Transmissions/Shifting ?
 

How much difference is there in driving (shifting) a Freightliner with a Fuller 10 Speed and a Peterbuilt with a 13 speed. Im used to driving with the Fuller 10 speed, will it take much practice to get used to the 13 speed Pete. I have never driven anything other than the 10 speed.

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The only big difference is that when you go into high gear you come over and up instead of back, just like a 9 speed.

The small difference is that you can split each gear on the high side. Think of them more as half gears than full ones. To split all you have to do is press the red lever/button on the side of the shifter, let off the gas and then give it some juice.

If you want, when you shift into the high range, keep the splitter in low until you get to 8th (last hole) and then move the splitter when you come in and go out of 8th (12th-13th gear) just dont have the splitter in high when you range shift to low.

I agree, it's just a different pattern. I'm sure you'll grind a few when you first start, but that would be par for the course. You'll catch on. I went from a 10 speed to an automatic to an 18 speed. That first few hours were fun, but it didn't take long to catch on.

Good luck.

maybe its like the freightlinner, the shifting pattern is on the dashboard and it will explain how to shift .... check it out....

Spliting Gears
 

I think it might be worth expounding on splitting gears ...

You can treat a 13 speed like a 10 speed and not do any harm, thus you do not have to split gears. But ...

Let us set up a real situation with a 10 speed You are tooling along climbing a hill in 9th gear when the RPM's just start dropping to the edge of 1000 RPM's or the green zone. This might be too low and start the engine lugging -- so you drop to 8th gear. Ohhhhh but when you floor it the RPM's jump to 1600 Maybe 1700 RPM ... What?!

Logic would dictate that 1600 RPM's in 8th gear should sustain 1200 RPM's in 9th but the resistance of climbing the hill has created a situation where this does not occur. The gear spacing of 400 RPM's between torque and road speed works very well on flat ground but when you add additional resistance sometimes it does not work as well -- especially at lower RPM's in the green zone where the torque curve is not exactly lineal . So ..... you are in a world of torque, HP, resistance weight that is just in between two gears. The solution with the 10 speed is to drop to 8th gear and keep the RPM's within range.

Now this situation with a 13 speed .. I would just split "9th Gear" at the 200 RPM level. So when the RPM's started to edge into the 1000 RPM level splitting the gear gives the same torque to road speed level at 200 RPM's faster rather than a full 400 RPM's. Now I am cruising along at 1200 RPM's taking advantage of fuel and engine wear.

Actually, you would then be "treating it" like a 9 speed.

I stand corrected .. you are right.

You and I will be in a similar boat. My suggestion to you is to treat the 13 speed as a 9 speed until you get used to the shifting, and then start working on learning how to run the additional 4 gears.

I don't know why? if you can shift the 9 or 10 speed then a flick of the switch wont kill you. A 13 is a easy trans. You want a confusing trans, you should have been around the spicer 16 speed or a set of boxes, now there's something that would make you think...lol If you are afraid of the trans don't drive a truck, get in it and look at the shift pattern then do it, in no time at all you will say, this isn't so hard, what was I thinking!