double declutching - doing my head in.

[Jack]

I maybe stupid, but......

 

I need to pick the brains of you well traveled folks.........

 

I am getting peed of with my gear changing techique. I am crunching gears.

 

I can go for miles/weeks driving perfectly 'crunch' free and then all of sudden - I screw up and start crunching again. Like driving to the office this morning.....blasting up through Milton Abbas this morning (when I say blasting, I mean about 15MPH) looking completely cool until I got to where abouts the Thatchers were standing and I needed a good gear change - will that didn't happen - I nice crunch change. So I may of lost a bit of street cred (or lane cred, it is the countryside after all).

 

With a reputaion to keep, I have to sort this out. I can screw up on changing up and down ( I like to be fair to my gear box).

 

What the hell am I doing wrong???

 

 

Yours crunchingly.

 

Jack.

[Bodge Deep]

I'm pretty much crunch free now but the one that always caught me out was changing up from 4th to 3rd when slowing down or under load goin' up hill

(lots of them in the Lake district!)

...blip the revs but its a bit of a bugger to get right... like hitting a moving target

I can do 3rd to 2nd peice of p1ss & even 2nd down to 1st

But when i do get it right & it goes in silently (relatively)

& I find myself glancing down at the gearstick

worried that the shifter linkage had dropped to bits :-D

[LeeEnfield]

I'm (reasonably) Ok when going up in the box,........well, once everythings warmed up, anyways,.......... :whistle:...............but, coming back down,.......ummmm, not so (crunch) good;............yup, heard the way to do it, read the theory, understand it, as well, (which is slightly worrying,...........) but slient down change ??...........Err, NO.

 

Still, gives me more reasons to go driving the MW, ...........I guess. :-D

 

Andy

[Bodge Deep]

When speeding up/changing down... 2/3/4 etc

let the revs drop right off before commencing

Michael Flatleys 'Feet of Crash Box Flames' D-Dclutch dance

 

or

 

When slowing/changing up... 4/3/2 etc

 

into neutral, clutch up,

rev the motor to the the appropriate revs

as though you were already in the gear your going into

 

 

EG slowing to a juntion...

 

in top doing 30mph...

 

Neutral

 

clutch out &

rev the motor to the approximate revs it would be doing

if you were already in 3rd doing 30

 

clutch in

shift to 3rd

 

clutch out

 

If you know what i mean :dunno:

 

 

CCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNCCCCCCCCHHHHHH

 

 

[TooTallMike]

Grasshopper - don't you dare post on this thread :blush: !!!

 

or else: :computerterror:

[Jack]

Grasshopper - don't you dare post on this thread :blush: !!!

 

or else: :computerterror:

 

 

Come on Mike - come clean!!

[Adrian Barrell]

Most problems stem from trying to change down too early. Our old trucks have a very low peak tourque, in the region of 1000 to 1200 rpm and there is no need to change down untill you are at that point. We are all used to changing down at higher revs in modern vehicles and it's not so necessary in the old stuff.

 

I'm no advocate of the 'stall change' technique, but try leaving the change till a bit later and just giving a blip on the throttle for the down change.

 

HTH,

 

Adrian

[Degsy]

Jack I think you have answered this yourself, most of the time you are OK so you have obviously mastered the technique but when you are aware of somebody watching you are thinking about it too much and trying too hard. Having said that everybody that I know crunches the gears on a jimmy from time to time.

 

[cripp]

At the risk of sounding old, this reminds me of my first general haulage job in a Leyland Marathon. With the right load on you had to stand up to turn the wheel as well :-D.

My only real advice is you need to drive it more. Practice makes perfect ;-) :tup:

[john wheatley (R.I.P.)]

So at The War & Peace not only will we have The Jive Bunnies but we all (myself included) can feature in The Crunch Bunnies, at the photo shoot we can have our own musical accompanyment.

What more can we ask!! :yay: :yay:

John

[ArtistsRifles]

I maybe stupid, but......

 

I need to pick the brains of you well traveled folks.........

 

I am getting peed of with my gear changing techique. I am crunching gears.

 

I can go for miles/weeks driving perfectly 'crunch' free and then all of sudden - I screw up and start crunching again. Like driving to the office this morning.....blasting up through Milton Abbas this morning (when I say blasting, I mean about 15MPH) looking completely cool until I got to where abouts the Thatchers were standing and I needed a good gear change - will that didn't happen - I nice crunch change. So I may of lost a bit of street cred (or lane cred, it is the countryside after all).

 

With a reputaion to keep, I have to sort this out. I can screw up on changing up and down ( I like to be fair to my gear box).

 

What the hell am I doing wrong???

 

 

Yours crunchingly.

 

Jack.

 

 

Taking too long doing the actual shift pattern??

Changing up/down too early

 

As some one else said - if you think about the change then you are more likely to screw it up - the change should become automatic.

