Would-be carjackers foiled by mysteries of the stick shift

yahoo.com ^ | January 29, 2013 | Eric Pfeiffer

[Washi]

It keeps me alert, gives me better control over the car, and gets better gas mileage.

And if your battery dies, you can push-start it.

[BlueDragon]

That weren't no 4 speed. That was a 3-speed, with a granny low. C'mon, admit it. I drove one for years. It was famous around town for looking like it had survived a bombing. At 4-way stops, nobody much ever dared pull out in front of it. The tourists were scared of it. I even had the cops trained to yield right-of-way, there for a while... Then they'd get a newby, and I'd have to break him in. But I think other officers helped, because after a while, the new guy wouldn't attempt to make a left turn across my potential path, or anything risky like that. When I signaled left, the whole town would stay out of the way. :^)

[Grams A]

Guess you would be old like me! 3 on the column. My dad took me out for my first lesson. It was cold, windy and raining. Stopped the car in the middle of a very steep hill, turned it off and got out. Said when I learned to get it to the top of the hill without it rolling backward or burning rubber three times in a row, I can drive it anytime I wanted. It was a very long day but I finally did it.

[BlueDragon]

I can’t even imagine these newer generation idiots trying to steal a truck with a 15 speed tranny, let alone an old 5x9 dinosaur!

I hold a class A (commercial) license. I've had to teach recent truck school graduates how to shift. One had gone to school which used lighter truck having synchronized 6-speed gearboxes. Unsynchronized Eaton-Fuller transmissions are quite different.

The first thing I had to do was keep the guy from burying the clutch to the floor. That's a big no-no when rolling, for it can rip the ears right off the clutch brake. With the big rigs, the clutch is ONLY pushed all the way when at a full stop --- and that clutch brake is there at the bottom of the clutch pedal throw, to help one side (or shaft) of the transmission to stop turning, so one can get it into a low gear. The rest of the time, if using the clutch, it's typically, if adjusted right, pressed about halfway through it's "throw". It took me two days, ending in some angry yelling on my part to break the guy of that habit (burying the clutch) He finally learned how to shift, and I eventually taught him how to drive in mountains (and not die). The school didn't teach him how to fill out a logbook either, but that's another part of the story of that particular trainee.

Running through the gears on a 10-speed (I like 13 speeds a LOT better) typically, without much thinking about it, I would end up single-clutching the lower gears, semi-float, then fully float through the rest of the middling gears using no clutch at all, then soft-tap double clutch at the top two or three gears. There are rational reasons for all of it. That said, the clutch will NOT help one shift gears in a big truck. The road speed, engine rpm, and selected gear all need to match. The clutch, if engaged and held there (engaged) will make it IMPOSSIBLE to get the thing into the next gear, for it will slow one of the gearbox's internal shafts. The input & output shafts need to correlate to all the rest (as mentioned).

It's easier to teach someone how to float, than it is proper double-clutching, yet a driver really needs to know how to do it all --- single clutch, semi-float, float, and double-clutch. Schools vacillate between teaching "float" or "double-clutch" and trainers vary. Many trucking schools associated with trucking companies having large OTR fleets don't provide enough road-time, and patient trainer (personality-problem free) driving time, before giving trainees actual driving tests, then putting them with a (typically lease-operator) driver trainer for 4-6 weeks of co-driving.

The lease operator gets paid for the all miles the truck travels, while the trainee typically gets paid a low weekly salary, and the company gets a "team" they can press into driving 20 or more hours a day, all of which is behind the economics of the "training" companies, among the large trucking fleets. Many loads have too far to go, in too short a time, for a single driver to legally deliver it, not breaking hours-of-service rules. Driving "teams" can otherwise be hard to come by. I much prefer driving solo, even across country, though running produce from the West Coast to say--- Boston, can be tough to make on time, and not risk log-book violation. Too much can go wrong on the loading end of things, burning up too many hours on 3 to 7 different "pick-up" locations, some needing have an appointment scheduled, some first-come, first serve (and they can run out of the right produce, too).

[knife6375]

I learned with a 1963 Valiant 3 speed on the floor and a 1951 IH pick up 3 on the tree, late 60’s. Old age ain’t it a gas?

[goat granny]

*****Glad I know how to drive both. :-)*****

Me too, learned on a stick shift...dad use to say.....you taking the car out for a jerk......until I got it down smooth....didn't even like automatic's when they first came out....

