Floating gears

Yep! For when the auto is in the shop and you get a manual loaner!

Mikeeee

 

There is no mystical time frame to learn. So what it takes you a week,month, year etc or never. Your job is to get the truck from point A to point B on time, without destroying the transmission, or killing yourself or others. Play around with it.

 

I was doing a run around driving test with a company over 20 years ago. I was being a good boy and double clutching every gear, and taking my time.
About 3 stops in the guy testing me looked over to me and said "ok, I see that you can make it down the road, now drive the #### truck". At that point I drove the darn truck. Floated gears, skipped gears etc. He seemed happy when we got back to the yard and hired me on the spot.

Learning how to float gears will come automatically over time. You will get to the point that you can hear where every shift needs to go into the gate, and you will shift without scratching (while using the clutch). At that point you can start skipping the clutch. You will feel when it is time, via hearing it and feeling it. And you will KNOW when you are at the right RPM to enter the next gear. Up will come first, down will come later. But it will come.
Don't worry about it and don't try to force it.

I have found that learning to shift using my fingertips helped with shifting all the way around. When you slam a gear or really hit a gear hard it is normally because you are shifting using your arm. This is a big mistake, the shifter does not need much force at all to shift and get into or out of gear. So if you use your finger tips on the shifter, it will not allow you to use your whole arm to shift, just your fingers and wrist. This will do several things.
1. You cannot force it, thus you save the transmission some abuse.
2 It will allow you to use the correct shift pattern better, this is very important when shifting from gears in the upper part of the gate to lower ones, since when using your arm you have a tendency to pull towards your body, this missing the gate.
3. Using your finger tips will allow you to feel the gears (if you don't feel them now you will later and understand what I mean).

If anyone does not believe me and has not tried this, I challenge you to try it next run. You may be surprised. And if so let us know.

 

keep your dang foot off the clutch unless you're starting from a stop or coming to a stop.

 

"I have found that learning to shift using my fingertips helped with shifting all the way around. When you slam a gear or really hit a gear hard it is normally because you are shifting using your arm. This is a big mistake, the shifter does not need much force at all to shift and get into or out of gear. So if you use your finger tips on the shifter, it will not allow you to use your whole arm to shift, just your fingers and wrist. This will do several things.
1. You cannot force it, thus you save the transmission some abuse.
2 It will allow you to use the correct shift pattern better, this is very important when shifting from gears in the upper part of the gate to lower ones, since when using your arm you have a tendency to pull towards your body, this missing the gate.
3. Using your finger tips will allow you to feel the gears (if you don't feel them now you will later and understand what I mean)."
...what he said!

 

👆 Tried to copy your quote, flubbed it up, sorry! But exactly what you said here!

 

I'm computer illiterate...

 

That's almost the same thing that my trainer did with me. We pulled out of the lot, and came to a 4 way. I did everything by the book. We only weighed 32,000 pounds. I was double clutching, not skipping gears on the 10spd EF. We came to a stop in the left turn lane getting on the expressway here's how the convo went on that drag before we stopped at the light:

trainer
"what the h**l are you doing to my truck?"

me
"operating it."

trainer
"are you going to drive today?"

me
"ill try."

i throw her in 2nd cause the turn was kinda sharp then skip to 4th, then grind 6th something horrible we're going down hill so i recover 7th. She lugged just a bit then caught up. and everything after that happened perfectly onto the expressway. it was pure luck because i had never done it before, i was just going off what my mom whom drives told me.

trainer was turned in his seat facing me and just eyeing the crap out of me. he then calmly says "who taught you that?" i told him my mom did. he then told me the single most valuable piece of knowledge that i've carried with me. he said "#### ups are going to happen, don't panic, you can always keep going straight, pull over and stop, or pull up and try it again. once you panic you'll cause a series of events that can, and will cause you some serious pain."

 

Grand advice! One of the biggest differences between us and 4-wheelers is panic mode. We still panic, but we do everything we can to make it right before it becomes an issue.