okay so let's talk about shifting a
manual transmission in uh general
knowledge uh section two chapter 2.3.1
they talk about manually shifting a
transmission there's two things you need
to think about there's the way they
describe it in the book which works for
a manual transmission but it doesn't
tell you how to shift a non-synchronized
manual transmission so there's what
they're teaching you in the book but
then there's what we're going to need to
teach you is going to be a little bit
different because our Transmissions are
different our trucks are different we
drive big 18 wheelers here
and the standard eight and Fuller uh
straight ttin transmission doesn't shift
the way they describe in the book it's
similar but there's some very important
differences the difference being that
those Transmissions are non-synchronized
Transmissions so we're going to show you
first what they're talking about in the
book but you're also going to be able to
apply it to the real technique on how to
shift a true uh large commercial vehicle
manual transmission so first let's talk
about what we're talking about here
we're talking about a manual
transmission so instead of an automatic
where you've got two pedals you've just
got a brake and a gas pedal a manual
transmission incorporates three pedals
you got them right here if you got your
gas pedal which everybody's familiar
with that you're also familiar with the
brake pedal but there's also a third
pedal which is your clutch pedal the
clutch is basically the the engagement
device between the flywheel and the back
of the engine as the engine is spinning
the clutch engages it when you let the
clutch out and causes the transmission
to spin which causes the drive shaft to
spin which spins the differential and
Spins a we Wheels the vehicle Rolls by
pushing the clutch in you disengage the
clutch away from the flywheel and now
the vehicle is basically coasting it's
in almost kind of like in neutral
there's no there's no power being driven
through the transmission to drive the
wheels so that's your pedal that does
that you have to know how these work now
if you've driven a regular manual
transmission in a car or a pickup truck
what's going to you're going to find is
that these are different
non-synchronized Transmissions operate a
little differently and it starts at the
clutch so I'm going to show show you the
basic there's a it's a almost like a
three-part clutch process and I'm going
to show you how it works obviously
imagine this is your clutch you're
looking at it from the side um and this
is when you push it to the floor the
floor is over here so you can only push
the clutch in but there's three steps
along the
way there's three stages the first stage
of clutch travel is free play and you're
going to have and in order to check this
and make sure it's properly adjusted
should have about an inch of free plate
at the top of the clutch travel so it'll
be loose you'll press it but it's kind
of flimsy there's no real tension or
pressure that's an adjustment stage
where when they install the clutch and
they adjust it so that there's no
pressure on the throwout bearing while
the vehicle is driving down the road you
have that kind of it's kind of like a
slop at the top of the travel of the
pedal well once you feel that you take
up that slop that slack and you start
pushing it in a little further that's
when you'll feel the tension and it gets
a little stiff and that's where where um
you're actually disengaging the clutch
away from the flywheel and the vehicle
starts to just freeroll the the engine
is not putting any power through the
transmission
so that happens all the way about right
to about here okay so this entire area
of throw is basically the vehicle
coasting it's almost in neutral there
it's not in neutral it's still in gear
but there's nothing affecting the engine
to the transmission it's just kind of
free rolling um where it gets really
different from a regular manual
transmission is this this is the last
stage of it and it's called a clutch
break and I'm going to describe to you
what that does and when you use it and
when you don't use it more importantly
even um the reason why you need a clutch
break on these Transmissions is because
they're non-synchronized what that
basically means is on a standard
transmission a normal standard
transmission that you've driven before
when you shift from one gear to the next
there's a synchronizing gears that help
it transition from one gear to the next
with these the Transmissions there is no
synchronizer um you basically have to
become the synchronizer you're the the
way that you're proper Road picking the
right Road speed for the right gear that
you're in the right RPM range um for at
the engine to make it shift into the
gear smoothly so you're not grinding
gears you become the synchronizer well
one of the things that happens is when
you come to a stop at a stop light or a
um a a stop sign and you go from neutral
and you're trying to get it into gear
the output shaft of or the input shaft
of the transmission is still being spun
by the output shaft at the flywheel and
it's still spinning even though because
