How to Downshift When Climbing a Hill in a Semi Truck (Without Blowing a Gear!) 

I've watched you for 2yrs now. Before I started my Career. I now have 3 trucks and 5 drivers. Thank you for being a motivated mentor.

Omg I remember when I first started driving I stalled on this hill in the middle of heavy traffic, I was so shooked. He is so rite,I was letting my rpms drop to low and trying to catch a gear, once you do that you're cooked 😂. I use to be terrified when I see a hill coming but I been driving 13 years now and I have mastered it ,once you get by yourself in a truck you're gonna learn alot, i luv watching Dave videos because he has alot of knowledge on trucking .

I got my license in 1972. In my days no automatics. I always loved shifting gears. That was real trucking! Drive safe and merry christmas everybody.

Automatic guys are like “huh??”

I do the same thing, I skip gears , sometimes from 10 to 8 or 10 to 7 depending on how stiff the hill is and how heavy I am running. Every technique comes with time , thank you David.

My rule of thumb is this, double clutch going down gears, Float gears going up. Make it as easy on yourself as possible.

Great advise Dave. Even with as many years as I have sometimes I miss gears climbing a hill. My advice is don't panic, just relax, go to the next lower gear. Merry Christmas to you and your family, Dave!!! Stay safe out there.

I remember driving a 318 Detroit with a 13 speed when I was a young-un... That truck could smell a hill from a mile away and I would have to downshift 2 gears before I even hit the hill. I learned quickly about downshifting with that old Detroit and it became second nature. Nice videos and thanks for all the tips! I hope Santa made it home safely!

Just getting my CDL permit, your tips and advice will help me once I get a job in trucking. Look forward to more videos of the many years of knowledge you have. Thank you!!!

This guy really knows his shit! Truckers make the mistake of downshifting too late on steep hills with heavy loads all the time. They forget that window is different on a steep hill. The higher the rpm for the downshift, the better! The lower that rpm gets the faster that window closes. So many truckers are afraid to use those higher rpms, mainly due to being taught by these mega companies. You can use the rpms all the way up to 2000 rpms on the high side, but most guys are afraid to go that high. I always suggest guys who came from a mega company to unlearn all of that bullshit they were taught by the mega company. These trucks can do so much more than they think, but they have to push the truck harder. A lot of these guys truck's do not pull simply from them babying the truck. I've driven many trucks where the previous driver told me that the truck was weak, and it was upon first driving it. However, after me driving it for a few hundred miles or so, I always end up pulling that power out of that truck, just by simply using more rpms more frequently on those hills. The truck will only respond to how you drive it, and it also remembers how you drive it. The average driver stays between 1000 and 1500 rpms. I stay between 1600 and 2000 rpms depending on the situation and whether I'm loaded heavy, especially if I'm trying to get the power out of the truck. If i don't need the power, I'll stay a little lower on the rpms. It really just depends on the situation that will determine how I shift. The type of motor the truck has also matters. Knowing what you have under the hood always matters. You can have a low torque motor and be shifting it too high and then be wondering what's wrong. You can have a workhorse motor and shift it too low, and you'll still be wondering whats wrong. Know your truck and its specs at all times and don't be afraid of it! Even the weakest trucks can do a little more than you think, if you just drive it right!

1.Never run the rpms to low up hill 2. Keep light pressure on shifter let off throttle the transmission should go in to neutral immediately rev up engine and ease it with your fingers Should go right into gear. This might take some practice

Going from 8th to 7th I learned an excellent trick that worked well for me. You come off the throttle, blipping slightly to free the selector into neutral, back on the floor with the throttle while applying upwards pressure on the selector and it would catch clean

Even at 46 I never get tired of listening to good truckin stories. Reminds me of when I was a kid hanging around the shop with my uncles and step dad. Merry Christmas!

After 39 years of driving I now have the perfect solution to this problem. A new Mack with an Allison automatic. Haven’t missed a gear yet with it. 😁 Good video and great advice. I don’t miss shifting.

When I was just a kid my dad had an old 2-ton gasser loaded with corn going up a hill. I was too young to remember if he missed a shift or just had that big a load but we had to back down the hill and go around. It wasn't that big of a hill but my dad always figured if the sides could hold that much corn the truck must be able to handle it.

This man is very knowledgeable in the field of trucking. I wish he was my instructor.

I agree with skipping a gear when running heavy and going up a decent grade. Worked well for me.

I remember when I was new and still in training I stalled the truck going eastbound climbing Tehachapi in California. Not my best day.

Very Good Advice this is why you need to learn to double clutch. I have seen new guys not doing that.

