How to Downshift a 10 Speed Tractor Trailer

Page 4 of 4

< Prev 1 2 3 4

1. So I passed my CDL test and I'm finished w the trainer thank god ha. Thanks for all the tips and insight. I did want to post the speeds I was using to downshift at in case someone else comes along w the same question. I spoke with another trainer at work and he has his students use the formula below until they get used to just changing gears by the sound of the engine. Like you guys mention this can change based on the truck you're driving but it provides a guideline at least.

   Downshifting:
   9th- 50-45 mph
   8th- 40-35 mph
   7th- 30-25 mph
   6- 20-18 mph
   5- 15-13 mph
   4- 10 mph

   Thanks again guys and hopefully this helps someone else out down the line when they start off.

2. 

   Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

   Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

   

3. It's really more of an RPM thing than a speed thing provided you're not a total retard and aren't trying to shift from first to 8th

4. Sounds like you don't have a very good instructor don't know why he keeps yelling at you if your changing gears and there going in, why should he make a big fuss about it sounds like he's nit picking to me.

5. Most fleet spec'd trucks that formula works just fine. Or remember this, a 10 speed is roughly 400 rpm between gears. 5th to 6th in my exp has been a pretty quick shift compared to the rest

7. I just got out of school , we trained in peterbilts with 10 speed eaton, there were 3 trucks all pretty much identical but all felt a little different. I find it interesting that none of our trainers talked about your speedometer speed and shifting. It was all about engine speed. We were taught there were ~350-400rpm between gears and were taught to double clutch and upshift at 1500rpm. To single down, we were taught to take get the rpms down to 1000 clutch out of gear and rev up to 1500 rpm and clutch into lower gear. For double downshifts they taught us to get rpms down to ~800 then rev up to 1500rpm. It worked great for me, but it was a little tricky when you missed a gear especially going up or down hill to get back into gear, then it helps to have the speed references memorized to get back into gear. Our trainers were great and never yelled at us, if they did, i might have to stop and talk to them and let them know it does nothing but make things worse if you yell, theres already enough pressure, starting out we all want to learn as quickly as possible.

9. Just glad I'm done with that part of the training. It was a rough time but it helped me pass the cdl so it's all good now. Yeah, when I downshifting using those speeds I was looking at my rpm's as well. It worked out well on both parts bc I could ref the speed and it pretty much lined up with being at around 1000 rpm's when I clutched to neutral and then bumped it up to 1500 rpms. He also wanted me to bump the rpm's up when I was upshifting which I found was messing me up bc I would shift up around 1500 rpm's bump the accelerator and then it would be at 1700 rpms or so.... then I'd have to wait for it to get in the proper range to shift up. I just stopped doing that and my upshifting became a lot smoother.

Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

Page 4 of 4

< Prev 1 2 3 4

How to Downshift a 10 Speed Tractor Trailer

Source: https://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/threads/what-speed-to-downshift-10-speed-transmission.1352157/page-4

Share this post