Posted by Scott S on April 08, 1999 at 18:00:16:
In Reply to: stupid question on shifting posted by Drew on April 07, 1999 at 21:20:43:
My Kennworth, 5000 gallon tanker, has a 13 speed
& 425 hp. Wanna give it a try? (I drive it off road
most of the time too. It's for farm chemicals)
I think the most important thing I learned, after
I caught on to the concept of matching the engine
speed to the gears, is gentle application of the
accelerator. It takes some finess to get the
engine speed right without wanting to floor the
pedal because you feel like you must hurry to
the next gear. Also, that urge to floor it again,
after you found the desired gear, is very hard on
drive train parts. You will find that going uphill
makes it much harder to shift up because the vehicle
slows down faster than the transmission input shaft.
Let the engine speed get faily low before trying to
downshift while going down a hill as the vehicle
will naturaly speed up when you are in between gears.
It can "run away" from the right drive train speed
before you get the revs up to the right level the
shift to the next lower gear. Your question is not
stupid & you will soon have mastered a task that
98% of Americans will never need. Good luck.