you're in neutral it's not spinning the
drive shaft it's still spinning the
gears of the transmission so when you
try and put it into gear the gears are
clashing they're rubbing against each
other and as you're trying to get it
into gear it just grinds so you got to
get it to stop grinding well the way you
get it to stop grinding is by fully
depressing the clutch all the way down
so you can come to a stop push the
clutch in you're not going to stall out
you're not you're basically not in gear
you push it into neutral and then you
try and go to a lower gear by pulling
the gear lever back and it's just going
to grind on you it's grinding because
the front end of the transmission is
still spinning well you need to get it
to stop and the way you do that is by
fully depressing the clutch all the way
to the floor now you press it all the
way down and then you'll engage what's
called a clutch breake and that stops
the transmission from spinning so now
when you try and pull it back in the
gear it's not grinding anymore and it'll
float right back in the gear and then
you can take off that clutch breake is
very important important to know that
that clutch brake can only be pressed
when you're at a complete stop you never
push the clutch all the way to the floor
you can get away with that in a regular
transmission in a regular manual in a
car or pickup and it doesn't affect it
in one of these big non-synchronized
Transmissions you can't do that if you
do that while the vehicle is rolling
what's happening is wheels are rolling
down the road it's spinning the
differential it's spinning the drive
shaft it's spinning the transmission and
when you push the clutch all the way to
the floor what you're basically trying
to do is stop the truck from rolling
with a little clutch breake which is
about that big it's about the size of a
soft ball it's got two little tabs that
stick out that engage with the spline so
it spins with the U input shaft into the
transmission well when you try and when
you push the clutch in all the way to
the floor while the vehicle is still
rolling you're effectively trying to
stop a big 80,000 lb truck with a tiny
little clutch breake you're going to
burn it out or you'll snap the little
two prongs off that stick into the spine
and you'll ruin your clutch breake well
once the clutch breake doesn't engage
anymore now when you come to a stop at a
red light or stop sign and you try and
put it in gear and you push the clutch
in all the way it's grinding you can't
get it into gear you got to slam it in
you could break your transmission or you
got to shut the truck off let the
transmission stop turning put it in the
gear and start it back up and that could
be a real problem replacing clutch
brakes gets expensive so you don't want
to do that that last little bit of
travel is only for when you've come to a
complete stop okay if you do it while
you're rolling down the road you can end
up stripping the clutch breakout or
actually breaking it so how far do you
push the clutch in when you're running
down the road well remember I said the
first top of the travel right here is
just free play when you feel that
tension being taken up if you push in
just another inch or two you're you're
you've pushed the clutch in far enough
to effectively shift all this down here
there's no need in pushing it in that F
you only want to push it in this far so
when you push the clutch in you're just
bumping it past that free play point to
get it to shift properly all of this you
don't need it it's too difficult to do
it takes too long to do it it messes
your Rhythm up and you get too close to
possibly engaging the clutch breake and
burning the clutch breake out or
breaking it so don't push it in far you
don't need to push the clutch in Far
keep in mind most commercial drivers
when they drive these big large Class A
rated vehicles they don't use the clutch
at all they float through the gears you
hear the old joke amongst professional
drivers you ask them oh do you do you
double clutch and they'll ask you well
what's a clutch cuz they never use their
clutch they use their clutch to take off
and they use their clutch when they come
to a stop and that's it they float
through the gears so if they can float
through the gears without ever touching
the clutch pedal how much do you really
need to push it in you just need to push
it in far enough that you get past that
free play point where you're actually
disengaging the clutch from the flywheel
so that when you're shifting you get a
nice smooth shift but you're not pushing
it in so far that you're getting close
to pushing in the clutch breake stay
away from the clutch breake and you
won't have any problem so it's quick
just a little push in a couple inches
when you're shifting and we are going to
teach you double clutching we'll
actually go out to a truck right now and
I'll show you the process for double
clutching but one thing I wanted to show
you while we're still here on the board
remember we talked about how um shifting
is dependent on road speed and engine
speed the right RPM versus the right
speed that you're at versus the right
gear you're trying to get it into well
