Downshifting

I find that in the 2015-16 freightliner cascadia, it downshifts best around 1500 rpm

You sure about that? Cascadia I drove was limited and would barely hit 1500. Should be downshifting closer to 1000-1200 at the most.

Yep, also driving 2015 FreightShaker, downshifting between 900-1200 rpms on average for smoothness.

In Texas they make you shift down 1 by 1 for the test, can't go from 10th to 6th, gotta go 10, 9, 8, 7 then 6th... which is really stupid if you need to be in that gear quickly... not like I would do that after the test, only reason for that is if you have the time.

Phox offering an opinion:

In Texas they make you shift down 1 by 1 for the test, can't go from 10th to 6th, gotta go 10, 9, 8, 7 then 6th... which is really stupid if you need to be in that gear quickly... not like I would do that after the test, only reason for that is if you have the time.

Stupid, how so? Today is your first time driving a truck with a manual transmission so you have no basis of experience supporting your claim or your suggestion of downshifting from 10th to 6th (for a beginner no less).

The 1-1 downshifting is in every state's test (that I am aware of) and for good reason. The schools teach (and test) downshifting 1-1 because it's the best and easiest way for a beginner to learn how to downshift an unsynchronized manual transmission. When you are learning there is less risk of missing a gear and grinding when downshifting 1-1. Once you have gained some experience there are times when skipping a gear is the correct thing to do. Master 1-1 before attempting to skip any gear, you'll see what I mean once you have been out there for a while. Swift actually taught this technique when I went to their school, but not until the end of week 3 and only to the students who figured out the shifting basics.

Thank you G-Town. Completely agree with your post. While skipping a gear may be necessary at times, there is a reason for 1-1 downshifting. Remember you are using the engine to slow the truck down. I barely use my breaks until coming to a complete stop. Slowing down enough to skip several gears at once puts a lot of wear on the brakes and you have very little engine torque to help.

Every truck has that sweet spot when shifting, different engines do too. Once you find it, you'll remember it and you'll also learn on the up shifts that some engines kawfkawfCaterpillarkawfkawf actually have two sweet spots.

Thank you G-Town. Completely agree with your post. While skipping a gear may be necessary at times, there is a reason for 1-1 downshifting. Remember you are using the engine to slow the truck down. I barely use my breaks until coming to a complete stop. Slowing down enough to skip several gears at once puts a lot of wear on the brakes and you have very little engine torque to help.

I thought about that and you're quite right. I'm going to be honest, I don't go down in gears because sometimes I feel like it is unnecessary, especially if you don't have the time between you and the object coming up to do so. Now, I will go from 10th to 9th or 8th, then if I still need to slow down after that, I'll use the break pedal or the engine to help get to the speed I need then shift to the appropriate gear. So, coming up to a yellow light, 9th, 8th, come close then by the time I hear the engine chugging, i'll range select down, clutch to neutral, then idle shift to 3rd, 4th, or 5th depending on if I'm bobtail or have a trailer loaded or not.

Learning to downshift every gear all the way to a stop for the testing is just to demonstrate that you totally get the concept and you have that level of control. They're not doing it because they expect you to shift that way all the time. They just want to make sure that you know how.

Actually double clutching is the best example of that. They know 95% of the drivers float gears 95% of the time but they make everyone learn it and use it so they know you can do it if you have to.

They have to come up with some sort of specific standards for road tests in order to standardize them also. Otherwise you'd just have 500 testers across the country giving 500 random opinions about who should get their license and who shouldn't. So they make sure you can do a long list of things properly and double clutching and shifting every gear happened to make the list.

It doesn't really have anything to do with the technique bit one of these days, you'll get in a truck with big loud pipes and a strong Jake brake. You'll downshift every gear just because it sounds sooooo good.