He has Good advice, I use the 1-2 method floating gears... 1 move out of the gear 2 move it in the next gear. I use to think floating gears scared me half to death, but it is really the best way to go... Using the right rpm for the speed and torque... If you do use the clutch to double clutch your gears, remember & very important "do not push your clutch pedal all the way down" you only want to push it far enough to disengage the torque from the motor to the rest of the weight of the truck & trailer. That is one the thing my teacher trainer didn't tell me, all he said was don't push it all the way, you will hit the clutch brake...

Thanks. I will be driving 18 speed soon on my new job. I have driven 18 speed before and I had exact same problem not been able to shift smoothly going up hill with heavy load. couple of time stall the truck at Golden BC hill. I will definitely try this method now. thanks for the knowledge.

I've been watching your videos for about the last 6 months. I'm not a trucker, but really enjoy everything you talk about. Especially the stories. Thanks!

Thanks. I tried it, and you’ve made me a better truck driver. Appreciate your help and expertise.

Don’t forget the speedometer is an essential tool! Know your speeds in each gear at the high and low end. If I’m at 45 and slowing gradually I go down to 8th as 40 is the high end and 30 is the low end plenty of time to catch it. And use that clutch going uphill!

nice to find your channel, you know your stuff and listening to your candian Accent reminds me of running upstate New York on I 81. The Canadian truckers were always the nicest drivers! Your stories also reminds me of the days when I hauled produce coast to coast loading in California back to Florida. I started over the road running for an owner operator and Produce was his main commodity. this old guy made me a much better driver because boy he was very high standards with his equipment. But I was grandfathered into the business in 1990 so all of my learning experience was on the job! It’s fun to watch your videos they are spot on !!! thanks for caring to raise the bar for the newer drivers! I now pull doubles for an union LTL company. “Wildflower”

interesting video, makes total common sense. I don't drive trucks for a living, but the concept of skip shifting, shifting on hills etc, this is all stuff i kinda learned driving back in the UK. passing a regular auto drivers test there is more like trying to get a CDL here.

Great advice👍🏻 been off the stick for a few years and a little nervous jumping back on this coming week pulling 120t+ and the rout has a couple big jump ups😳😳 Thank you👍🏻😊

When I first started driver back many years ago I hauled swinging meat in a meat rail trailer. Even with a good packed load it was a hard but with a loose pack it was terrible but you learned how be smooth shifting up hill and down hill.And on corners.

If the hill is steep you can't break torque by letting off the throttle to get the transmission out of gear. You have to use the clutch.

After doing this for so many years, you can tell when to shift just by the way the engine sounds.

Thanks I have an international ten wheeler with a 13 speed and had learned the skip gear works good for me. I haul hay in my local area . small rig and old but it works for me. Merry CHristmas

Stopping for a light, I will clutch it out of gear at about 1000 rpm and then float it in the next gear down. On an incline, I will float it out of gear at about 1250 ( depending on the grade and weight ) and float in in the next gear down. That's what works for me. 10 speed btw.

i have manual Volvo boxes, and they are synchronized boxes so need to use the clutch all the time. you need time for downshifting so have to shift early, but easy to skip gears. oldest truck is 12 years and have done local dump truck work all its life, half the year with a trailer. never had to to anything to the clutch, but its a heavy duty twin disc. on all the high power engines like the 750hp engine you only have the i-shift as an option. i shift dual clutch you can only get for the 540hp as max. whats great with volvo engines they have a flat torque line. pulls good from down low.

I find a lot of inexperienced guys go for the down shift at higher rpm but end up over doing the rev to match the lower gear and then give up on the shift before the revs have dropped off to the point where it engages. Go at higher rpm but keep the rev to match within reason as you well explained the higher starting point will be absorbed through the loss of road speed caused by the gradient. Failing that know your Speedo readings for each gear and recover a gear that way maybe thinking two or three ratios lower than where you’re at as things change fast on a hill👍 Great video mate from a fan in Auzzie land 👌👍🍻

Great advice Dave been pulling logs in northern Ontario for 4 1/2 yrs and have had some hires training under me and I have alway told to have a plan before the hill and it doesn’t matter if it work out keep calm and go to your next available gear. Merry Christmas to you and family and keep the rubber to down and the shiney side side up

Merry Christmas from Seattle, Dave you’ve been a big help to me this year!

This literally saved my ass. Had no idea what i was doing until i watched this. Thanks.

Thanks I have an international ten wheeler with a 13 speed and had learned the skip gear works good for me. Merry Christmas

First thing I was told was pick the gear you want before you go up or down a hill. Much less stressful that way lol.

