Shifting Concerns

Too deep with the clutch will effect your timing, all you need is a little at the top of the clutch any more will get you into the clutch brake.

There are trucks that have millions of miles on them that have been floated all those miles. So how could not using the clutch be bad if you do it right?

 

If there is a 400 rpm split between gears up or down shifting, and using an easy scale. If you take it out of any gear at 1500 rpm on an up shift, the next higher (faster) gear will go in # 1100. If you are down shifting and take it out of any gear # 1100, does it not make sense that you will have to increase the rpm to 1500 to get it in the next lower (smaller) gear?

Now many instructor will have you stab the throttle trying to get the rpm up instead of "floating" it up to where it needs to be. Which is easier to hit? A moving target or stationary one? "Stab-gassing" makes things harder because now you are trying to hit a moving target rather than a slow moving one.

 

That's the key statement right there. If you know how then there's nothing wrong with it. But I've seen too many new drivers bang gears and that's not good. Not grid or rub but bang.

 

True enough. But what does this say about the instruction they got in the first place?

It is one thing to dictate to a student how it should work only to start cussing them when it doesn't, it is another to explain it to them. The first thing I started with is telling every student I had to take what they knew about shifting a car or pickup and toss it away. In my training career, I tried to be a father to them rather than a tyrant.

If the student goes into it thinking that the clutch is going to solve every problem, they will be lost the first mile they try their synchronized mindset out in the non-synchronized transmission.

But how many really good instructors are out there? And how many honest ones would stick with it once they find out what they are involved in? And we both know there is no difference in pay between the good instructor and the bad one. All these schools see is a warm body with a CDL attached to it.

But I love teaching folks how to drive trucks and it is what I should be doing.

 

Hubcap you're right. It all starts from the beginning. But you've got some schools out there that will not teach a student how to use the clutch because it takes to much time. Those are the ones that are hard to break. I like to train like you do. I would rather have a driver that's never been to school than one that has. I like to teach what gear to be in at any given point. Skipping gears and not working yourself to death is my trick. You learn that way fast when all your loads are in the city and you're driving an oversize truck. All of this goes back to the way I feel about driver trainers. It's got to be cleaned up and the only way I see it is by the government. Of course it could be done by the companies as it should but they will not do it.

 

Hi, i just want too forewarn all new drivers out there on this practice, i needed my load deliverd , but my truck was in the shop, but my best freind just rolled in the yard, he wanted too rest , so i asked if i could borrow his truck, he was o/o/ talk over with dispacth no problem long as the load gets there, now he had a nice pete 379 full dress, beutiful truck, straight pipes, no mufflers, well i took off , got over into town were too deliver started too downshift for lights and stuff, smoky nailed me, he said i had the jake on , which is a no no in town, i told him no , he climb on step peeked at the dash , was in off , and said well you probly flipped it off, what it was i was downshifting , but becuse of no mufflers , it echo pretty good agaisnt the buildings, just chrome pipes he thought i was running the jakes, it was a loud truck, well $240 latter i got my load in almost late, i never borrowed his truck again , i learnt my lesson,

 

You better be downshifting when coming to a stop sign, unless you love buying new brakes for your truck, every 50k.

 

I don't get it? What lesson did you learn? Not to downshift or smokey was an idiot because he couldn't tell the difference between jakes and straight pipes. There is a huge difference.

 

I have a question for all you double clutch experts, if you are doing an emergency stop, how do you double clutch and brake at the same time? Hmmm, I guess you don't use the engine.

 

once you get the "feel" you won't have to "rev" to downshift. You'll be able to float it out of gear and throttle the rpm right where it needs to be to go into lower gear. Shifting is more about throttle control than the clutch