Panic situations/Downshifting

heythere- I drove a mixer last summer and a flatbed t&t right now. both had fuller 9 speeds. depending on the shape of the syncros, youre going to have to slow that mustang down before downshifting, cause the engine won't rev high enough to match your speed say, on approach to an off ramp. a jake brake is good as long as it doesnt give you a face plant and an automotive wedgie. letting it coast til youre outta the slow lane is good manners but if you need more room, youre gonna have to slow in the lane prior to exiting by taking control of the vehicle and applying some brake.
you can jake and brake, clutch/release and feel for the window going down. 2 or 3 gears maybe. If you scratch alot, just use the brakes. they wont fade or burn on an off ramp.
You also are a tanker, so that gives you great reason to go slower than the rest of us around curves and take more distance to slow to avoid the hammer effect.youve gotta dump your speed before the turn to where you feel comfortable. meet or come in under the posted turn speeds and youlle be fine.I usually forget what gear I'm in and hunt and peck for it. then the dam will break and the suv's will flood past me.dont get in a hurry-she wont budge any faster than she's gonna.

 

I also am new I only have my temps and am learning to drive but I also am having trouble with down shifting! I will be having my husbands boss who is teaching me write down the RPMS and SPEED as I up shift so I may down shift at same RPMS and SPEED. Thanks for the help. Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

It's nothing magical, just time and practice--you'll be floating them in couple of months!! Good luck...JAM

 

If you can't drive it, park it.... If you can't park it, drive it!
I don't see how you can get a CDL w/o knowing how to shift, down or up!

Coasting? You do not have control of your vehicle, PERIOD!

Floating? Is that like "Jamming"?
Clutch is for starting and stopping ONLY!

my $0.02

 

think he meant coasting as in letting off the gas not neutral or out of gear

 

Oh I would like to tell you that when I posted that I had only driven for about 1 hour in the trailer. I was having trouble down shifting. When I posted that I was totally freaking out cause I wanted to learn how to drive like right away.


But I know can down shift, and even back. I have even driven in Jainesville, and Milwaukee. The guy I am going to drive for is the one teaching me. I will go for my driving test this week. So I hope I pass the test. I will let you all know what the out come is.

 

This is to update everyone I PASSED my driving test on June 13th 2007.

 

Congrats

Good luck with were ever you decide to work.

 

I think first of all, you should be only in 4th to 5th gear for a turn like a corner turn or something like that anyway.

If your driving a Mack, a Mack is kinda different with their transmissions. I drove a Mack water truck. It was split 10; however, the first 5 gears the low gears I learned that I hardly ever needed them unless on a construction site. For all paved road driving I used 6 through 10, so for turning a corner I would be in 6th gear, but what I would do is slow the truck down, and when slow enough I would down shift to what I needed.

 

the biggest thing is in a big truck, there is no need to be in a hurry slow down way sooner than you would in a car leave yourself lots of extra room, if you loose where your at in your gears go to the next lower gear from where your at slowly bring the revs up with light pressure on your shifter you will feel when the engine rpm and transmission speeds are close. and it will slip right in when you hit the right rpm to road speed, if you cant find it in the lower gear try the next gear up don't panic or get flustered, which is part of leaving yourself plenty of space.

as you go up and down in your patterns say in your head what gear your going to. also you can sit in the truck at a stop in a parking lot run up and down threw the pattern with out actually driving saying out loud what gear do this 50 times til you don't have to think about the shift pattern. part of what got me flustered at first is trying to think about two many things at once, your thinking about rpms road speed shift pattern what gear your in as well as surrounding conditions. as you get each part down to where you don't have to think about it the easier each other part gets. before you know it the only thing your actually be thinking about is surrounding conditions everything else will be automatic.