Car & Driver: How to shift in a semi-truck

[fbrdphreak]

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/how_to_shift_a_semi-feature

Wow, that is one helluva process. I think I'll skip THAT manual transmission option

 

[Kelvrick]

They lost me at step 1.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I think I just gained a lot of respect for truck drivers...

 

[coxmaster]

They definitely arent all that difficult.. I've been in much, much simpler ones..

 

[compman25]

Once you've driven one you learn the clutch is only needed when you come to a complete stop. And if you are using the clutch to change gears, they mean it when they say to push it in slightly, if you push it to the floor you wear out the clutch brake and that makes it a pain to put it in gear from neutral with it running. I was happy when I bought my Volvo 770 and spec'ed it with an autoshift transmission.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Easy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-eRdga8KbY
Medium:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM-kcFxsyCk
Hard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhPcDMGRxw

 

[Viperoni]

That dump truck vid is awesome lol.

 

[thegimp03]

Easy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-eRdga8KbY
Medium:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM-kcFxsyCk
Hard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhPcDMGRxw

The "Hard" one is ridiculous. How any driver can do that and not squash every car in sight is beyond me.

 

[BW86]

is that "hard" one for real? Never seen anything like that.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Google "Mack Quad Box". It's basically a 5 speed attached to a 4 speed transmission. One stick is "lo", "lo-split", "hi-split", and "direct" while the other is R and 1-5. Sometimes they don't split the top gears though.

 

[zmatt]

Why would you need that?