 

Can give lessons if required!! :-) :-)

[Jack]

Took the advice from Adrian and put it in to practice this morning driving down to Bovy - my god, it drive like an F1 :schocked: :schocked: very smooth and very slick, thanks Adrian!

[TooTallMike]

Come on Mike - come clean!!

 

 

I get marked for style and grace on my gearchanges. Sadly also for volume... Getting better all the time though :-) .

 

As has been said, the biggest enemy is pressure: trying to do too many things at once, quick reaction to others' poor driving or one's own, or, of course, having someone sitting next to you with a scoreboard...

 

Relax and enjoy!

 

[Adrian Barrell]

Took the advice from Adrian and put it in to practice this morning driving down to Bovy - my god, it drive like an F1 :schocked: :schocked: very smooth and very slick, thanks Adrian!

 

 

Well done! Glad it helped.

 

Adrian

[woa2]

Ditch the MW and get a WOT2. I never bother changing down as it does 15mph in top gear very happily - the Ford V8 is a lovely engine if it is set up correctly. I double de-clutch going up, and only take it out of 3rd when I come to a stop.

[Joris]

From 4 back to 3, that really is a b*tch...

[LeeEnfield]

Ditch the MW and get a WOT2. I never bother changing down as it does 15mph in top gear very happily - the Ford V8 is a lovely engine if it is set up correctly. I double de-clutch going up, and only take it out of 3rd when I come to a stop.

 

 

 

:-D, Nah,............ :-) just done a road run,.......around 75miles, and changing down is easier, now, ......think I've got the habit; As everyone's said, its relaxing and taking one's time.......Oh, MW also crawls along quite nicely in top, the Bedford six is a smooth bit o kit........... ;-)

[AlienFTM]

I used to double de-clutch my Series 3 Landrover because otherwise I always found the gearbox clunky.

 

I'd have an officer in the other seat, usually wearing a headset so the smoothness of my double declutch was always lost on them, except that I'd be asked why there was a double tap every time i changed down. I'd point out that if I was double declutching it was pointless only half-dipping the clutch. The DMS Boots helped me achieve a satisfying double-tap and a smooth change.

 

We had to take formal instruction on Ferrets before our UNFICYP tour even though I had driven them on ops in NI. Our insturctor was an exchange Senior NCO from the RNZAC (14 armoured vehicles apparently, in their defence force)

 

He pointed out that going uphill in a Ferret and needing to change down because you couldn't keep the revs up at full throttle, don't prat about with the normal sequence involving easing the accelerator foot. Having pre-selected the next lower gear, simply smack the GCP and the fluid flywheel will take care of everything, and when the next lower gear engages, you don't have the problem of getting revs back up before you find yourself with too few revs for THIS gear too.

[john fox]

double de-clutch in a Ferret - now that would be a technical masterpiece and show stopper :schocked:

[AlienFTM]

double de-clutch in a Ferret - now that would be a technical masterpiece and show stopper :schocked:

 

 

No-o-o-o-o that was just added as a bit of an aside. Of course it is physically impossible to double declutch a Ferret for the simple reason that it isn't a clutch, but a gear change pedal (GCP).

 

I'd guess that anyone trying to double declutch a Ferret would deserve a false neutral. Not something I ever managed to achieve on Ferrets though I vaguely recall it happening once on a Saracen ACV: just about pushed my left knee through my chest.

 

Ouch

 

And then there's the guy in the Fox who found a false neutral halfway up a 45 degree slope on the Driver Training Area at Tidworth, rolled it end over end and cut his gunner in half - not pleasant.

[MilitantGraham]

When I've got the Samson on tow behind the Militant I've got around 36 tons and 204 bhp.

Missing a gear change going up hill at less than 6bhp/ton is not an option.

Most of the time I don't use the clutch once moving. The trick is knowing how long to pause in neutral before going for the next gear. Having a rev counter helps too.

Changing up on the flat I would generally rev to about 1800rpm, short pause in neutral, then in to the next gear at about 1200rpm.

Uphill, I would red line it to 2200rpm, long pause in neutral, then just about catch the power band anywhere between 900 - 1200rpm in the next gear depending on how steep the hill is and how much speed I have lost waiting for the revs to drop.

Changing down up hill I need to keep it spinning. Once the revs have dropped to 1500 it's time for a down shift. Foot off the throttle, neutral, rev to 2000, then slip it in to the next gear down just as the rev counter's dropping past 1900. All done as fast as possible with no pause.

I've had a few people tell me the AV 760 (12.4 litre AEC diesel) in my truck sounds good when it's working hard. I feel it's my responsibility to make sure the engine is all they hear, not the gearbox.

[LeeEnfield]

Oh, I dunno,...............sometimes its fun to try and lip read the words coming from the drivers mouth,.....after CRUNNNNNTCH........... :naughty: