Will companies train on driving a 13/18 speed?

There’s a learning curve so unless you’re going to test with a company that expects you to be perfect from day one..don’t stress yourself about it.

Both 13 & 18 are easier than a ten just because it’s like shifting a 4 speed X2. Running empty there’s really no need to split unless you’re stuck in slow rolling stop and go traffic.

Couple weeks learning to perfect your shifting is about it. Heck, drove both 13&18 for years and when I got my new truck with a different axle ratio (3:55) I had to relearn it.

I really doubt anyone is going to demand perfection day one..to me it sounds like lunch counter bs.

 

Here’s my 18..notice the gray color splitter. A 13 will be red. Just a quick way to know if you don’t already.

 

VERY VERY few companies have that rule. It is possible that the one company that has this "rule" is simply done accepting applications from drivers that lie about their experience or claim they can drive anything, and the company having to repair the transmission due to driver damaging it. Also, the report by a driver "that unless you are perfect on the 13/18 the company won't hire you" is likely a gross exaggeration. It may be a driver who didn't get hired is exaggerating the demand from the company for perfection to disguise the reason why he, Mr. Almost Perfect, wasn't hired. Drivers, since they work alone, like to exaggerate their ability and authority to speak at every other thing related to trucks. You see this often in threads about making a truck idle. A driver with a truck that would idle by doing X will preach "virtually every truck will idle if you just do X". He has no understanding due to his lack of experience with the 30 different makes and models that ignore X to idle that the 15 other procedures to idle a truck are possible. "My truck does this, so all trucks do this." It's not true, but he still states it with the same certainty.

Take every claim by companies AND drivers with some skepticism until you have lots of experience with that topic and seen it to be true. People don't usually say "I heard this rumor from a friend of a friend of a stranger from another stranger and he said X." They will almost always claim "I did X" or "a guy I worked with did X" when the reality is just as 4th handed and rumor based. People like to contribute to the conversation and they like to increase the credibility of the story by skipping over the 4 strangers and re-telling of the old wives tale etc.

The process of the 13 and 18 speed, compared to the most common 9/10 speed with an air splitter comes down to the air splitter uses. In the most common 9/10 speed, you move the stick through 4 or 5 gears as you accelerate, then eventually flip the air splitter and repeat the shift pattern through the last 5 or 4 speeds.

The 13/18 speed has you using the air splitter in each stick position (if your weight or grade of the road is high enough to need it, otherwise you only split the higher gears) and only after you have done that do you them move the stick (with the air splitter now in the lower position) to the next stick position as you accelerate. You likely would NOT need weeks to get comfortable enough with the 13/18 but a day or three of constant use to be good enough for all of the flat land driving you would do. The downshifting process is usually the difficulty for drivers learning the 13/18 speed as you have have to pre-select the air splitter and move the stick, or just pre-select the air splitter of downshifting by one "gear". Like everything is sounds 100 times more difficult when reading what to do than when actually doing the task. I worked at a big company with a fleet of 9/10 speeds that received a handful of Super 10 trucks. Those Super 10 trucks use the air splitter and stick the same way a 13/18 speed truck uses its splitter and stick. Almost everyone *itched, moaned, and complained about the Super 10 but used them. No drivers that did BMC about the Super 10 announced later "I now can driver it without complaining" they just stopped complaining. A truck driver complaining doesn't mean something is necessarily wrong. People like me complain as a form of communication and self-talk. Whether anyone is around to hear or change anything being complained about is beside the point.

 

It's honestly not hard to drive an 18.

You don't even need to split every gear either.

 

People overthink them; they aren't hard at all been using them since was a kid, taught by my uncle in a cabover during one summer. I will grant I also grew up on a farm, maybe why it came naturally working on my equipment.

 

Drive it like a 10, with the splitter back.

In the high side, when you get to the rpm you'd normally shift at, push the splitter forward and let off the throttle, then back into the throttle.

You'd have it down in a day, then same for an 18 on the low side, but you won't use it as much.

 

It's pretty easy. Company said just drive it like a 9 speed. I thought well that's dumb
Watched a couple utube videos and that was all it took. You can do it.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/qv0eZRndPsw?si=-OEQJ_Uu3OEVjl2h

 

Super easy. If you can drive a 10 or 9 proficiently, you'll have a 13/15/18 down in a day.

Any company that requires 13/18 exp. But wont accept 10 speed exp is having their postings written by some bean counter HR dope or AI. Not that there is much difference between the two.

Dont use the cheater gear in a 9/13/18 and you'll be fine. Aka, dont shift it like a 10 speed coming back over behind reverse when in high range.