several times a year and going through broken trucks, they would pave the darn thing proper. But noo. tight wads...

 

You need to forget what speed is what gear. You need to feel it out and know, intuitively, where the gears are and what the engine sounds like when it's supposed to fit in.

Going one gear at a time, rather than jumping around and figuring "oh, I'm at 10 mph, that's where 5th should be" will help a lot. Find out how big the rpm jumps are between gears, then when it pops out of gear, rev it up that amount and find the hole.

Learning how to shift involves grinding. The difference is, gentle grinding pressure eventually slipping in is a lot different than trying to force it where it doesn't go.

If you try to reason it out and memorize speeds for the truck you are currently in, if you move to something different, you are going to be completely lost. Learn the technique and be able to drive anything, instead of just the theory.

 

If its grinding more than likely your going to fast to put it in that gear next time you change up through the gears take note as to what speeds your doing in those gears then next time you change down match the revs to the speed and you problem will be fixed.

 

Just practice more to find the right speed when shifting, but avoid forcing any gears or using force to pop out of gear. Be as gentle as possible.