Shifting during Turns..

DON"T do it starting out. Trust me. Because when you #### up, and can't put it in gear, then have to bring the truck to a full stop, is worse than if you just kept it in gear and completed your turn. Once you get your own truck, your going to get better at shifting, and eventually, shifting during turns is going to come naturally. THat is also the reason why they don't teach to shift during turns, and when I was a trainer, I taught it as well, because 1. I don't want you to JAM it into gear, and slowly but surely, abuse the tranny, and 2) when you cant get it into gear, you now have to come to a complete stop, and put it into 1st gear and work your speed back up, and probably impeded traffic at the same time.

 

But that's part of the learning curve. I've missed a gear (recently-lol) and how you handle it WHEN it happens is every bit as important as preventing it.

 

Up here in Canada you can only shift while going straight as soon as you start cranking wheel if you shift test is a fail also no shifting across railroad tracks... Kinda lame but better than failing ..most tests have little to do with real world.. Now some places are thinking about letting you use a automatic but your license is only good for automatics

 

Same here, our state manual "prohibits" shifting in turns. Or at least our driving instructors tell us it does haha
Shift in a turn, fail your test they say. Then again we're apparently supposed to honk the horn when we change lanes too

 

Been driving for 5 years can't ever remember needing to shift in a curve not once. I'm heavy haul now and you better be in the right gear before the turn with 65 thousand pounds on deck.

 

I thought it was the law because it not allowed on drivers tests but I have never read that. How ever I did read somewhere these reasons for not shifting at RR X and intersections. If you drop a drive shaft, transmission locks up in two gears, clutch sticks to floor disengaged, range sycro sticks in neutral, etc you are not broke down in the worst possible spots. If it is the law someone forgot to tell these new automatics and we should void all post about because if the right people read our post they will have something else to issue citations for. Horn to change lines, no, just used before you run over something or before blind curves that require both lanes for clearance. Whom ever blows the horn first has the right of way!

 

My instructors always said that the slower you go, the sharper you can turn...and they are right. But if you are empty and you can make the turn in 5th then I would hit 5th for most turns. You may want to use 4th gear for turns when you are loaded. As you start the turn, you want to be in your gear of choice. Once you get your steers straight after the turn, then start up shifting. If conditions call for less speed, then get down into 3rd gear.
If you don't want to get out of the high range, you can take turns empty or lightly loaded in 6th gear, but in traffic that may be too fast.
My one bosses truck made a big clunk when you put the flipper into the low range, so he wanted me to take turns loaded in 6th gear with a smooth bore milk tanker. I could do it, but there was no traffic out in the country where I was driving, so it could be done ok. But on an uphill turn it lugged the motor as I would get down to 1,000 rpms or less to make the turn.

Practice going through turns in different gears and find the target gear you are most comfortable with, and then adjust according to grade, sharpness of turn, width of turning lanes, And don't worry about up shifting until you are through the turn...it takes experience to figure out all the variables.

 

That's Massachusetts for ya buddy

 

No need to accelerate during a turn. If you have an adequate speed just hold mid throttle so you don't need to shift til you are on the straight and clear of all turning dangers. In tight situations speed is not anyone's "friend".

How many extra miles are you going to "earn" in those 20, 30 or 60 seconds?

Mikeeee

 

Start in 4th your empty. Change gears after the turn.

Or if you want to give yourself extra practice, start in 2nd, skip to 4th do your turn, switch then hit 6th. That was you can re create the pattern as if you were loaded