18 wheeler pics.

I had to drive 7-speed and 5-speed motorcoaches with standard transmissions. My left knee still hurts. I started to teach myself how to shift without the clutch towards the end.

The coaches in Europe are manuals too, but they're all synched as I understand it. Only musuem pieces require double-clutching.

Attached is me in my former "corner office". I haven't touched a motorcoach in about 9 months, and I'm proud of it. Since I'm at 700/160, maybe it won't be too much longer before I'm back being responsible for 57 human lives for dick money again!

Mike
 
Driving a truck can be very cool, but really sucks too. The biggest thing that I hated after three years (and I am sure Desertdog would agree) was being away from home and living in a space no larger than a bathroom in a standard family home. The average over the road truck driver only gets 1 day home for every week out. The typical schedule is out for 3 to 4 weeks home for for 3 or 4 days. I did a full year of out for 2 months home for 4 days, but that was by choice. All of this for an average take home of 30-40k a year. Take road expenses and your left with 15-30k a year.

After saying all that the cool part is I was 24 years old when I got off the road and had already seen every state in the country (except North Dakota). Also my boss was (on average) 1,500 miles away from me. I could claim the entire U.S. as my backyard. The scenery was never the same, but the coolest part is I could command up to 80,000lbs of a vehicle 70 ft long, 102 in wide through the most dangerous area in America(The U.S. Highway sytem)
and never have a single accident or moving violation.
 
Polarbear said:
Driving a truck can be very cool, but really sucks too. The biggest thing that I hated after three years (and I am sure Desertdog would agree) was being away from home and living in a space no larger than a bathroom in a standard family home. The average over the road truck driver only gets 1 day home for every week out. The typical schedule is out for 3 to 4 weeks home for for 3 or 4 days. I did a full year of out for 2 months home for 4 days, but that was by choice. All of this for an average take home of 30-40k a year. Take road expenses and your left with 15-30k a year.

After saying all that the cool part is I was 24 years old when I got off the road and had already seen every state in the country (except North Dakota). Also my boss was (on average) 1,500 miles away from me. I could claim the entire U.S. as my backyard. The scenery was never the same, but the coolest part is I could command up to 80,000lbs of a vehicle 70 ft long, 102 in wide through the most dangerous area in America(The U.S. Highway sytem)
and never have a single accident or moving violation.
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Yep, I am a million miler and no tickets or accidents in 8 years over the road. :nana2:
 
scoobs said:
Doesn't the company pay for the expenses?
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If your a company driver they pay for fuel and maintenance of the truck. If it is a good company they will also pay tolls. Other than that it is almost all on you. You get free showers when you fuel, otherwise it is anywhere from $7-$10(and sometimes the showers where you stop are so dirty you figure you'll stay cleaner not even taking one). When I got off the road in 2004 they were starting to harp on idleing, I can just imagine how bad it is now that fuel prices have nearly doubled(even with fuel surcharges). There is one company out there that was actually chargeing drivers for excessive idle times(for all of you that aren't "Paid Tourists", in order to keep your truck cool in the summer you have to idle, same for heat in the winter unless you have a bunk warmer [and those don't work worth a damn most times]).

desertdog71 said:
Yep, I am a million miler and no tickets or accidents in 8 years over the road.
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Awesome man, I just didn't stick around long enough for that. 3 years was enough for me.:)
 
What is floating gears? That is truckers lingo I am not familiar with. Here I am with my current truck -

2004iainstruck.jpg
 
I think if you read back, DesertDog explained it pretty well. Basically, the transmission is unsynchronized. You have to shift at the right RPM. Floating means you are doing it without the use of the clutch. It is a little trickier at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can shift smoother than actually using the clutch. All you are doing using the clutch is slowing the two gears down even more to avoid damage to transmission when they connect. If you float, the gears are spinning at a higher RPM. If you “grind” them, there is a bigger potential of shattering teeth, or even binding the tranny up.
 
I used to float my manual corolla...took a while to learn it, but it made shifting so much easier and it was just plain fun! :)
 
"Float the gears".....cool. I've done it for years, but never knew there was a name for it. My current ride has about 180,000 miles on it - still the original clutch.

:cool:
 
Ok i have a manual 5 speed civic ex, its a 2002, how do you shift a car like that while floating the gears, is there a certain RPM you have to reach where the clutch isnt neccesary?
 
doesn't seem a very fast way to xlr8 either. clutches are cheaper than transmissions, I'll stick to using the clutch :P I do know the heel toe technique though, was handy when the syncro went out in 2nd on my old Datsun.

I once wanted to learn how to drive the big rigs, just for a challenge, but for now I'm happy flying aircraft hehe
 
Yeah, floating gears with a synchronised transmission is a no no. We need to define synchronised though. ALL manual trannies have sychronizers. The older ones just don't have that brass ring that the newer ones have for the sychronizer to grab onto. Floating gears in a manual configured in this way will wear that brass ring out.

One thing you can do with any manual thats fun is heal toe down shifting while braking. What you do is while you're braking for to a stop, you down shift by pushing the clutch in and moving your left heal over to blip the throttle up to rev match before releasing the clutch. This is to make the down shift smooth. You trucker guys know what I'm talking about. I hear you guys doing it all the time and it sounds awsome. I can't quite explain it this late at night. This is the proper way to drive with a manual anyway.
 
UAL747400 said:
Yeah, floating gears with a synchronised transmission is a no no. We need to define synchronised though. ALL manual trannies have sychronizers. The older ones just don't have that brass ring that the newer ones have for the sychronizer to grab onto. Floating gears in a manual configured in this way will wear that brass ring out.

One thing you can do with any manual thats fun is heal toe down shifting while braking. What you do is while you're braking for to a stop, you down shift by pushing the clutch in and moving your left heal over to blip the throttle up to rev match before releasing the clutch. This is to make the down shift smooth. You trucker guys know what I'm talking about. I hear you guys doing it all the time and it sounds awsome. I can't quite explain it this late at night. This is the proper way to drive with a manual anyway.
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Here is the best way I can describe it.

I big truck engine has a small operating range of RPM.
Usually 1300-1700 rpm.

When accelerating, and you hit about 1700rpm, you pull it out of gear without using the clutch. Then you place it with light tension into the next gear slot, and you can feel your shift lever riding on the gears lightly. As the engine RPM drops to around 1300rpms, the tension on the shift lever decreases and it drops into the next gear. Then you do it all over again.

To downshift, you do the opposite. As you decellerate and rpm drops to around 1300, you goose the accelerated and pull it out of gear. Then rev the engine up to 1700 rpm while not in gear, and then put the truck into the next lowest gear.

These RPMs must natch in order to shift a big truck transmission. That is my piss poor description. :confused:
 
I drove a 40 foot bus all around America, and that was pretty cool, but am tempted to quit the flying business and going into trucking, My uncle makes $1500 a day trucking (more then I do in a month) His lifestyle sucks though.
 
Fly_Unity said:
My uncle makes $1500 a day trucking (more then I do in a month) His lifestyle sucks though.
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First rule about Truck drivers.

They are the biggest ######## artists in the world.

IF and its a huge IF he is making $1500 a day, that is before he pays for his truck, fuel, IFTA, Stae taxes, Road Taxes, Tolls, Insurance, and on and on and on.

Hell I made $190,000 one year. Guess what my net was? $40,000, not a real good return considering the risk. Those $2400 a month truck payments hurt if you have a slow month.
 
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