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Thread: Shifting without the clutch.

  1. #1

    Cool Shifting without the clutch.

    I'm a new truck driver and i've noticed that occasionally while double clutching it won't go into gear, reving it up to over 2200 rpm doesn't seem to work (i don't want to damage the motor) or letting the tac drop to idle while racing down the mountain doesn't seem to work either. Whats the best range to attack this problem and should I be using the Jakebreak all the time? I don't want to cause an avalanche in the snowy months, I don't want to loose my brakes and crash. I don't want to be limited to an automatic transmission. My trainer (while I'm panicking) jams it into gear and can't seem to explain how they got it into gear. Gear jamming was not recommended or taught at the Tech college truck driving school in MN. So I would appreciate some feed back here, thanks.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jake View Post
    I'm a new truck driver and i've noticed that occasionally while double clutching it won't go into gear, reving it up to over 2200 rpm doesn't seem to work (i don't want to damage the motor) or letting the tac drop to idle while racing down the mountain doesn't seem to work either. Whats the best range to attack this problem and should I be using the Jakebreak all the time? I don't want to cause an avalanche in the snowy months, I don't want to loose my brakes and crash. I don't want to be limited to an automatic transmission. My trainer (while I'm panicking) jams it into gear and can't seem to explain how they got it into gear. Gear jamming was not recommended or taught at the Tech college truck driving school in MN. So I would appreciate some feed back here, thanks.
    Not 100% sure about this, Jake, but the reason for double clutching is because many if not most commercial trucks in the US do not have synchros. So you need to hit the clutch and shift into neutral first. Then the idea is to match the engine RPM with the gear RPM, acting like a manual synchro. When you are going down a hill, you are usually changing to a lower gear, which means the gear you want is spinning fast, so you may need to increase the throttle to match. When you are changing to a higher gear, that gear is moving slower so you may need let the RPMs come down a bit before shifting.

    When up shifting, the engine RPMs automatically drop when you clutch, so changing gears is usually very easy. It is more difficult to shift to a lower gear when going downhill. When you clutch, the truck will pick up speed, causing the gears to rotate faster. So to compensate, you need to bring up the engine RPMs.

    Although the clutch needs to be pushed all the way down when the truck is not moving, it can cause the gears to mesh, when the truck is moving. When moving, the clutch only needs to be pressed enough to disengage it. Any further and you can mesh the gears.

    As far as the Jake Compression Brakes I like them, especially on those long hills, but there are some places who will not allow them to be used because of the engine noise that some Engine brakes make. I would recommend that you try not to use them in residential areas. There are breaks that make little noise, like Jacobs Exhaust Brakes and Jacobs Driveline Brakes
    Last edited by Admin; 04-08-2013 at 10:37 PM.
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