Question about manual transmission differences

Learn how to shift in school.
Practice pre trip until your eyes bleed, then practice it some more.

 

Relax, take it all in, don't be afraid to ask questions. You'll do fine.

 

If you can't quote it from memory, you'll quite possibly screw it up on the test. I'm not saying that to be a Richard, just from personal experience. I had it down pat, and when it came time to do it with an instructor, I completely missed the entire fifth wheel area. You should be waking up in the middle of the night muttering about "nothing bent, broken, missing, or damaged"...

 

What he said. Be a sponge.

 

Keep doing what you're doing. There are some YouTube videos dealing with shifting. Some worthwhile. Some worthless. Go through as many as you can find and glean the common points made. Otherwise, not a lot you can do until you get access to the real deal.

Search for some older online publications from Eaton that try and "teach" proper method to up and down shift. This will give you at least some idea what you can expect, to a point.

 

If you've driven a manual transmission before, you know what the "friction zone" is and how to get the vehicle rolling smoothly. Biggest difference between a semi and a small car/pickup with a gasoline engine is the big diesel doesn't require ANY throttle as you ease out the clutch. That's "bad habit #1" that needs to be broken.

Next is shifting. If you've driven a manual transmission car, the shift pattern will (for the most part) be similar. Reverse be in the position you're used to finding 1st in, though. Also, you won't be pushing the pedal to the floor with each shift in a semi. Half way, pull it out of gear, release, push it half way again, slide it into the next gear, and release. That's "double clutching" . You can do that in a car, too...but it's unnecessary. The other big difference is that semi truck transmissions are unsynchronized, meaning YOU have to match engine speed to the road speed of the gear you're trying to shift into before it'll go into gear. That's the case whether you double clutch or float the gears (no clutch...you won't learn that in school, and don't want to do that during your driving test at the DMV).

Other than that, they are pretty similar despite being completely different. I learned to drive in a manual back in high school, and to this day probably 99.8% of my lifetime experience driving experience has been in a manual transmission vehicle of one size or another. It wasn't difficult for ME to transition, but everybody is different.

 

Sorry but as bulldog eluded, there is a good reason why you should learn before school.

I feel people who learn in school are those who seem not to get how to get a vehicle moving, a car is much easier to learn the clutch, gas and brake coordination than a truck.

So I think everyone who tells you that you should learn only on a truck is wrong.

By the way some of my kids learned how to drive a manual, my oldest daughter can without a problem drive any manual truck, including old pia trucks because she learned how to drive a manual trans car.