if you don't know these things you're
kind of guessing so one of the more
difficult things to learn how to do is
how to downshift one of these big
transmissions and it requires knowing
what road speed I'm at versus what gear
I'm trying to get into so I wanted to
show you on this because I just
basically Drew out a little basic little
speedometer here so you know when you're
downshifting you can't just go if you're
in 10th gear and you're cruising along
you can't just go from 10th gear to
seventh gear at 55 mil an hour it won't
work you have to know what road speed
you can be at to get it into seventh
gear here's a real simple rule of thumb
to go by and this works on just about
every single truck uh based on the gear
ratio of the rear end and everything but
it works on just about every single
truck let's say you're cruising
along at UH 60 M hour and you're in 10th
gear well if you want to downshift into
ninth you can't do it at 55 mph you
definitely can't do it at 60 you can't
do it at 55 it'd be kind of hard to do
it at 50 you can but you got to really
rub the engine up but it's really easy
to do at
45 okay and how would I remember that
it's very simple rule of thumb if I take
the two numbers of 45 add them together
4 + 5 is 9 I can go to ninth gear if I
want to go into eighth Gear 3 + 5 is 8
if I want to go into seventh Gear 2 + 5
is 7 and if I want to go into six Gear 1
+ 5 is 6 so I know that at those speeds
the road speed how fast the rear end is
spinning the back of the transmission
synchronizes just about with that GE
pretty it's a pretty good rule of thumb
to go by so if you're getting lost you
know how to how to find what gear you
should be going for so and we're going
to explain all this inside the truck but
it's easier for me to diagram a
spedometer here and show you what I'm
talking about so basically if I'm at 60
if I'm at 60 MPH and I'm in 10th gear
and I want to downshift say down to
eighth gear I would either a I can go
through to ninth or I can even skip
right over let's say I go to ninth I'm
going to slow down to 45 miles an hour I
can e depending on how fast I need to
slow down I can either hit the brake or
if I've got plenty of room before my
exit ramp I can let off the gas and
naturally decelerate down to 45 M an
hour I would push the clutch in uh push
the shifter to neutral release the
clutch rev It Up rev the engine up cuz
now you got to get the RPM range up
above your road speed range a little bit
so it'll fall back in while you're going
for the shifter push in the clutch and
go for that gear and it would float
right in the ninth gear I could do the
same thing at 35 mph for e8th then 7th
and then six so let's go out to a truck
and I'll show you what we're talking
about on an actual clutch pedal shifter
setup and it'll give you a better idea
of what we're talking about okay so here
we are with one of our test trucks this
is a freight liner Columbia 120 it's got
an eaten Fuller manual 10-speed
transmission we use the eaten Fuller uh
straight 10 they call it uh it's not a
super 10 it's a straight 10 which
basically means it's a um 10-speed
transmission it's two five-speed
transmissions you got a high and a low
range so it's five speeds uh low then
five speeds High I'm going to show you
how that works and the pattern and and
how it lines up but that's probably the
most common transmission you're going to
run into in a large commercial vehicle
like one of these so that's why we pick
them for all of our vehicles let's go
ahead and take a step inside and I'll
show you how we go through the process
of of double clutching and and Shifting
the gear years and making sure that it
works out properly for you
okay okay so here we are we're
inside uh this uh freight liner and I'm
going to show you basically the process
for upshifting downshifting and how to
use your splitter how to double clutch
the the techniques involved in it and
I'm going to make it as simple as
possible for you uh it's not a very
complicated process it's more about
Rhythm it's about timing it's about
synchronization remember I said these
transmissions don't have synchronizers
in them you're the synchronizer so let's
talk about how do we synchronize these
transmissions and pick the right Road
speed the right engine speed the right
gear so they float into gears uh cleanly
and properly without uh grinding or
breaking
anything so that's what we're basically
talking about here we're talking about
synchronization
and here's the thing when the
transmission is in neutral here's your
shifter here now you're in neutral if
you're not properly synchronized if
you're picking the wrong gear for the
wrong road speed or if you're picking
the wrong engine speed for the wrong uh
Road speed or gear it's going to grind
so when you go to go for that gear
you'll hear grinding you'll hear it'll
make it'll be like a metallic crashing
sound uh you'll feel it in the shifter
you'll feel the shifter vibrating that's
what you got to remember with these
Transmissions the they don't require
Brute Force if it's grinding it's not
going to go into gear if you if you have
to grind it you're not doing something
