I’ve been wishing for an “Ask the Truck Driver” thread, but apparently, this is as close as it’s gonna get. If the OP will forgive my hijack, there are two questions I’ve been wanting to ask about trucks, and they didn’t seem worth their own thread.
1). I’ve heard several people talk about the health problems, and wear on one’s body due to truck-driving. Do the trucks really ride that harshly? I’d hate to think you spend your days getting bounced around roughly in your seat. As I pass big trucks on the highway it doesn’t seem like the driver is getting tossed around too badly.
2). The “area behind the driver” (sleeper?) on big trucks seems to be getting bigger (some of them look like they have a small house back there). Since I have no way of finding out; What’s back there? Is it like an RV? There’s obviously a bed, but is there a small kitchen? Fridge? Potty? (one would hope so).
I sincerely apologize to the OP, but I’ve been dying to ask these questions…
How does one find all 18 gears? The rare times I drive a 3 speed car, I know the H pattern for finding the gears. But 18? Are they all on one stick or a combination of sticks? Do you go through all gears in starting from 0 mph?
The truck I currently drive has a maximum RPM of about 1900, power drops like a stone after 1800 but it is sometimes useful to go above this to land higher in the power band in the next gear. The engine does not really start to make serious power until ~ 1200 RPM, but in the lower gears you can get away with using lower rpms. At higher speeds (in the higher gears) you have to work to keep the engine in the 1200-1800 RPM range or you are not going anywhere. The reason trucks need all those gears is because the useful (power) operating range of the engine is so small.
I have only been driving for about 10 years but based on what I have been told and my experience driving older trucks the usefull operating range and maximum RPM has come down over the years. The highest RPM I have seen on a big truck is about 2200, if you go back into the 80s you might see as high as 3000. I would be surprised if there where any trucks made in the past few years that went over 2000 RPM.
The most common transmission I have seen is the 10 speed, but I understand the 13 speed is more common with trucks who are at the maximum legal weight most of the time. A thirteen speed is just a 9 speed with the option to ‘split’ the top 4 gears into ‘half gears’.
1). Older trucks rode pretty bad, espesially the cabover type. Newer trucks ride much better with air springs, and conventionals being much more common now. There is a a fairly loud and constant drone from the engine and you would never describe the ride as carlike in most trucks but I think most of the problems come from sitting in the same position for long periods of time. Also some drivers have to unload there own cargo and might not be in the best of shape, going from sitting on your ass for 10 hours a day for a few days to heavy physical labour makes it easy to cause muscle strains. In my experience this buisness also has more than it’s share of babies and whiners.
2). It varys quite a bit. If the truck is owned by a company they are usually not to elaborate. Bed (or bunk beds for team operations), area to put folded and hanging clothes, other storage areas and maybe a small desk. There is usually room for some sort of TV and mini fridge that the driver would provide. Some truck stops offer cable/phone/internet service you can plug into when you park your truck if you pay a monthly fee.
When the driver owns the truck it can get real elaborate (and big). Most of the stops are made at a truck stop or rest area so a toilet is not a big necessity. Most truck stops give a free shower/use of private restroom with a big diesel purchase so that is not a big necessity either (~100 Gallons IIRC). Any weight carried in an elaborate sleeper (water tanks would be particularly heavy) has to come off the weight of the cargo you haul, reducing your income and making some companies not even consider using you. Also if you are spending an extra $20,000 or more on an elaborate sleeper I would start thinking about how many hotel rooms that would pay for but judging by what I see on the road there are some drivers who don’t think that way.
You would have to go back to some pretty old trucks to find trucks with two sticks, and back to back transmissions.
All the modern truck tansmissions I have seen are based on 9 or 10 speeds. I am sure if I try to show a shift pattern it will come out all screwed up, but they are not really all that complicated anyway.
A basic 9 speed has Lo, and 1-4, you lift a small lever on the front of the shifter (high range, or high side) and reuse slots 1-4, 1 is now 5, 2 is 6, etc. The ‘Lo’ gear is not reused in high range. A thirteen speed has a button on the side of the lever so the top four gears can be split into half gears 5 low, 5 high, 6 low, 6 high, etc. for a total of 13. With lighter loads you can ignore the splitter and drive it like a 9 speed. An 18 speed is like a 13 speed except you can also split the bottom 5 gears. A nine speed is sometime mistakenly called an 8 speed because the top gear is labled eighth.
A 10 speed has 1-5 you lift the lever and reuse all the positions for 6-10. A 15 speed is based on a 10 speed but with an additional low range. You would not use this extra low range on the street, it would most likely be used when driving out of a gravel pit or similer situation.
I have also driven a ten speed that had consecutive gears in the same slot, 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc. You would make the shift to the next gear in the same slot by flicking the switch and letting off the gas for a second. This is the only transmission I have heard refered to as a super 10, I prefer the more conventional ten speed.
The 10 speed truck I drive now start pretty easily in second on level ground with a full load. With less than a full load or starting on a downgrade I usually start in third, but if I was on a significant downgrade I could even start in forth.
Wow. Thanks for the info. I certainly learned a lot from your post. And to do all this while steering such a large vehicle gives me a new sense of respect for truckers.
To save some the trouble of looking (and for those without acrobat), it looks like the top gear mpg was in the sevens, with the best being 7.86. Overall mpg was in the sixes with the best being 6.86.
This is consistant with my experiece, with the best mpg I have seen being around 7-8 and normal milege being around 6-7.
