uphill downhill shifting from a stop

Its all about clutch & throttle application. Smooth and steady. Miles of repeated movements.

 

Been wondering on this topic lately, as I've been hauling alot of 40K+ loads on non-interstate PA hwys, which are often steep.

Just the other night, came to a stop light on a hill (probably 12%) and didn't feel good about making it past 3rd until it leveled out some. Just put my hazards on and tried to forget that I'm making everyone behind me insane.

But even shifting 1st-3rd with that much weight on a hill like that, seemed hard on the trans... I try shifting as fast as possible as to not let RPMs / roadspeed drop. Any tips or just is what it is?

 

If you have a 10 speed or 9 then there's roughly a 400 rpm drop between gears. If it's a 13 or 18 roughly a 200 rpm drop. Only thing a 10 or 9 speed good for is flat ground driving in the midwest.

 

I was wondering if anyone else did this kind of trucking. I learned how to jake shift years back, not something a rookie wants to try but very useful. I have 500,000 on a new clutch and only adjusted 3 times and that was just a touch up so the clutch brake worked a little better....

 

OMG I can't believe the experienced trucker's advice I'm reading on here ie. start off in 3rd or 5th. Your truck comes with gears, use them ALL. Starting off heavy and/or on a grade, I would choose LO gear every time, get that torque involved! Even 1st gear in my 13, I have visions of the clutch plates just burning up as they mesh together to generate power transfer to the driveline.

If your pointed down hill at a stop, yes 1st is fine then you many have to skip 2nd and go to 3rd because the truck is already gaining speed above which 2nd is not necessary.

But you're always better off to start off in the lowest gears and 'tease' the speed up through the gears to save your equipment, not to mention fuel economy.

 

I don't usually suggest this but I see what your moving and know you got your act together, jake shifting, try it empty first away from anyone so you get an idea of how it works, put the jakes on 2 cyl selection and go to grab the next gear, if done right it will almost sound like an autoshift. I have been doing this a long time and have used full jakes before in extreme situations but it is so fast it is easy to miss then disaster strikes, practice a little before real life, and do it in real time only if you know you can its a good way to scatter a tranny otherwise, I learned it belly dump hauling in the mountains, if you were going to keep up with the old hands you had to learn it and fast because these boys were getting stuff done.......

 

Theres always someone who thinks they know better than someone else. Im just saying how I shift works for me and my truck. Ive never used first gear because its not necessary in MY truck. I have 811,000 on the original clutch and trans. And they both function like new. My rears and driveline operate good. The only thing Ive changed is the carrier bearing, which I do every 300,000 as routine preventative maintenence. To the new driver, the best advice is experiment and find what works best for you and youre truck.

 

Depends on the situation. Right now I'm pulling heavy water from a mine, steep grades and highway. powder trailers no baffles. I start off in 1st because its smoother less slosh. Jake's on shifting It think in general its a bad idea, ok if you own the truck at least for some. If your driving my truck you will not, to ensure that I have my jake setup up on a foot switch right side back against the seat frame. I do not use the jake on a liquid load anyway causes to much surge for the most part.

 

I'll tell you how I do things:

I usually always start out in first gear loaded or empty, then if i'm empty or facing down hill I'll skip gears as i'm going but as a general rule of thumb I always start out in first as it is "in my opinion" much easier on your drive train that way.

If your having trouble catching gears going up and down hills your more than likely shifting too slow and you need to move your stick faster going uphill and possibly skip gears going down. Your working against gravity and 80,000lbs pulling you backwards down a hill and you need to grab those gears quickly or your going to lose all of your R's and be sitting there trying to get going again.

Shifting a truck is easy, especially a straight ten speed, you'll have that thing down pat in no time man, you have to keep a positive mind set in anything you do and you'll be fine.

 

it is what it is. An unsynchronized gear box with a heavy load on a steep grade will make the error margin razor thin. And some are worse than others. This old Freightliner I used to drive had a tired old 9-speed transmission that couldn't be rushed like an old lady on Sunday. Holy crap if you got caught on a steep section, you couldn't tach that governed POS high enough to get up enough road speed to find the next gear without looking like an idiot. Only option sometimes is to hold the gear and drive everyone behind you insane. This where an 18 comes in handy because your ratios are so much closer than a 10 or less tranny.