Not a question but an update

Good luck and best wishes.

 

Don't be scared. Just do what you are asked to do like a cop is watching you do it.

 

Good luck!

 

Any luck with pre-hires from the companies on your other thread?
Researching companies that have NC terminals that hire new graduates

 

I had a heck of a time getting shifting down (and to be honest, 7 years later I’m still a little dubious about double clutching). My breakthrough came when I sat down and wrote out what speed was best to shift into each gear, both accelerating and slowing down. Those speeds are the same double clutching or drifting. Once I knew, for instance, that I wanted to downshift from 10 to 9 at around 45 mph (that was in my truck, yours might be different), and drilled myself on the appropriate speeds for each gear, life got a lot easier!

 

You are pushing the clutch too deep. When you do that, and 100% of newbies do this, it causes the engine RPMs to slow too fast which makes it very difficult to get into gear without grinding gears. You should only partially press the clutch pedal fully down when you are stopped. If you have ever shifted gears in a car you are likely trying to press the clutch fully to the floor while moving. This is your problem. UNLIKE a car, in a truck you only press the clutch JUST ENOUGH to get into or out of gear with a light grip on the gear lever. You might only press the clutch 1/4 or 1/3 of the way down when you are doing as you are supposed to do it.

You should upshift (shift to next higher gear) at exactly the top RPM recommended for whatever range of gears you are in (low-range or high-range determined by the air-splitter paddle on the gear lever. Newbies often shift before they get to the recommended RPM or well above the recommended RPM. Both make it more difficult to get into next gear without grinding. You can practice "bumping the throttle" while you are stopped/parked. Just press the "gas pedal" to make your RPMs 1100. While holding that pressure on the gas "add more pressure to raise RPMs to 1600, or whatever the recommended RPM is for low-range. Keep repeating this until you can reliably maintain the lower RPM and then "bump the throttle" to right at that recommended RPM where you will normally shift gears. There is a recommended RPM shift point or RPM for the low-range and a different and higher RPM shift point for the high-range. I'm barely remembering that in my first manual trucks the low shift point was 1100 RPMs and the high-range shift RPM was 1600. Whatever those 2 different RPMs are in your truck try the practice exercise I described. It's very common to overshoot the RPM by a lot at first. It's not the end of the world, it's just clumsy. For me the stress of trying to be perfect caused me to rush, hurry, or try to force the gear lever into the next gear. All of those just make it more likely to grind gears. Grinding gears sounds like tossing a piano into a wood chipper. EVERYONE grinds the gears especially the guys saying they never did. It's just learning a skill. It's not deciding whether you are a good person or not.

 

That's a fantastic idea.