help!

Just relax and make the shift nice and easy. You don't have to have a certain point when to shift you shift when it goes into gear the best. I hope on up shifting you're not taking the engine up against the peg. and shifting. If you try to force it or get in a hury you're going to miss some shifts. Try some progressive shifting. It's differenr on all trucks but you can learn to slow down and make nice relaxed shifts.

You don't need every gear in that truck either. When coming off an interstate slow down, let the tach drop, and then when it's at it's lowest point make a downshift and skip a few gears. Like from 10th to 6th. Of course you'll not be able to do it loaded when up shifting but the whole point here is just relax and let the truck work for you. If you're running the tach up to governed speed and then shifting I would say you had a very poor instructor in school.


I never did look at the tach to shift. I would glace at the speedo to match the road speed with the gear I was going into. You might have a different rearend so your points would be different. But just relax it will come to you and remember let that truck work for you.

 

On downshifting you don't need to apply power to get the stick out but you will need a little to hit the lower gear. Try this, just let the truck roll for a minute and pull the stick out of gear. If there's no power or torque on the driveline it sould come out real nice. Then tap the throttle so you can grab the next lower gear. You don't need to downshift every gear while off the hills. You'll learn that you can skip a couple of gears and you'll be less tired at the end of the shift. And you should never be downshiftinh going down the grade, maybe once but no more.

If you're pulling a grade and the tach is coming down don't get excited and make a normal downshift but just do it a little quicker when it's time. It will come to you. If it comes down again repeat shift and you'll hit the optimum power range to be pulling that grade. Forget the old saying go down the hill in the same gear you came up with. With more hoursepower to the ground some trucks can pull a grade pretty fast. I always stayed between 25mph and 35mph. if I was loaded. But I had 110,000lbs on so 25mph was my choice most of the time. Plus once you get to know the truck there should be no reason to shift the truck after you've started down the grade.

When going down grades this is what I do. Turn the CB very low because all you'll want to hear is all about out you. Crack both windows down about an inch. If you have work lights turn them on so you can see smoke at night because that gets very tricky. You can use you brake lights just make sure you're not appling pressure to the brakes. Watch for puffs of white smoke or use your nose to smell the brakes. It's just like a clutch in a car when they go. You'll know because there's no other smell around unless it's other trucks. Always keep in mind that you need at least one panic stop going do the grade and do your best to protect that. What I mean on that one you never know what's around the corner. It could be large rocks that came down or an accident that just happened.


Here's how I would make a turn from the surface street to the interstate. Wit a 10 speed I'd in 10th coming to the on ramp that was posted 35mph. Turn my right signal on, slow down to about 25mph drop from 10th to 6th (right in the middle of the power band). Go into the turn around until the turn straightens out then apply the power so I can merge safelt with no problems. Don't apply power when you in the curve just when you're coming out of it. It's a good habit to learn because some day you might really have a hard load and that extra push on the load just might start you swing.

 

Some useful shift tips there Gashauler, much obliged.