[JDoutrider]

I let my CDL Class A go when I retired... no need for it. The way I hear how things are on the road nowadayz, I would go batty with all the new laws! Too damned old to drive commercial anyway...

[boop]

Yes, and don't forget in England it's a stick shift with your left hand. Man that was tough. I couldn't get the hang of it.

As to the OP, in my hometown some guys stole a diesel engine car, and when they went to the gas station, they filled it up with regular gas. They got caught because the engine wouldn't turn over. They just stayed there trying again and again to get the car to start. LOL!

[Victoria_R]

My family had (and still has) a 3-speed with granny gear 72 Suburban V-8.

This was when I learned an unwritten rule of right-of-way: Bigger, older vehicles with huge dents definitely get the right-of-way.

[Hot Tabasco]

I've been driving a stick shift since 1978 and I'm sick of it since it's difficult to talk on my cell and to send text messages. While it comes in handy on snow and ice covered roads, the high traffic volume in my area (stop,go,stop,go...) makes it a pain in the butt.

My next car will be an auto trans.......

[Gene Eric]

>> More p*ssyfication of America.

Exactly.

[Mears]

“Said when I learned to get it to the top of the hill without it rolling backward or burning rubber three times in a row, I can drive it anytime I wanted.”

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OMG. I remember my fear of hills with traffic lights at the top. I forgot all about that.

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[BlueDragon]

The way I hear how things are on the road nowadayz, I would go batty with all the new laws!

Haven't driven truck myself, in about a year now. Might do some OTR soon. This is the last year for paper (loose-leaf or bound) logbooks. Everybody is supposed to go electronic in 2014, or so I understand it.

[BlueDragon]

I remember my fear of hills with traffic lights at the top.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill-holder

Going to this page and clicking on the image to enlarge, might help one figure out how such devices as '50's era Studebaker "hill holders" functioned.

[Mears]

I’m amazed that things like this actually exist and that I never heard of them.

Thanks for the most informative post.

By the way,enlarging the image won’t help me at all,I’m proud of myself when I put in windshield wiper fluid. :-)

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[BlueDragon]

Oh, wait. All that talking about teaching another in my initial post to you -- was really meant for those who unlike you, don't have a clue as to what a large, unsynchronized gearbox is like. My apologies, and thanks for your patience.

[BlueDragon]

I’m proud of myself when I put in windshield wiper fluid. :-)

That's ok. I once had an old-time trucker tell me the most important equipment on a truck was the windshield wipers. I can believe it.

If the window is dirty, and it starts to mist, let it soak as long as one can stand , before hitting the wiper switch. I've had to teach that to newbie trucker's, too. It's funny to watch them, specially when I would have foreknowledge that the wiper blade on the passenger side was the old one that had been until recently on the driver's side, so would really smear the bugs.

"Turn on the windshield wipers, I can't see" the guy says. "You don't have to see right now, you're not driving" I told him. "But I can't see" he repeats. "Don't look at the water droplets ON the windshield, look THROUGH them instead" and "it's best to let the bugs get hydrated before hitting the wipers, if one can at all stand it. Even with the wiper fluid it'll just end up a worse mess..." I offered. "But I still can't see!".

Knowing at that point his side would be truly a mess as soon as I hit the switch, but with the newer blade on my side, along with wiper fluid for assistence would be enough to keep us safe enough under the conditions we were in, I turned 'em on and laughed. Now the guy REALLY could not see out the window.

"Told Ya!" "bwa-ha-ha-ha."

Little things can make all the difference.

[Grams A]

Wonder how many of the young’uns today could get the hang of being able to let the clutch out just enough and apply just enough gas to hold a car stationery, not just on an ordinary hill, but one that was packed with snow and ice. Tough to do sometimes, particularly when you had very high heels on. I often drove without shoes on so that would cause runs in my stockings and make my mom mad. But we stopped them with nail polish.

Parallel parking in the city on the side of a hill was also often interesting, regardless of whether you were going up the hill or down. Took a little more talent and attention back then to drive a car. Now you just put it in gear and step on the gas - pretty dummy proof and boring.

Just a whole lot of differences between experiences of generations.

[Mears]

“But we stopped them with nail polish.”

—

Man,are you bringing back memories. I even remember straightening my seams.

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[Mears]

“Little things can make all the difference”

—

Like a little bug. :-)

Thanks for the lesson on bug/wiper protocol. I didn’t have a clue about that sort of thing.

Great story.

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