Shifting from a stop Cascadia

Do you have any free play at the top of pedal, you may need 1st clutch adj. If you are in N do you push clutch all the way down then feel for trans. to stop turning before you put it in gear?

 

Your using the clutch brake right? Holding the clutch all way in, so as to activate the clutch brake, and get the gears to stop spinning. That's the only way anyone gets it in gear when stopped. You have to hold the pedal all the way down, you will feel the gears stop in the shifter. Take about 2 seconds of holding the pedal to the floor.

 

Try easing off the clutch just a tiny bit.

 

prolly not hitting the clutch brake or your pulling it in gear way to fast what rpm are you shifting at

 

First of all we are not allowed to be out of gear at a stopsign/light.

1. you have a clutch brake I think you know about that because you said you push clutch all the way to floor.
2. only ever push clutch pedal to the floor if vehicle is dead stopped because if the vehicle is moving, it is wearing out the clutch brake.
3. as you roll up to the stop sign , red light, last few feet push clutch only enough to disengage as you are rolling. Keep in gear. at the dead stop you can now notice you can put the gear shifter in any gear you want.
4. if you leg is too weak to hold the clutch in 1.5 inches for 2 minutes you may need to do some squats and lunges to build up strength in your legs.
5. if you must take it out of gear at the light, only do so if you can see the cross traffic light signal turn yellow, you know to start getting it in gear while yours is still red. gives you that extra few seconds you need.
6. review, never push clutch in all the way unless vehicle is dead stopped-- ever.

 

Everyone stole my thunder here.

Keep a gear, any gear. That means standing on the clutch. You will build up your leg muscles soon enough.

IF you are out of gear... take a moment to allow it the time to spin down and then engage the gear. You will know it when she has that soft click and maybe a rock into the engine's crank shaft rotation. Just a little bit. And go pick up your gear.

Just don't shove on it, beat on it or stir the pot so to speak. Does that make sense?

 

I meant to say too, if it won't go into that lower gear you want, try flipping the range selector and choose the highest gear. Remember once you are in a gear with the clutch in about 2 inches give or take you can put it in any other gear very easily. So slip it in high gear then slip it into low gear and ease clutch on out.

I always recommend drivers to leave in the lowest possible gear even bobail because it has the effect of preserving your transmission components for the long haul. It is the same theory you don't go down a 6% grade in top gear and use your brakes only to slow you down, you use a lower gear, you use engine brakes as well to preserve your brakes for the long haul.

I keep hearing about these drivers who want to take off in 2nd and 3rd gear all the time, little do they know they are creating unnecessary wear and tear for the sake of saving a few seconds a day. This is the true reason companies are going to automated transmissions because drivers have lost the art of shifting manually.

You can teach a guy properly all day long til you're blue in the face but once that driver talks to some crusty butt driver who has 7 months of experience tell him he can take off heavy in 3rd gear it is game over.

 

Im one of the first in FFE to have been issued a Automatic. I thought seriously about quitting that day. I mean WTF? /rage... I will die with a manual in my hand. I refused to do push button trucking.

After a conversation in the back office which basically challenged FFE to put that automatic through the worst this USA has to offer. Sizzling southwest, Mountains that wont quit until dinner time and split ice that will tear a axle housing off the tractor. And winds that will create a situation where the auto will shift it's head off in the top gears up and down and up and down throw in some NYC rush hour with the brake slamming shifting sufficient to not only rock the tractor but your teeth too fighting a traffic flow that dares you to hit them, they need the insurance bail out.

Why did we ever get a Auto? FFE Says wife is going to be driving it. What will I rather have? Her standing on the manual until she ground off the counter shafts? Or should we give her a Automatic because she is stressed enough as it is as a trainee. You know as well as anyone sometimes wives don't take instruction very well when they choose to be obstinate. With my luck, she was a good girl. THANK GOD. The automatic?

Well. It bricked twice because we never shut down. Each time cost the JIT schedule and a heavy wrecker tow enough to wipe out any profits that is hoped for with the next morning's delivery scheduled for 1000 plus miles away. And it's not even noon yet. Another team got the trailer and took off 3 hours late. In those days FFE was two fleets... the President's Fleet governed to 72 mph and the standard governed to 63 with the speedometer configured to falsely read 65 to match the Recruiter's Messages to the new hire. Until we stick a accurate GPS and real time mapping against the truck and discovered the speedometer was not accurate, made up a DOT Inspection sheet, screen shooted evidence agaisnt a camera picture of he thing at speed. and Shop went nuts. Next thing Im behind a Safety office being told don't say a #### thing forget this whole speed thing it's a big secret see?

Anyway. Back to the auto.

We had split ice that would tear the axles out of the tractor. We pulled stumps sliding tandems. We had it on #### near 30% grades. We had it in the rain where the load was forcing the 5th wheel to do the side to side I wanna jacknife dance on near vertical and curvy downgrades. We had the burning southwest that scorched the tires and made it 85 inside the cab. (Air conditioning is working really good, but when it is 125 plus heat index approaching 145 plus you can only do so much with a air conditoning system that is producing about 56 degrees in the cab outflow vents at max recycle and the sleeper vent was producing around 62 pulling fresh air. Throw that against the outside air there in the southwest, so dry.... The humidty went away pretty fast in the cab leaving the two of us to gurgle water.

Get to Alabama to sit a while over dinner at night, see with joy the ice forming on that windshield in a couple of hours. YAY!!!

But that auto did not quit. But bricked twice. We tried to tear the truck apart in Montana fighting the Continenal Divide. Or shook it down really good on frost heaved dakota roads that loosened nuts actually back there on the drive tandems.

In short we tried to break that auto. Other than the bricking it did very well. EXTREMELY well. But again the bricking. Brought upon us all the wrath of dispatch losing a major account. So it did not do that well. It cost alot of money to see it brick.

And.... *Drumroll please...

The Auto is a the ultimate cop out to get more bodies... aka steering wheel holders hired and on the road without having to teach shifting. My Spouse and I moved into a T2000 truck with a 13 speed manual and boy did she grind it. GRINNNNNNNDDDDDDCLIKTKLTKTKTKT RATTLE... LUIRCH!!! ROAR jigglegigghlegiggle giggle... then drop two gears quick before you lose it all upgrade....

I tell you those manuals are tough. And can take the abuse of learning. But we did not do certain things to it with the knowledge for experience that you can destroy a final drive or a transmission if you really wanted to.

To her credit she learned the shifting. For every successful shifting in each and all gears to the top and back down again she earned 3 dollars towards any food place anywhere in the USA. Max of 30 dollars so that she can go claim that food to go on the order at the counter and hear no trouble from me. The rewards system worked well in her favor. She earned an awlful lot of 30 dollars off me before I declared her trained in that manual. Not pretty but trained.

Next you will see Fleets buying Robot trucks that will no longer need a Human. Or want a stupid human inside a world of Artificial intelligence... THAT should be interesting, what does a Smokey Bear have to do to write a ticket to a computer that does not understand the concept of tickets or Police?

I hope i live long enough to be amused by the first time a cop pulls a robot over.... Someday.