right you're doing something wrong these
Transmissions do not shift through Brute
Force they shift by proper technique
using the right engine speed the right
Road speed so that it goes into gear
properly so what I want to talk to about
before you get into any of our trucks or
any truck for that matter is how to save
your transmission how to properly
operate your clutch and your clutch
pedal and your shifter so that you don't
damage your transmission and so that
you're not um you're not causing costing
your company money or if you end up
being an owner operator yourself money
or damaging our equipment here at the
school so the first thing to realize is
that again these Transmissions shift
through finesse and
technique the amount of pressure that it
takes to get it into gear is no more
than what it takes you could apply it
with one finger so here we are in
neutral
that's it you shift from gear to gear
you could technically do it that easy
that's second to neutral to third not
like this you don't have to jam it
you're not grinding it if you feel
resistance on the shifter if it's not
going into gear properly pushing it
harder is not going to get it into gear
you can put both hands on it push it as
hard as you want you can get back and
put your foot up on it and push it as
hard as you want and it will not go into
gear if you're not synchronizing
the transmission properly so we're going
to talk a little bit about what in in
that entails but again just remember
it's fingertip pressure to get it from
gear one gear to the next that's all you
ever need and that's all you should ever
use any more than that you're damaging
the transmission so let's talk a little
bit about we talked about the clutch
travel in the classroom on the board
remember I said you got about an inch or
two of free play at the top well there's
your free play nothing's happening when
I press that in there's no clutch
disengagement nothing is changing in the
transmission at that point it's just
free play but when I come down here I'll
feel tension there's where some tension
is past that tension is where I've
disengaged the clutch away from the
flywheel and now the transmission is
free spinning and the vehicle is
coasting well that's the level right
about there is as far as you need to
push it for when you're shifting from
one gear to the next okay it's just
about right there any further and you're
you're pushing it further than you need
to there's no point in doing that and
you risk getting close to the bottom
right there right about there is where
that clutch brake is at and remember you
don't want to push your clutch brake
down while the vehicle is rolling that's
only for when it stopped so let's talk
about shifting and the patterns and and
and the the where the gears the
different gears are lined out so we're
talking about like I said this is a a
straight tin transmission it's a a
10-speed transmission it's got a low and
a high range here's your Splitter on
your shifter that determines that so I'm
going to show you how this works so the
pattern for shifting this transmission
is very simple like I said it's a
5-speed then another 5-speed so it works
like this and in most trucks I don't
know if you can see it in the video here
but in most trucks the pattern will be
listed on the dashboard so you can see
it as well
so this is neutral you can tell because
the shifter moves from side to side it's
neutral and there's Rings that'll pull
the shifter back to the center position
about right there well if you want to
get into first gear you got to pull it
over against the Springs you'll feel the
tension and then you pull it down that's
first gear okay
then up in neutral Let It Go and
straight
up is second
gear
then third it's hard to do it while the
transmission's not moving because the
gears aren't lining up you can't do it
right now but straight back would be
third then up and over would be fourth
and then up or over and down would be uh
fifth now I'm in fifth GE and I need to
go to six so what do I do when you need
to go to Six what you would do is you
would flip your splitter now when you
flip your splitter it doesn't go into
sixth it pre-selects the transmission
basically letting the transmission know
once you travel up to neutral go to the
next higher range and it changes the the
auxiliary uh mode in the transmission so
watch when I flip it cuz I'm in neutral
now I'm not in gear you'll hear
it you'll hear it drop in that means the
transmission just changed so when you're
in fifth and you flip it nothing happens
it's when you go into neutral the
transmission goes into the higher range
you pull it back over and six is back
where first was you pull it back down
there's sixth gear and then seventh is
where second was eth is where third was
ninth is where fourth was and 10th is
where fifth was when you're downshifting
it's the same thing when you're coming
down to a stop you might stop come to a
roll in six gear push the clutch in
apply the brake and stop and now you're
going to go let's say I'm going to take
off in third you're going to let the
shifter go back out and you're going to
pull it back down and you're going to go
