Learning shifting on a truck - any advice?

If you're not worried about money out here, you wont be here long.... Go pull $3K out of your bank, and dont flinch while you're doing it.

 

No need for name calling.
You have to remember that he is a 22 year old kid in CDL training with no experience.
I like the fact that he is willing to do things the way that he being taught to do them-
that doesn't happen enough nowadays.
With some experience, he will learn that there are other ways and things to consider.
It is best that he does things the way he is being taught untill then.

 

watch some youtube videos of floating and double clutching..

 

i realize that, but at the same time, he's either not willing, or capable, of making his own informed decisions based on what people in the real world tell him... only what a "teacher" tells him.. lets not forget that a lot of these big companies out here make rookie drivers with a month or two experience trainers out on the open road... knowing that, i wouldnt put it past some of these schools to do the exact same thing.

 

I agree, and that is where age and experience will make a difference.

 

Thank you. This is true. Idk about the kid part tho lol...

 

sixth all you have been doing is trying to pick an argument with me this whole entire thread. Its not that im not willing or capable, its that you dont understand what i have been saying. I based an informed opinion NOT FACT based on what other veteran pros have told me. Now this may be a bad thing in my case because they have all been driving longer than you, back when double clutching was the preferred method. EXCUSE ME for not knowing the "proper trucker way of doin things" but thanks to smokin, he pointed out that with real world time and experience, ill know whats best to do. I didnt know 5 years of experience made somebody lord of truckers, the supreme being of experience and knowledge.

 

Im not trying to pick an argument with anyone, I'm just rather blunt In the way I point things out and explain things. Better get used to it since your going into trucking, because a lot of People out there are short and to the point, much the way I am.

Double clutching was the preferred method way back when your veteran pros you are referring to started, but technology, and transmissions have changed a lot over the years since they started, and since we are talking about trucks of today, and not the 70s or 80s, their opinions are irrelevant.

I don't proclaim to know everything, be supreme and all knowing, or lord of the truckers, and I never will because the business of trucking changes all the time with technOlogy advancements and rules and regulations changing. If you read some of the other threads here, I've stated that I regularly come here to the forums to find information, and learn from others, the same reason you are here I'm assuming.

And as for the 5 years I've been trucking, I guarantee my 5 years I've got right now, ive learned more than you will in your first 10 if you make it that far...

I drove local straight trucks for 3 years, and as a goof, I got my class A permit.. I backed one of my works tractors around the yard a few times and that was it. my boss wanted me to get my class B, and refused to help me get my A. Test day came, and I met our maintenance guy at the DMV, he drove the truck out there. He showed up in the tractor trailer! A complete surprise to me... He told me to give it a shot, and if it didn't work, we'd drop the trailer, and I'd get my class B. I left the DMV that day with my class A. 6 months later, I took a fill in drive spot with a 2 truck operation. I had 12 miles under my belt when I left SC to go to NYC. I learned to float gears on i95, and perfected it by the time I got to the Bronx. My whole driving career has been self taught, I just keep moving forward, and never look back. I've been thru all of the lower 48, seen every kind of terrain in every kind of weather. Made at least 300 trips into NYC at all hours of the day and night, and I don't mean passin thru NYC on i95... I've delivered 3 blocks from the empire state building and times square. I don't dance around anything, I throw myself into the middle and learn as fast as I can, hasn't failed me yet. I learn new stuff everyday, just as you do, but when I don't know something, I either ask more questions or keep my mouth shut. I don't tell others how it's done, so If you see me posting on something , chances are, I've experienced it and know what I'm talking about.

 

I've floated the gears in every car I've owned and never had a problem, same with the trucks I've driven. If it doesn't slide into gear with just the tips of your fingers on the shifter, then you are doing it wrong.

I just sold my 1985 Mustang SVO, I had it for a decade and I pretty much only used the clutch on the drag strip. The T-5 tranny in them is known for blowing the 2nd and 4th gear syncros, bending shift forks and even blowing up 3rd entirely, with stock V8's. When I sold it the tranny still shifted just fine, with or without the clutch, and I only put one clutch in it over the decade, about halfway through my ownership. When I swapped engines(bent rods, broken piston) a couple years ago, the clutch on it still had LOTS of life left so I threw in a new pilot bearing and bolted it up to the new engine.

If this fragile synchronized T-5 can candle 10 years of floating, then why can't these truck trannies handle it when they were designed knowing they would be floated?

 

If I was training you i would teach you to IDLE shift before anything that ay you would learn how and when to shift a truck. When you learn to idle shift you never touch the fuel peddle at all that way you can start to learn how to shift with only 2 variables instead of three.