Help! My Story And Why I’m Learning To Shift Now

This Kw you gotta baby it when starting off. It shifts 1-5 at like 12 to 1100 rpms which I’m not used to.

Actually, all trucks shift better at lower RPMs in the low range and higher RPMs in the high range. It's called "progressive shifting." I'll explain what's going on.

First, there are two factors you need to understand:

1) The gear ratios on the low end of the range are closer together than they are on the high end of the range.

2) The engine produces the most torque down around 1,100 RPMs or so.

So ideally when you're upshifting you want to start each gear from around 1,100 RPMs. Now because the gear ratios are closer together on the low end of the range, you'll only want to rev the engine up to about 1,300 - 1,400 RPM's and then shift to the next higher gear. When you're in the high end of the range, you'll want to rev the engine up around 1,500 - 1,600 RPM's before shifting to the next higher gear.

The tighter gear ratios on the bottom end mean you have to shift the engine at a lower RPM in order for the next gear to start at about 1,100 RPM's. The wider gear ratios at the high end of the range mean you have to shift when the engine is at higher RPM's in order for the next gear to start at about 1,100 RPMs.

So the lower the gear you're in the lower the RPM you shift at. The higher the gear you're in, the higher the RPM you shift at.

Now each truck can be set up differently so you'll have to experiment a little to find the sweet spot for each gear. I would start out with something like this:

Starting out in 2nd gear shift at 1,200
3rd gear shift at 1,250
4th gear shift at 1,300
5th gear shift at 1,350
6th gear shift at 1,400
7th gear and higher shift at 1,500

Now obviously that's pretty exact numbers. You're talking a fine line between shifting at 1,200 and 1,250 so don't think you have to hit it right on the nose. But that gives you an idea of how you should be approaching it.

When you're downshifting, it's always easier to run the engine down to 1,000 RPMs or even lower before downshifting. It's much more difficult to downshift when you're above 1,200 RPMs because you have to rev the engine like crazy to find the next gear. And also remember the difference in gear ratios effects downshifting too. You'll have to rev it higher in the high range than you will in the low range to find the next gear down.

For instance, you might shift out of 9th gear at 1,000 RPM and have to kick it up to 1,500 to get it into 8th. But if you shift out of 4th at 1,000 RPM you might only have to kick it up to 1,300 to get it into 3rd.

When downshifting you'll rev the engine less in the lower range, rev it more in the upper range. But it's always easiest to let the RPMs drop down to around 1,000 or less before downshifting. You don't want to have to kick the RPMs up above 1,500 to get to the next lower gear. It can certainly be done, but it's a more difficult target to hit.