Shifting during Turns..

Vilhiem, take a look at the drive line set up on your tractor, you will see what I am talking about with the twisting in the turn. Much like shifting your 4 wheel drive when locked in, shifting in a turn puts the lines in a bind. Normal standards are designed to shift in and out of turns. Tractors, and 4x4 are not so much.

The ft lbs of torque on a tractor and 4x4 are much greater than an automobile. So if you rev it up, slip the clutch, you are putting a lot of pressure on those expensive drive lines and they are the weakest link in the drive train. Thank goodness, rear ends cost $3000.00 each. Transmissions cost anywhere from $4000 (used) upwards to $15,000. If a driver drops a drive line in a turn, he most likely will drop his job as well.

Try and just let out gently on the clutch with no acceleration until the tractor is moving on its on. You will find that you do not need to match the clutch and pedal on a Big Rig. If in the right gear to start it will take off on its own, that is what it was designed to do.

 

@powerhousescott I know these are meant to take off without any added help from the gas, but it's an old habit I gained that I'm trying to break. My trainer caught onto it quick and asked why I was doing that, pretty much told me to stop doing it too.

...at least I'm not holding it on an incline like that!

Wouldn't dare hold a semi using the clutch/gas only...I know that puts strain on 4-wheelers when it's done, so I couldn't imagine doing that in a semi!

 

yeah, it is a hard habit to break, I used to drag race, and when I bought a dump truck one time, slipped the clutch with the fuel, the thing started hopping. Lucky I did not tear anything up, after that I had to remember to put on my Big Equipment hat, and take off the hot rodder hat.

 

I know it's hard when you're new to catch on when shifting. You want to do good and get it right and then you've got all these guys telling you to do this way. There's a lot of pressure put on to your shoulders coming from all directions. You've got to weed that noise out and zero in on what works for you. Over all the years I've been driving when anything like this has come up I just take it all in then figure what will work for me. Red the Trucker has a good program for himself by keeping tack of his days when learning. That gives you a chance to review your progress and correct what needs to be fix. I would only change one step and that's keeping the progress to myself. You can put any information you want but to any other student but don't let it become a problem where all the other students are there critiquing your progress. It's great to post on here because it allows others that are having trouble might be able to benefit from another. Just remember the school is that place where all the competition is and where everyone is in your business. Also it's handy to review and then go to the instructor and review where you might be having trouble.

It will all come to everyone that works hard to be the best driver you can be to yourself. Everyday when I went to work I would tell myself this day is going to be a better day than yesterday. When I did some act to impress the driver I did it to impress myself. I was always in competition with myself. Never the other drivers, they had their own program.

Just relax in your shifting and let the truck work for you. That's important because when you work the truck you'll be worn out if you're in the city. If you have to rev the truck to the peg to make the shift then you're working the truck and hurting it. If I bump the throttle and make the shift as soon as I can then the truck is working for me. Shifting on the way up is done by accelerating the truck gradually to reach highway speed. You want to make the shift to the next highest gear as soon as you can. You don't need to race the engine to get to your speed. You can get to the speed by progressive shifting. It's a lot easier on the truck.

 

I used to teach & test in a school.
Shifting in a turn during a cdl test is points deducted on that turn because there is a box that says "both hands on wheel"

 

And don't forget when your trailer have 10 feet spread axle , and try to shift in turn you can be nailed

 

There is a reason for this, getting stuck in an intersection while there is traffic kind of sucks and may ruin your day when you get hit.

 

Not to be a killjoy...but...

...there was a good reason we said to focus on shifting and turning separately until you got them down. Just for future reference.

I had no idea that you needed to hit the gas on an upshift. Thought the rpms needed to actually fall a little bit.

You only need to shift the truck at a higher speed/rpm if you're headed uphill.

 

you want to find your turning gear before you actually enter the turn. i took a road test in a fuel tanker today. i was coming up to an intersection with a green light and had to make a 90 degree right turn. i estimated that i would take this turn at about 10 miles per hour but would be accelerating up. I slowed down before turning at all, and down shifted into 6th gear immediately before entering the intersection, then proceeded in making the turn. the key is to find the turning gear before you actually start to turn. to estimate this, I would usually take a turn in one gear higher than what my turning speed would call for because naturally i will be accelerating hard after completing my turn to catch up to the speed limit. ya feel me??