Trouble shifting when climbing

I haul oil and deal with some nasty hills on some very poor roads. A lot of these roads have short approaches or corners that prevent anything higher than 5th or 6th gear. I'm having a hard time down shifting when climbing loaded. I start the climb in one gear split, drop half a gear, but then to go down a gear, I've missed it more times than not. Luckily I've been able to grab 1st at least so I haven't spun out but I'm getting frustrated.
I'm wondering if double clutching my down shifts is a good idea? I have no problem floating my gears loaded or not at any other time or even on hills at highway speed. It's just the lower gears I'm having a hell of a time with. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Double clutching is good on hills; kind of makes the window a little bigger for catching the gear you want.

 

try just down shifting a whole gear. it's harder to make the half gears as effective when your losing speed fast up slower, steeper hills

 

Do a whole gear its a lot easier to hit and don't double clutch.

 

What rpm are you down shifting at,what speed is the tranny,what kind of power???

 

Remember gravity is working against you (Road speed vs engine speed). Use a lighter rpm bump and maybe a quicker shift. I bet you are bumping up too high.

You say drop half a gear? Are you driving a Super 10 or 13 speed?

 

I think you try to shift too fast and it grinds then you back off then try again and by then its too late. Once you take it out of gear let the rpms drop 11 12 try that.
If you're shifting at 15 can't expect to upshift at 14 especially without momentum

 

The situation you are describing falls into what I think is the toughest 20% area of driving a heavy unit. If you can shift ok under the rest of the conditions, as you have indicated, this part will come too, but mostly with time and experience. It's pretty hard to explain techniques for shifting in these conditions, it's something everybody has to develop over time. For my own experience, I have found that there is simply not enough time to double clutch at low speeds climbing a hill, or pulling in soft terrain. Another thing, leave jake off, or it can totally screw you up, (different if up shifting in soft ground, but that's not what we're talking about here). A common mistake people will make, is waiting too long to make the shift. You might want to try going for the next gear sooner than you think you need to, that way you'll have more time. Say you have an engine that you usually run between 1200 and1450rpm. Don't wait to get down to 1200. Get those rpms up before you start climbing, maybe 1700. That's not going to hurt it. When it lugs down to 1400 or even 1500, make the shift again. We're not concerned with fuel efficiency or noise here, it's getting up the #### hill without problems. One last thing that sometimes works for me, if I know it's going to have to be a make or lose it shift, is to get it into neutral just by starting to back off slightly, and then as soon as it's in neutral, give it a small rpm burp, 3-400, clutch in (but not far enough to snap those tabs off the clutch brake, lol) and it should go right in. And as someone above said, no air splits. You do something not quite right on a hill with the splitter, you either end up at a stop with it grinding away between ranges, or it goes in with a bang, not good. These are some ideas for you to try, but mostly you will figure out with time what works the best for you. Good luck!

 

Raise the rpm up then shift fast but too too fast

 

I find downshifting at a higher rpm gives you more room for error. Keep in mind the truck is slowing down much faster then normal, so start the shift at a higher rpm. Also don't rev nearly as much if at all...the reduction in road speed makes up for the need to rev. Depending on the truck, youmay want to skip gears on the downshift.