How to downshift an 8 speed

I'd love to know where this watching the speedometer idea came from. That is about the worst advice I can imagine.

Do NOT watch the speedometer.

 

I find it funny (and dangerous) people asking what speeds do I shift at... I have never watched the speedo.. hence I have never rear ended anyone or ran off the road.. Watch the road... Look down at your gauges as you check your mirrors.. Learn to driver without a crutch act as if the speedo and tach are broken when you are learning to drive...

The best tip I can give you is... when you pop it out of gear stand on the throttle for a second to rev the motor.. Hold the shifter stick against the gear you want to go into... Not against the actual gears but in the hole.. not grinding the gear.. You will fill the sweet spot... When you do put it in then.. It is easier than it sounds.. You will get it..

 

speed is the last thing you need to know.... what if the speedo is broken.. I guess you just stop and start over? Learn to driver by sound and feel... I have been at this so long now.. I don't even look down anymore except to check my pressures and temps... I find the speedo idea to be extremely dangerous.

 

If you've driven a 10 speed. Then 8/9 shouldn't be a problem. Listen to the motor. Don't worry about speed. The motor tells you when to shift and you won't be looking down at the speedo all the time. Which knowing anyone is doing that actually scares the bejesus out of me. Thank goodness your getting fewer gears and not a 18 speed. But it's not your fault. No one should have taught you to drive like that. Best of luck. Hopefully you catch on quick.

 

This is the right way.

Some of these answers are so bad, no wonder so many trucks are trashed by 200k miles. This is how I explained thing to my students, and miraculously the transmission is still nice and tight after 250k miles. All the other trucks we have are all sorts of screwed up.
Oh, and dont float if you want your tranny to stay tight. The clutch exists to sacrifice itself to protect the extremely expensive transmission. Youll get morons that say things like "Well, if you check the clutch I guarantee it will be like new", like somehow thats an excuse to destroy an input shaft and to make the shifter feel like its made from a coat hanger.

 

If the truck has a limiter, you let it hit the limiter and that is the max speed for that gear. The limiters can be stepped, like 1300,1350,1400, up to about 1600 or 1700. Its much easier to know the speed range a gear can take, than to know the rpm. Like I had an international that had a limiter to like 1250-1500-1350-1900-1450-1500, it was really funky. Knowing the speed range meant you could get it in hear regardless of thinking about the crazy RPM ranges.
For instance, my 9th goes to 55, so on a hill I can downshift at about 57 and Ill be able to keep it at 1600rpm. If I use the RPM of 10th to guess when to downshift, its at like 1237rpm or something, and its impossible to make a precision shift. If you know the speed range, you can blow away people on mountains, even with a ridiculous limiter. I have gone over probably 120-150 mountains in the last year, and I have no problem blowing away any company truck.

 

Doing it by speedo is much safer. I can get new students to shift almost perfectly, and the most useful time is during a traffic jam. The gears are typically split at 15mph, so after you have slowed to match a traffic jam, take one little glance and youll instantly know what gear to place it in. Its very safe and very useful, and safer for those around you, because it allows WAY better speed control in traffic.
We have these sensors that go off if we slow down more than 9mph in a second, and I have not set it off once, and neither have any of my students, and we drive through Altanta or Dallas+Houston every other day at least. It only takes a glance.

 

You have no clue what you are talking about.. I have 1.8 million on a tranny I have floated since day 1.. and it is pristine.. Floating doesn't have jack to do with it not being an idiot does..

 

So I am confused. Your telling me your a instructor teaching people to drive by the speedo. What of they are a company driver with a very diverse fleet ?? Ok hold on boss I gotta go out and check which gear I need to shift to at 35 mph. That's about the worst advice I've heard. Guess I am old school. When I started you put the truck in gear let out the clutch and didn't touch it again til you stopped. Now we are checking speed to certain gears. Get a heavy load and do that. You'll be headed to the shoulder.

 

Shift by feel not by sight.