I Cut A Corner And It Turned Out GREAT!!

Well the coasting thing sounds stupid to me. Wether in an automatic or a manual, I have always coasted to stops. Often going down the highway as well. It does save on fuel. My dad has a Prius and coasting makes MPG go up. My two cents.

If the conditions are good on the road, I rarely coast to a stop. Drop to 1000 RPM, an downshift. Let the jake do the braking instead of my brakes.

Obviously in bad conditions or when I have to brake quickly, this doesn't work. Then I will use the brakes, but I still normally downshift down into fifth gear. Once I get into low gear territory though, it's clutch-in and brake to a stop.

I was taught that the coasting violation was only if you are out of gear. Meaning that you aren't coasting if the transmission is in gear but your foot is on the clutch, even though the engine isn't driving the transmission, it CAN be, just by dropping the clutch.

If the gear is badly inappropriate for the speed being traveled, that might do nasty things to the truck, but it will give you at least a little more stopping power when fully loaded with ABS brakes.

But on to the most important part. Your life. You mention that the job is causing you marital stress. If your marriage is a good one and salvageable, and driving a truck OTR is damaging it, then maybe it is time to stop OTR. Pick up a local route, or even a class-B job. Driving OTR doesn't work for everyone, and it's certainly not worth ruining your life if you have other options.

Thanks for the replies, folks. I really freaked out the other day when I saw the score jump -- thought I was done for at Swift. Lo and behold, I wasn't fired and everything has proceeded as normal since then. I'm still concerned about my score being so high but I'll just keep at it and it will drop fairly quickly.

Thanks for the replies, folks. I really freaked out the other day when I saw the score jump -- thought I was done for at Swift. Lo and behold, I wasn't fired and everything has proceeded as normal since then. I'm still concerned about my score being so high but I'll just keep at it and it will drop fairly quickly.

Words to live by: Don't let the highs get you too high, and the lows get you too low

Glad it worked out.