to takeoff and the truck is going to
stall the truck is going to stall
because you're trying to take off an
eighth gear because if you didn't
remember to do
this you didn't uh go into the lower
range so remember when you come out six
gear or whatever gear you stopped in
flip your splitter
down Pull It in and then it'll go into
uh whatever gear third second or
whatever gear you're going for and you
can take off from there so let's talk
about acceleration one of the the two
biggest problems that students have with
accelerating these trucks is sound and
speed they're used to the hearing the
sound especially if you've driven a
manual transmission before it's it's
very hard to teach because what happens
is they're used to hearing a V8 which
might be considered a big engine by most
people's standards in a pickup truck or
a car but by the standards of a big
commercial vehicle it's tiny motor these
these these engines are as big as most
Volkswagen so the thing is these engines
rev at very low RPM ranges they shift at
very low RPM ranges so a student gets in
it and they're used to driving a car or
whatever and they're used to hearing the
engine wind out you know four or 5,000
RPM before they shift well these shift
in the lower ranges at a at in 1 through
fifth at about 1,000 RPM so the big
mistake that students make is that
overwind it they rev the tachometer out
and then when they try and shift it's
not synchronized with appropriate Road
speed the engine speed is still way too
high and they grind the
gears these Transmissions shift at a in
the lower gears first through fifth they
shift at about 1,000 to 1200 RPM so the
sound that you're used to hearing as you
accelerate away is much less and it
comes a lot quicker so you'd be in first
gear you let the clutch out the vehicle
starts rolling you give it a little gas
and as soon as you touch the throttle
guess what your at 1,000 RPM cuz it
idles at 700 so you're at 1,000 RPM it's
time to let your foot back off the gas
push the clutch in go to
neutral push the clutch in go to gear
which would be second let the clutch out
and give it gas that's double clutching
clutch the neutral clutch the gear it's
very simple if you're used to driving a
regular manual transmission you're used
to going clutch all the way into the
next gear let the clutch out give it gas
when it's time to shift again L your
foot off the gas clutch all the way to
the floor next gear let the clutch out
give it gas again that's not how you
shift these Transmissions you have to
double clutch and all that basically
means is when you take off you give it
gas it's time to shift clutch to neutral
clutch to gear give it gas again time to
shift you let your gas off clutch to
neutral clutch to gear so that's all
you're doing you're taking a step in
neutral you're stopping on the way to
the next gear in neutral and that's the
Rhythm you do it at clutch to neutral
clutch to gear the other thing that
students do wrong remember I said
there's two they normally over rev and
the other thing they do wrong is they
shift too fast they'll go first to
second second to third fourth and fifth
they're trying to jam it in it won't go
that fast the engine RPMs have not had
time to drop down to the speed to match
the road speed so you got to do it
remember I said these transmission shift
with finesse they're big big engines big
Transmissions big vehicles you think it
needs Brute Force no it's finesse so the
tempo is basically as fast as you would
say it clutch to neutral clutch to gear
so if I'm accelerating foot off the gas
clutch to neutral clutch to gear
acceleration let off the gas clutch the
neutral clutch the
gear and that's the tempo you would keep
and you'd shift all the way up to the
speed you need to be at remember flip
your splitter when you're going into the
higher ranges and you're fine if you
keep that Rhythm and that Tempo and keep
the RPMs down on the lower range about
1100 RPM 1200 RPM once you flip your
splitter and you're going for six gear
you can rev it up to about 1,500 RPM the
gears will line up at those RPM ranges
on the higher
range so that's upshifting it's very
simple it's just technique Rhythm and
timing well downshifting is almost
identical except there's one thing
different on your downshift you have to
because you're picking a gear that's
lower than your road speed your road
speed is too fast for the gear you're
going for because you're going for a
lower gear you're accelerating with
engine braking you have to rev the
engine up to match it on the downshift
so the way a downshift works it's double
clutching it's the same thing the only
difference is this you clutch it into
neutral then you got to hit the gas you
got to hit the accelerator you got to
rev it up and then you're going to
clutch it into gear and let the ex let
the clutch out and then accelerate away
or I mean actually decelerate now and
then you're going to do it again on the
next one clutch it rev It Up clutch it
to gear okay so to the next lower gear
now the only thing is you don't rev it
up and hold it there you don't want to
rev up the RPMs and get above your road
speed and then it won't go into
