Good Morning All!
51F @ 81% with slight overcast. Only to 60F+ later today.
Trucking ... again: Clutchless shifting is an art. It takes time to get dem gears to match speeds without watching the Tach and ground speed. I don't think I could do it from the get go right now; would have to go around the block a couple times to get back in the swing of things. Up shifting is no big deal, it is that down shifting where the fun begins. When Maria started school she had an options: automatic only, or ten speed and auto. I don't know about other states, In MT, ID there was a difference of the class A you got. Don't remember but think that 'automatic only' was on the back of the license if that was the case. Since we knew we would be changing companies she did go for the ten speed. That was fun - blonde girl with lack of coordination which took her longer to get to that swing. Back then not having the 'auto only' thingie on your license got you in what ever company's door faster. Also back then those tranny's were 'automated' not a true automatic - you could hear levers and gears clicking and joining. Newer ones shift almost as quiet and fast as your four wheeler. Auto's did have their issues. Depending on how the company had the stuff set up, you could have full automatic of which you could down shift and it would hold that gear where as the other way it would up shift ..again.. when a certain RPM/Ground speed would hit. That would make for interesting stuff going down even a 5% grade heavy. Then enter Ice/Snow - throw all you know out the window and really watch the rpm/ground speed. Few years back we were coming into Casper, WY on I25. Road was bone dry in full sun going up to the top of the last hill before the city. Once going down there was nothing but shade, ice and snow on the road. Ya, ok so 45Mph at the top and started down and immediately we started to side shift. Yykes! Did not even want to down shift as we probably would have swapped ends. You could only stab the brakes and that was not giving enough control to straighten out although it was reducing speed. Did not have a 'Johnson bar' to help with the trailer as the newer trucks could be ordered without them. By the time I got near the bottom of the hill I was about 50 degrees sideways traveling at a guessed 25Mph, then the traffic light decided to turn red; I could see it out the passenger window. That light is gone and an overpass instead. Yykes again. You should have seen all those four wheelers scurry out of the way. I pulled the trailer supply and immediately punched it back down. That was enough trailer brake application to jack the trailer to where the truck was on top again and we got stopped before that light and in the right lane. We went into a truck stop ( I think Flying J ) and said 'thats it for the night'; Maria was pretty white and big eyed. I probably was about the same. A WY stater pulled in after us and came up to the cab. Told us he would buy our lunch!
As to the automatics - found that after 11 hours of driving I was not ( as ) tired with those vs the 10 speed. If 10 speed, all I would do was climb into the bunk and crash. With the auto, I could grab a shower, food and screw around for awhile before hitting the bunk. You don't think that shifting is that hard, but with hills and traffic it does take a toll on the body/mind.
Later!
