had my first lesson today with the tractor trailer

I remember in class an instructor told us he had been driving non synchro'ed transmissions for nearly 20 years and he still had troubles now and then....I've got 7 years on them and have been known to miss a shift now and again....he key is to be smooth and deliberate with them, but not forceful....unless you like buying $20,000+ transmission jobs...

 

When I first met with my company trainer after completion of school, he said, "Forget whatever they taught you in school..." About the only time we used the clutch was used was to stop and start... I learned how to 'float' the gears in a Kenworth T2000 quickly and actually learned more in 3 weeks on the road with my trainer than I did in school... 3 weeks with my trainer and I was on my own...

J.

 

Here's a kind of weird tip that I heard. If you remember the theme from the TV show "The Addams Family", your clutch and shifter movements will go almost perfectly in time with the finger snaps. It sounded wacky to me until I tried it. Da da da dum click click... well I'll be....

 

"truck trannys ARE syncronized" that is true, just not "fully syncronized like cars are, thats is why you still need to match the RPMs and road speed.

 

For what it is worth.....

I noticed in school, a lot of people, including myself, SHIFTED to neutral.

Simply put, if you put a little pressure against the shifter (towards neutral), when you let off the accelerator, the shifter will naturally go to neutral. All you have to do is tap the clutch at the same time and it slides like grease, then tap the clutch again, and it will go into your next gear.....

Like the Captain said, it is a rhythm..... all you have to do is find it.

 

whatever you do, do NOT give up. and DO NOT get an 'auto only' endorsement (if they have those). Cause then you end up handcuffing yourself as to where and who you can work for. Kinda like me when i worked for Tires Plus 100 years ago. How good was i really if i couldnt drive customers cars onto the rack cause it was a clutch? (which i didnt know how to drive at the time) I had to wait for someone to drive it in for me, and then drive it out. Would be like a one handed handtoss pizza maker.

 

Never heard of of a cdl with "auto only" attached. Share the facts on this one.

 

People that tell you to float gears are really hurting you. There's nothing wrong with it but you should know how to shift the truck with all kinds of transmissions. Learn all you can so you won't be limited. Just take you time and it will come to you. I don't care what anybody says when you float gears there's a chance that you might bang a gear. There's a huge difference between rubbing a gear and banging a gear. You'll know when it bangs and that's when the damage happens. It may only happen once every 6 months or longer but it can happen. I've floated gears and it's never happened but there's always a chance. When you double clutch you take that chance away. Know how to shift before you even try to float. That goes for the whole truck too. Learn all you can about how the truck works.

 

Now this is what a good trainer should be. Gosh, I hope I get a guy like this.