Eaton Fuller 10spd Arrgh!

Come ride with me and I'll show you how to shift that old girl easy as pie.There's a lot of guys on here that have played that tune and I really like them in a truck that spends some of it's time off highway cause you got a hole for all occasions.

 

Excellent post.

 

I have no idea what your yellow - green - yellow markers stand for, but in a detroit and a 10 speed, if you shift at 1500-ish and make the shift smoothly and successfully, your tach will read 1100 or so rpm. If you were to watch someone like Muleskinner or GasHauler shift you would see the tach needle fall and, as if they were all connected, their right hand move the shifter into gear seating it into place as the tach falls to 1100 rpm. You can feel the shifter fall into gear as the rpms hit the sweet spot. If you can imagine holding a rolled up newspaper against a picket fence as you walk along. Thick-thick-thick-thick. As you slow your walk, the newspaper will fall a little deeper into the openings in the picket fence. thick-thick -- thick --- thick until you stop. When you stop, the newspaper will be resting in a slot between two boards of the picket fence. This is what a transmission falling into gear will come to feel like. I use the rolled up newspaper as an example because there should not be a metallic feeling when you shift.

This may be as silly a thing as I have ever typed, but I hope you can imagine what I am trying to describe.

 

Generally the colors stand for optimum operating range at cruising speed.. yellow being low, green being optimal (best fuel), red exceeding optimal range

Cruising speed? well that in most sense is speed at which you would be running at on the interstate.. (or what the truck is geared best to run at such as J.B trucks 62-63, Sni Truck 64-65 ext...

But then you have the issue of most being Analog tachs.. In this case they generally are behind what the engine is actually doing.. For this shifting to a analog is not exact science, therefore comes in variations such as people have suggested...

 

gwhitson, yours is a common and understandable misconception. As big as these critters are, it is ALL about feel. All about subtleties. You will drive with your ears and toes and the cheeks of your butt as much as with your eyes and hands. When you have time alone in the yard with the truck, simply put some time into listening to the turbo spool up, the rpm's fall during a shift, feel the vibrations tighten up at the top of the rpm band. It will help you be comfortable with the truck and help synchronize your actions to what is going on with the truck.

If you get to know your truck, you can feel when you run over a soda can on the highway. You can feel the difference between that soda can and a square of drywall that fell of a contractors trailer. If you don't see what you just ran over, you can tell the difference between a chunk of angle iron and a cardboard tube from Christmas wrapping paper. This is important information, and it all comes from getting a feel for your truck.

 

Bull is telling you like it is.If you have the knack for this job or the want for it ,it's all going to come together for you as you go.The main thing is to relax just a bit so your mind isn't vaporlocking on you as you are trying to learn this stuff.As you get more time in,the information overload you are getting right now will suddenly start making sense to you and the next thing you know, you'll be a good hand.Main thing is safety in this racket.You'll be just fine as long as you relax just a bit and I'll bet if you go back in there with a calm ,relaxed attitude,those shifts will fall right in the hole for you.Keep us posted.