gear call it a vom you're going to go V
and you're going to just hit the
throttle and you're going to give it up
to about 12 or 1100 RPM and let the
tachometer drop back down to the speed
it needs to be at um so that it can
float into the next next lower gear okay
now if while you're going into the gear
ear you hear the transmission grinding a
little bit listen to what it's doing if
you feel it with your fingertips and it
grinds a little bit you're not hurting
anything if you're just pulling with a
little bit of fingertip pressure it's
when you're clashing it in gear that
you're breaking something if it's
grinding listen to what it's doing if as
you're going to go for that next lower
gear the tempo of the grinding it's
going it's dropping down in Tempo and
speed that means it's getting ready to
fall into gear just lightly hold it back
and it'll drop right into gear if it's
staying the same if it's accelerating
away away from you you hear it going
then you got to either a pick a next
higher gear to go to or B rev up the
engine real quick and get the RPMs back
up so you can catch it again okay so you
can get it back in gear and recover now
here's the only other thing you need to
know about downshifting because on your
upshift it's easy to know what gear
you're going to because you're going
from first to second second to third
third to fourth fourth to Fifth and so
on on downshifting the problem is
because you're picking a gear that's
lower than your road speed is you can't
just pick any M hour like we talked
about on the board you can't just shift
from 10th into seventh gear at 60 M an
hour it won't work it will not go into
gear and you'll grind gears the whole
way and it'll never get in so remember
we talked about the mile an hour rule so
as if you're at 60 M an hour and you
need to downshift into ninth gear 45 mph
is going to be the gear so you're in
10th you're at 60 M an hour and you're
getting ready to come up to an on-ramp
and you're going to start downshifting
very simple you let your foot off the
accelerator you start applying the brake
start slowing down you get down to right
about 45 mph let your foot off the brake
you're not touching the gas at this
point clutch it into neutral rev It Up
Vroom and then clutch it into ninth gear
and it should float right in as long as
you got your RPMs up at around 11 to
1200 RPM when you did that right when
you went for the shift it'll float right
in the ninth gear then you're going to
slow back down you're going to continue
slowing down to 35 mph and then you're
going to push the clutch in bring it to
neutral vroom rev It Up push the clutch
in and it'll float right into eighth and
you keep doing that process you're
downshifting the whole
way so that's it guys um that's
basically all there is to upshifting and
downshifting a large commercial motor
vehicle's uh non-synchronized
transmission again like I said the
biggest difference you saw from what
you're reading in the manual right now
as opposed to upshifting and
downshifting is that these are
non-synchronized Transmissions so it
does require rev matching you got to
match your RPMs versus your Road speed
and the gear you're trying to get into
where the manual doesn't discuss that
because in the manual keep in mind they
don't know what kind of vehicle you're
going to be driving and not all uh
manual transmissions are nonsynchronized
in these big trucks they're
non-synchronized and that's one of the
things that's involved in learning how
to drive them one of more difficult
skills is learning how to get through
the gears properly more importantly how
to recover if you've made a mistake and
we're going to teach all of that but um
this is the basic process apply the
methods that we taught here remember
number it's finesse it's Rhythm it's
timing it's a delicate touch it's not
Brute Force Brute Force just breaks
transmissions and it does not get you in
gear it frustrates you you Coast out of
gear for a long period of time you'll
fail your test if you do that you're out
of control of the vehicle it's unsafe
you're damaging equipment get control of
your vehicle understand what you need to
implement calm down a little bit think
about what we've taught you think about
what your instructor's telling you you
need to learn on these Transmissions
because here's the thing when you leave
here and you go to work for a company
that you might be interested in this
transmission and eaten full or straight
10 transmission is most common
transmission on the road today if you
can drive this you can drive anything
not the other way around if you leave
knowing how to drive this and you want
to go to work for a company that has
automatic transmissions fine do it it's
easy to do not the other way around so
if you're not good on a gearbox and
you're not willing to put the time and
effort in honing your craft and getting
good at it it's going to seriously
restrict what companies are going to be
able to hire you and you're going to be
able to succeed at so keep that in mind
use what we've taught you here listen to
what your instructors tell you to do
when you get out on the road and you
shouldn't have any problems thanks a lot