My new trainer picked me up at the waffle house ½ mile from my house. I unload my car and then realize that I forgot my pillows. I drove home and then had to walk the ½ mile with my 2 pillows, I must’ve looked hilarious. We did a little chit chat and I started driving in Manchester ,TN. Oh My God. I didn’t remember being such a bad shifter. I mean it was all crunch, grind, crunch, grind. And then he would say, “don’t force it, correct the problem.”
Let me explain how it works for those of you who don’t know. To up shift, it’s clutch to neutral at 1500rpm, clutch to gear. And quickly because it can’t fall below 1000rpms. Now though that’s difficult, for me it’s lots easier than downshifting. In a car I hardly ever used to downshift. I would just put it in neutral and coast to the stop light. But in a truck it’s actually necessary. And oh my, do I suck, I still wonder if I ever really learned properly 3 years ago. This is how it works. Clutch to neutral at 1,000rpms, push fuel pedal raise to 1300rpms. Then clutch to lower gear. I miss every gear, every time. But I kept trying. After a couple rpms raises and nothing would go into gear I would just give up and eventually have to stop and start over from 1st.
This truck is an 8 speed, 4 high and 4 low. I had never driven a truck like this before, but I can’t use that as an excuse,I can’t believe how patient my trainer was. He was just as patient as my dad. He let me make same mistake after same mistake telling me all about matching the rpms to the gear. I can’t even tell you how many times I heard. “don’t force it, correct the problem.” My head started hurting from the tension. I really thought that I knew how to shift a big truck before I started. I really enjoyed the automatic truck I drove at PTL. I can’t believe how easy it is to just push one button and go. I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do automatics. I mean you have to use every hand and foot at the same time just to slow down. We made it to our stop in MO by 9pm and I was dreaming about being a perfect shifter, matching rpms and gears and slept like a baby until 4am. We then went to the drop place and I watched him shift, when he drives the truck it’s so smooth it feels just like an automatic. No crunching and grinding. I am so jealous, how is it so difficult for me?
The truck I learnt in had 16 forward gears plus crawler gear and reverse, that was fun! Have you learnt how to double de-clutch yet? Once you get that mastered you get to earn you truckers baseball cap!
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