Thank you so much for posting the video. I really like your videos. I'm waiting for my Hazmat to come, still looking for a trucking home to start at.

It's like another driver told me many years ago if you're going up a grade and it's going to stall grab a gear any gear that keeps it going forward.

Tried your Advice on the hill was going up a hill on mass pike in Mass, was in 10th gear and staerted to go below 45 mph and tried skipping? I went from 10th and went into 8th gear instead of 9th. went smoothly and no grinding sometimes the truck can't make it up hill depending on the weight of Trailer Thanks for the advice.

I remember my instructor telling me to be in the proper low gear before you start up the hill lol

With you on that Dave. Skip a gear or a half. Drop 2 if too low in the RPM. Be on a ball with downshifting up the hill.

Your comment about not wanting to start from a full stop on a hill reminded me of a trip from the Okanagan Valley (BC) to Vancouver on the Hope-Princeton. I was driving a mini van with wife and three young sons (just to establish my lack of credibility for those truckers reading this). Anyone who's familiar with that highway knows that a few klicks out of Princeton you hit a jeezly great grade at the Princeton Mines (a nightmare for truckers going up or down). The sparse traffic had slowed at the approach to the bottom of the hill, just where the passing lane starts, as there was a trucker stalled. He had barely made it to the point where there were two lanes going uphill, so he wasn't totally impeding traffic, but we were approaching him slowly. Now this unit looked like crap. The trailer was an open top unit loaded with scrap metal (no cover for the load) and both it and the load looked like they were candidates for a WW2 scrap metal drive. The tractor looked like it was the second runner-up for the semi in the movie Duel (didn't make the cut because nobody would have believed something like that would have been driveable). I slowed way down to pass with my four-ways on (none were visible on the unit, so I wanted to let folks behind know to take it easy as everyone wants to speed up there to get a run at that hill). I don't know what gear buddy was trying, but that tractor was leaping and bucking like it was in a rodeo. Just as we crept past the drive wheels I glanced over, and there was a sound like a gunshot, and I saw his driveshaft go in a terribly unnatural direction. He'd blown a u-joint. Luckily we didn't get hit by any shrapnel, and continued on the way. Bad day for that trucker, but I do owe him a small debt of gratitude. That bang from his drive train shut up three fighting boys for about five minutes - as anyone who's been there knows, five minutes of kid silence on a road trip is to be savoured.

Before I learned to both listen to the truck tell me when to shift and not to panic and downshift an extra gear when necessary, nothing scarred me more than this. I was so glad my school never took me up the hills in Tacoma Washington. I would have almost certainly wrecked.

Double down 9th to 7th! Excellent gearing going up.

Totally me this morning... not proud of it, lol. Steep ass climb in PA, side road trying to get up the hill back to i81. Had just over 42k in a reefer. Most highway hills i rarely drop below 7th, occasionally 6 (i run local, so mostly PA east of i81). But this hill totally sucked it out of me. And i tryed to down shift into 4th, completely screwed the pooch on it... had already lost my momentum, so i stopped and threw it into 1st. Truck wasnt happy about that start, but up we went. Fortunately for the 4wheelers behind me, only a couple more minutes of climbing till the interstate at that point.

As always, some very good advice. You got me to thinking when I was learning to shift a 13 speed. Some good memories. Sounds like someone had a grudge against Santa. Still mad about that toy he never brought. Anyway have a Merry Christmas Dave. Thanks.

I just got my permit and I always watch you're videos because they help me a lot to understand way better

Super great advice Dave....as always. Using the clutch on the downsift saves alot stress on driveline! A very Merry Christmas to You and Cathy, and a very happy and prosperous New Year! Stay safe Dave!

It's really hard to explain in text but basically I just shipped faster so when I'm going up a steep hill with a heavy load which is everyday take it out I give it a good Rev and put it back in quicker than I normally would and that seems to work pretty good however if you do miss it here I would drop another beer quickly or I would go down to more quickly there's no reason to really stop on a hill unless you're really bad at shifting

Tip #3 Shift while the RPMs are high. Don't lug the engine down to 1200 RPM and then try to shift.

Please make a video about the new law they want to pass in California that says Ca trucking companies don't have to comply to meal breaks or rest periods. They say it causes a 3% loss in productivity compared to other states. Supposedly it was brought up Dec 21.

Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for a wonderful year of uploads. I really enjoy your channel and appreciate all the effort you put into it. Peace on Earth, Dave.

