Scenario ....

Say you're driving down the highway and the speed limit is 55, you see you are approaching your exit ahead and signal you will be getting off ahead. You approach the exit and are still doing 50 in 8th gear. You know the exit is approximately 300-500 feet long all down hill with about a 2% grade. At what speed would you exit the highway at to be able to downshift to second safely before reaching stop sign at exit. Or what process would you take to exit safely.

53' Trailer and empty load.

Keep in mind....... you're brand new at driving with about 1-2 hours experience behind the wheel TOTAL

There is a reason I ask all this but await some answers first

I would apply brakes downshift as far as possible then brake to a stop then put in gear and go... But if your talking about dot test you have to brake and downshift until you reach that stop sign/light

Real world scenario, I'm not concerning myself with downshifting all the way to 2nd before I come to a stop. I'm applying the brakes and downshifting to 6th before I come to a stop. In 6th gear, you're not really coasting much at all until you come to your stop. Why go to 2nd? Is this for an exam?

Real world scenario, I'm not concerning myself with downshifting all the way to 2nd before I come to a stop. I'm applying the brakes and downshifting to 6th before I come to a stop. In 6th gear, you're not really coasting much at all until you come to your stop. Why go to 2nd? Is this for an exam?

6 string. Sent you pm. Hope you get this one

With the dot if you push in the clutch and coast for so long you fail so downshift to fourth then apply brake till you feel the truck start to die then push clutch in and stop... Now real world just depends on how I feel... Sometime just brake till I stop or downshift all the way... I like floating the gears so I'll practice my downshift while exiting the interstate...

Well, you have a few things working against you. According to the manual, it takes almost 300 feet to stop a truck at 55 mph. So, if this ramp's distance is in the lower end of your 300-500 ft range AND it's downhill AND you're empty, you're gonna need every bit of that ramp to get stopped. In my opinion, you'd probably want to be doing around 45 mph when you start down the ramp...especially if the trainer expects you to hit every gear going from 8th down to 2nd. That's six "clutch-fuel-clutch's"...all while braking in between.

In this case, if the trainer was being a PITA and a person did get down to 45 before starting down the ramp, I could see him/her complaining because you could be "impeding traffic" on an interstate. But, if you're going much faster than that, it would be a lot of pressure for a brand new driver to get downshifted and stopped in time. Kind of a lose/lose situation.

Do you have to get all the way down to 2nd? As Scott mentioned, can you just get to 4th?

Brett, I'm still not getting Tyler s pms. Can you give him my email privately?

Tyler, I'm pretty sure I know the ramp you're talking about. It can be done. The one off 30? Are you having trouble? It is challenging for a new driver, but can be done.

Brett, I'm still not getting Tyler s pms. Can you give him my email privately?

I sent it to you just now......

Real world scenario, I'm not concerning myself with downshifting all the way to 2nd before I come to a stop. I'm applying the brakes and downshifting to 6th before I come to a stop. In 6th gear, you're not really coasting much at all until you come to your stop. Why go to 2nd? Is this for an exam?

This is pretty much how you would do it in the real world. The most important thing to keep in mind about exiting the highway is that you want to be at a safe speed for the curve and in the proper gear before you get to any curves in the ramp. You do not want to be heavy on the brakes or downshifting while you're going around a curve if you can help it.

Usually you'll stay in top gear and get hard on the brakes early on when exiting the highway. You'll get down to 25 or 30 mph and pop it into 6th before getting to the sharp part of the curve. I know in school they teach you to continuously downshift all the way to the stop but you don't really do that in real life. That's just to help you get the repetition and develop your shifting skills. I used to stay in 10th, brake hard down to maybe 25 or 30 mph, downshift to 6th before the curve, and then ride out the rest of the ramp in 6th down to nearly a stop where you'll have to push in the clutch at the end. That's about it. There's no need to keep downshifting through all the gears.