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Hauled the boat to the lake today. Now that I replaced all the parking brake components I’m far more confident at the ramp, that said I still shut the truck off and leave her in Low gear.
Really like this truck the longer I have her! She’s got character and is cool, can’t say that with a new truck. Well I’m a bit biased, lol.
Oh and I also meant to ask when do
you guys start in low vs 1? I feel like I can start in 1 but obviously I have to ride the clutch more or I can start in low, no clutch riding I just suck at my L-1 shift so not sure what’s best.
Guess work on L-1, don’t want to wear out the clutch.
Boat with all gear only weighs about 4K. Corse then I have 5 of us in the truck, a wife that packs way too much and screaming kids. Haha, I’m a lucky man.
Anytime I have a load in the bed (firewood, concrete, etc) or am towing I always start from a stop in L.
Also, if I am on a steep incline at a stop I will use L as well. Just makes life easy.
Slowing to a stop, but not completely stopping i will start in 1st.
What RPM are you shifting from L to 1st at? Try various RPMs until you find what you are comfortable with. I will normally bring it up to 2500 or so and sometimes near 3000 in L. I also let the RPM settle for a fraction of a second before going into 1st.
My SB clutch is very different than the one that was in the truck and allows me to drive much more smooth. You will have to find your happy place.
I also rev match when up or down shifting.
When starting from a stop, you should be using very little to no clutch at all.
Oh and I also meant to ask when do
you guys start in low vs 1? I feel like I can start in 1 but obviously I have to ride the clutch more or I can start in low, no clutch riding I just suck at my L-1 shift so not sure what’s best.
Guess work on L-1, don’t want to wear out the clutch.
Boat with all gear only weighs about 4K. Corse then I have 5 of us in the truck, a wife that packs way too much and screaming kids. Haha, I’m a lucky man.
It depends. I use ‘L’ with heavy loads and sometimes on steep hills, but try not to rev very high, making transition to ‘1rst’ smoother.
I want to encourage you to stop reviving the engine and slipping the clutch like you would in a Honda. This engine will ‘rev up’ if you do not touch the accelerator and try to prevent a stall. Best practice is to release the clutch slowly enough to get the truck moving and then apply throttle. Learning to drive this way will save you a fortune in clutches. I seldom use the clutch except for leaving from a stop, but driving ‘smooth’ like this takes a good bit of practice.
You guys should add a few tons of cinders and a heavy plow, and start out pushing deep snow. This requires lots of throttle and clutch at the same time
You can start out smoothly in 1st with 4-5k if it's a flat or downhill start with careful clutch modulation, but it will save the clutch and flywheel to start out in Low. Takes a little practice but basically all you have to do it get the truck rolling a tiny bit with Low and clutch it back up into 1st. No need to wrap it up real high or even take your foot away from the clutch pedal...a couple seconds up to 1000-1100 is enough for 1st to take over smoothly. For awhile I was in the (bad) habit of floating it out of Low without the clutch but if you bobble the shift with the clutch still connected, the driveline wont like that at all. Loud banging noises and potentially broken parts. Usually I will granny shift 1-2 as well and then 2 and above I will float it out of gear and clutch it into the next higher gear. Downshifting I'll will also float it out, blip the throttle and clutch it into the next lowest gear. Everybody has their favorite way to do it.
Towed 13k for 1700 miles this month, might have needed to use throttle starting in L to keep from stalling 5 times, those were all on very steep hills. Otherwise it'll usually get rolling without a stall by just letting the clutch out. At that point yeah, hammer down.
The 3-4 and 4 to OD seem to be the easiest to start practicing clutchless shifting by rev matching. Just slightly let off the throttle after maintaining throttle position for a second while applying light pressure to stick to pop out of gear, then when you are close to the right rpm a very slight rpm blip up will pop into gear with light pressure. May grind a bit till ya get the hang of it within 10 shifts or so, just don't force it in. You'll be surprised how easy it is after that
