Hey all, I bought another truck today. It's a 91 F250 4x4, it's got the 351 with the 5 speed. My question is do you take off with first gear or treat it as a granny gear and only use it for towing and such? The whole drive home I was using second because first seemed pretty low and I was having trouble shifting from first to second, almost felt unsynchronized or something. It went fine using second to take off, I'm just wondering if I'm putting more wear on the clutch this way or is that the way it's supposed to be driven?

 

Most people use second gear to start when unloaded and only use first when needed. It is slightly harder on the clutch to start in a higher gear, but clutches were made to be used. And it's not like you're going to wipe it out right away. Second gear in a ZF5 is about the same as first in a lot of transmissions

 

Thank you, I figured that was the case. Second really does feel like a first, it was kind of jumpy when I wasn't used to it.

 

Unless I'm hauling something pretty heavy I start out in 2nd. Even then 1st is just to get me rolling.