Can I improve my clutching and gear shifting for big rigs if I learn to drive a standard manual car?

Hi

Best tip is to learn to double clutch. To do it push the clutch in , take it out of the gear , release the clutch, push it back in , then put it in the next gear. It takes practice. That`s the old way but it still works best. I`ve never had transmission problems.

A true "trucker" does not use a clutch except to take off from a dead stop. Once rolling all shifting is done without a clutch; RPMs are are carefully judged and the gears are slid in, both upshifting and downshifting and without grinding. Truck driving schools do not teach this, but I had to go out with an experienced driver for a couple of months when I drove for Swift. He was trained in the army. I can't believe you wanted to drive an 18 wheeler and can't drive a 4 wheel stick! Good news for you; a lot of companies are switching their rigs to automatics, because weenies who can't shift are ruining too many transmissions.

WELL I dont see ant real pro. help given within the sad ansers here so ill through 1 at you . grats on the CDL THATS youres and you will make it as you see the other guy bangging gears as hacking well there you are , but i recomend this as you will feel more as build ur confidance up yes its a freight trian in the mirror 53 or a set of dubbles in some states tripple in austrilia its ten or more traiers freight trian hahahaa O SO go over too the truck rental place near you and find a rental ask the guy cause these places mostly rent autos. be smart do the wakl arnd inspection as its passing time!!!! 12-21 ftr and roll w/ it get a place thats wide too accomindate this part of you extra trainning you will learn too float a gear the d-clutch isnt nessay in the comm. class they do grind and fall in to place w/ the sincros as in comm you dont want too slam the clutch u bust -sheer the clutch pin its done as i think you no w/ iam saying ?? rent a truck man. and get youre drive on do not give up .!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shifting A Big Rig

To be honest it will only help slightly. Driving a manual in a car is not the same as driving a "big rig". They teach to double shift in CDL school but you don't have to do that. As others are saying just get used to knowing at what RPM each gear goes in and pull/push the lever into the next couple of gears. In big rigs you never shift into the next gear, most truck drivers have a select number of gears they use and that's it, they never use the other gears. It'll just take practice for you to learn which gears you'll use. Good luck.

Learning a stick shift will help, but just remember; in trucks you need to 'double clutch', just learning the gear pattern helps a lot

They do have places like 'CDL of Northern Ohio', where you can rent their truck to practice maneuverability, so long as you don't leave their lot. That's where I got my CDL class A, without school

Yes it would and you can double clutch a car too. An older pick up even a Toyota would be good,. Another trick would be to get a couple of bathroom scales and practice on that.

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No. You just have to manually synchronize the engine speed with the gear selected. Its called double clutching. Semis do it all the time. Takes practice.

You wont be able to get the job anyway. You don't have any experience.

Good idea for training.