floating vs double clutching

My dad drove truck for 40 years, over 30 of them hauling logs on the west coast and double clutched every gear. At about 65 years old he had his left hip replaced. The doctor told him on viewing his X-rays "you were a truck driver", dad said "40 years". The doctor said he sees this all the time with long time truckers. The left hip wears in a specific area from clutching.

 

I had to learn how to DC at first from the school I went to. They hammered it home but there was a instructor there who showed "floating" towards the end and while it seemed easier I ended up just jamming the gearshift into the next gear. Sometimes getting it right sometimes not.

There was tons of grinding and really bad noises that I am sure most of you have heard when you started out.

Anyway I found DC easier to a certain extent but what also helped me was basically I new what gear I should be in by how fast I was going. 15 was 6th, 25 was 7th 35 was 8th 45 was 9th 55 was 10th. As you can see I only used a 10 speed. Adding the MPH together gave me the gear I needed to be in. That helped me quite a bit if I forgot where I was in the beginning.

This also helped me when learning to "float" as well. If I was going at the right speed for the gear the gears just go right into place. For both upshifting and downshifting.

 

I only use clutch to start truck to take off & stop. Never blown a trans, rear, u joint and long life of clutches for 20yrs.

 

Mostly float and single clutch fast when needed. Double clutching actually takes more work and unneeded time between shifts. But id say double clutching to start is a good way to learn, when you become familiar with your truck, you will find the sweet spot and be able to hear the engine and know when the shift will slide in like butter.

Its an art, and can be done well with minimal work or thinking.

 

been floating since my first 2 months in a truck. I have even drag raced LOL company truck against company truck (0-35mph) and aint been beat yet. LOL They call me speed shifting ninja at work LOL

 

That's it mr mopar its all in finesse never be in a hurry feel the R's n slide it in

 

WHAT!!!

 

its 1 point off... for floating i had my class b for 9 years before geting my A i asked up frount if i dont use the clutch would i fail our how meny points off would it be... he told me 1 point.. so i did not ues the clutch

 

It depends on several variables if I double-clutch or not. If I'm empty or bobtailing, yeah, I'm a floatin' gear-skipping mofo.

Heavily loaded climbing up a hill and I'll be double-clutching. Going down a hill I'll also double-clutch, because if you let gravity do it's thing you can save alot of fuel.

So forth, and so on.

 

I almost always float but use the clutch to pull it out of gear at times when needed. Started doing local work recently in LA and it's amazing how much better you get at shifting when that's all you do all day.