How to recover from lost gears?

You know, this actually does sorta work. It's not exact but it's a close enough approximation. Yesterday, I paid attention at what speed I was doing during my down shifts and by and large, I was a tad faster than what Pumpkin Oval Head mentioned.

In my 10 speed, I shifted down
9th - 53 mph
8th - 40 mph
7th - 35 mph

I also found if you also, take your speed divide by 5 and that will get you a close approximation to the gear.

Another bit of advice to the OP is practice downshifting in the upper range to get your technique and rhythm. It is more forgiving than lower range.

 

Actually you'll need to practice a little bad math and go one gear higher or you'll just grind the gears (example 15mph 1+5= 7th gear).

 

The math thing is funny. A 18 a 13 and a 10 speed all need 6 or 7th at 15mph? Know your truck or be ready to put it in the ditch, thats it. I find the biggist thing to know in a sudden slow down situation is knowing your hi-low break point, i.e. 25mph or so. Not hitting that spliter unless you need to.

 

Match the gear with speed and rpms..
the gear does not have to be in order

 

You'll usually need to rev the RPM's higher to get the low range gears but it depends on the truck.

 

I've only driven Freighliners and Internationals but your problem is more than likely just not reving the RPM's high enough. You'll usually need to go much higher than you might think to get the low range gears.

 

I suggest to take a few off ramps and practice down shifting. Use your brake of course to slow her down and throttle up if needed. Barely push the cluth in.. just enough to change a gear.. I 'm in a 10 speed myself at the moment just different breed. It'll let me down shift or up.shift on a roll with little to no throttle. go thru the gears from a stop and check the speed and rpm that works then

each truck is a different animal