I'm with a company now and i still have a little problem with downshifting before i make a turn.. To be more specific right before i might the turn i lose a gear and i end up coasting through the turn and i have to find the gear when i get on to the street i just turned on!! and i've had this probably all through school and somedays i would have it on down pack and some days that problem would come to hunt me!!!

if i skipped from 10th to 8th then to 6th would that help?? also i'll add that the truck stays mostly empty? not alot of weight!!

 

I suspecting its just an issue of multitasking. You say its before a turn. Setting the truck up for the turn is taking alot of attention and your shifting is not yet perfected.
You are not going through anything any other drivers hasnt gone through. Practice and time will "perfect" the multitasking.
I dont necessarily recommend you "skip" gears as you downshift...yet. Progressive shifting is what you should stick with until you have mastered shifting.
Try and be in the gear you will need for the turn before you start to setup the turn. This will probably be different for each turn and will also be different depending on how much weight you have in the trailer

 

I agree with Drew. You just need more practice. Keep working with it and you will get it down. Perhaps you are not starting your downshifting early enough.

 

Now..I have pulled tanks exclusively since 1987..so I don't have a lot of cornering experience with vans and flatbeds...some but not much.

If your still in 6th gear when your turning a corner, on a city street...it would seem to me that you are traveling way to fast, period. Seems to me that you need to be crawling around that corner in 2nd or 3rd, allowing for a safety margin for pedestrians and wayward 4-wheelers.

If I am in 3rd when I turn a corner, I'm usually feeling uncomfortable.

 

For however long you drive, I think you still have to check yourself up, and focus on what you are doing. I'll loose a gear, but it's not scary for me, as I know my "go to" gears.

I also sometimes get amped up, and need to settle myself down. Whenever I am relaxed and allowing the transmission to do the work, I'm shifting more often, and cleaner, and as mentioned, putting the truck in the right range ahead of time. When I get in too big of a hurry, I'll have to consciously hunt for the right rpm per gear. When I settle down, it seems to work naturally.

Every time I find myself out of sync with the truck...I'm not relaxed.

 

When I had that problem I was not using the brakes enough. You realy need to be slowing down using the brakes enough so it slips into the lower gear.

Next time you are upshifting remember where your tachometer reads. I am guessing that at 15 mph you are maxing out the rpm's in 4th gear and beginning to shift to 5th. So you need to turn that around to downshift. To downshift from 5th to 4th you need to use the brakes to slow down to under 15 mph before downshifting.

I take turns in 3rd gear loaded, and usually 4th when empty. That's 10 mph for 3rd and 15 mph for 4th.

It could also be that you think you are running out of time. You get to concentrating on the corner and you realize you should have slowed down earlier, but now you are too nervous to shift right. Just get in the habit of going slower than you think you need to be for at least one truck length before the turn. If you hold up traffic for an extra 5 seconds they won't get any more pissed off than they already are.

 

Practice braking & downshifting simultaneously by putting your right foot half on the brake & half on the throttle.

Using this method you can brake and also raise your RPMs for a downshift in one smooth flowing motion (once you get the hang of it).

No clutch required, just slide the stick into the next lower gear as you brake & adjust the RPMs to match the road speed.

It can be done so smoothly it'll sound just like an automatic downshifting, none of that "stab & grab" nonsense.

 

An oldtimer told me that. It works great. I put the fronet of my foot on the brake and us my heel for the gas.

 

DITTO.

 

what if the speedometer is broke...????