need to know whats the best transmission to train on / drive with?

Most companies have regular 10's, not supper 10's. Id recommend you learn on a 9 or 10 speed because they don't split gears. 90% chance you'll be drivning one of those with your first company. When you eventually buy your own truck, a 13 or 18 would be best. Some copanies (liek TMC) have 13's for company drivers, but they will retrain you how to shift them. Even TMC is switching to 9's on their new trucks. I wouldn't recommend learning a supper 10, because most companies have regular 10's, not supper 10's

 

What do you mean?

 

Yes you'll stay in the one gear when cruising. Then when you hit hills you'll be downshifting going up and going down. The main thing is to keep the engine within it's operating rpms. When you hit a hill loaded gravity will drag your engine down so you have to downshift to keep the engine rpms up. Going downhill you use the engine to help with braking to keep you from running out of control. Again weight and gravity.

 

Eaton Fuller 10-speed is the easiest to learn on IMO. Low range gears 1-5 will get you up to about 14 MPH or so. Great for getting the truck moving if you are heavy or just want to slow roll through a yard. Gears 6-10 will get you up to whatever your truck is governed at.

If you ever lose track of a gear after 15 MPH, just look at your speedometer. If you are doing 25 MPH, add 2+5... that will give you 7th gear. If you are doing 45 MPH, add 4+5... then you know you should be in 9th gear. I think you get the idea.

You can bring a truck to a stop in 6th gear. Just start to apply the clutch slowly as you start falling below 10 MPH, this will prevent your truck from stalling. Once stopped, range selector down, neutral, and then straight back down into first.

 

The type of transmission or number of gears is not important when it comes to learning. Most carriers will have 10 speed manual transmission. You need to learn how to shift gears. Some carriers have automatic transmissions, but most will have manuals. If you can shift one transmission, you can shift any of them. Unless you can shift gears, you will limit your opportunities. Anyone can drive an automatic.

 

Straight 10 is probably the least confusing but learning to drive with a grind box takes some time to learn regardless.