How often do you grind gears.... Realistically

I grind several times every day. 25 year driver, 5-7 years in auto and the rest in manuals. Never grinding is a goal, not the only sucessfull outcome. Too harsh self-criticism is also an obstacle to improvement like blind stubbornness can be. Improve daily is a better goal than perfection. Perfectionism not only produces unnecessary frustration it can also lead to giving up on the desire to improve. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

 

Sounds kinda like you get in a hurry, 13 and 15 eatons I just point in the direction RPM right let it do the work. Kinda pulls itself there when all is right Now going to the bottom end 1st or 2nd I'd catch em.

 

How come leaving a stop light there is a pot hole at most intersection when I shift nice and smooth then get tossed out of the seat and miss shift like a rookie? Who plants these?


We all do it. Sleep, hurry, rush. Learing how you like your clutch adjusted, grade, it all plays into it. But remember if you scrub a gear with the clutch pushed in, there is no load and minimal wear. Floating gears and a grind. Had power and load behind it.

My .03 cents.

 

Never since the company I work for insists of us driving full on automatics. On the odd occasion if we have to use the old clunker when another truck breaks down which is a Western star with an 18 speed Road ranger it gives us the opportunity to see if we can still change gears and surprise surprise can still do it without much fuss as the saying goes "once you've learnt to ride a bike you never forget" I suppose the same saying can apply to using a road ranger gear box.

 

Last truck had a 15 speed with 800K on it when I sold it and the transmission only had a oil change other then that it was never touched.....

this one 18 speed with 630K same thing......

so the answer is never........

 

Every. Dam. Time.

 

Occasionally but not often and even then it's more of a scratch then a grind. I'm fortunate because before driving I was a machinist so I was already used to coordinating multiple moments on machines. We all slip up once in a while the trick is to keep it rare. You'll get there.

 

I have yet to ride with a driver who never at least scratches it a bit. Of course it’s worse when you have a passenger with you too. For me, my smoothest shifting is when I’m not even thinking about it. When I really try to concentrate on being smooth I mess up about the worst.

 

I still scrub probably 2 out of every ten shifts. The only times I really grind is when I'm in the wrong range. For example, I'm slowing down for a red light. I grab sixth, and drop to low range for fifth, and the light turns green. Then instead of grabbing seventh, I'm actually trying to put it in second gear! I just shake my head and keep trucking.

 

Occasionally, after all these years but don't even think about it.