This video brought back a memory of mine of when I subconsciously downshifted going up a hill loaded without the clutch. It was my very first time floating gears downshifting and it was all by accident. I had a load a logs going up a hill. The truck had an N14 in it and I used to love how it sounded when it was loaded. I was enjoying the sound so much that when I got ready to downshift, I without thinking, just eased off the throttle and gentle pulled it out of gear. Bumped the throttle just a little bit and slid the shifter into the next lower gear and throttled back up and made it on up the hill. It all happened so quickly and so smoothly. I was like, "What just happened? Did I just downshift without the clutch?" Prior to that I had been playing around with floating gears only on upshifts just to get the feel of it. Like you said, basically once you figure out it's all about getting those RPMs in the right zone with the speed of the truck...things will start to fall into place. I haven't driven in 10 years but still I feel like I can get back in one and be ready to go. Great video...keep'em coming!

Good video. We've all done it; blowing a downshift while climbing a steep hill. I even put it in reverse one time by mistake. I like your idea of taking two gears.

So true Dave stay calm especially in the winter I like to drop 2 works great.

I’ve always found it best for myself to lug it down low, and grab a pile of gears. In 9th, lug it down to 900 ish rpm, then go for 5th. Don’t rush, and she slips right in, then you’re in a gear that will take you up 99% of hills you hit, with 1800 rpm to play with.

If you find a gear that is too low ( in general ) don't let the clutch out all the way

The frame twists under load and how fast you slack off on the throttle affects your shift timing also.

Great explanation 😊

Don’t recall having issues down shifting but I never “floated” my gears on a grade! You need to eliminate (neutralize) torque in the gear box in order to smoothly “float” to another gear and I just don’t see how you can do this effectively on a grade unless you do it long before you any significant momentum!

To piggyback off what your saying. Older model trucks those methods work very well I used them many times myself and had no issues in doing so. With some of the later model trucks “if your lucky enough not to have a automatic truck” I’ve noticed that high range gears tend to stretch. Since many company’s have their trucks governed where you can’t skip gears. The truck doesn’t allow you to rev to high enough to skip a gear like 10th to 8th the truck makes you follow the order of the gears up and down. I was lucky enough to get my truck to be wide open after taking my boss for a ride along and showing him the draw back with governed trucks.

When your shifting up, pay close attention to the speedometer, I drive an 18 speed so my example may differ depending upon your stick. When I’m at 10mph I know I have to be in 4th with the tongue down and on low gear, 15mph is when my tongue is up and I go into 5th gear, 25mph I’m in 7th, 45mph I’m in 9th, approaching 65mph and I go into high gear with the splitter. When I’m shifting down going up hill, while I’m on the throttle about to shift down, simultaneously I push the shifter forward after I let go of the throttle (this was after I brought the splitter back to low to hopefully avoid a full shift down) I push the stick towards 7th from being in 8th and at the same time I pushing in the throttle to raise the rpms, if the truck and myself is quick enough to react (99.9% I’m always successful) the stick just slips in while my rpms are high, I repeat the process if necessary. If I miss a gear which is incredibly rare, I look at my speedometer and because I know how fast I was going while shifting up and I know what gear I need to be in a slip the stick right in after I give it some gas first though. Lol

Thank you so much Dave. This is truly smart trucking.

This advice is spot on!

Sure wish Id had this channel when I started driving ! Good job, Dave.

This is pretty helpful! Merry Christmas Dave!

Happy christmas Dave,thanks for all the vids

I downshifted going uphill in school. Got yelled at. Thankfully I made the shift, somehow. Believe I blipped the throttle. 21 yrs ago. Up l-26 out of Spartanburg SC

Merry Christmas Brother thanks for the advise Dave

Dave you and Cat have a wonderful Christmas and a Great 2019. Good video on shifting and even old technics work on this newer type equipment.

Hate to admit it... I guess. But I just got my first automatic in 12 years and I'm already spoiled to it 😆

Merry Christmas Dave and thanks for the tips. Any chance you can do a "how to video" on downshifting and upshifting when climbing a hill? Thanks

Merry Christmas Dave to you and yours ☃️❄️🎁🎀🎅

Just want to say thanks for all the great info you offer.

Your videos are awesome keep it up

Another great vid, thank you for this one, Happy Holidays man!

What i was taught is shift early based on mph. For instance 8th gear is normally good at 35mph so drop it in 8th at 40mph and it puts you at the top of the torque range in 8th. Shifting early just a different way.

Good info for new drivers been a trucker since 1991 current truck a auto they way it's set up if u let it shift own it's on up a steep grade u lose a lot of momentum I prompt shift at 1300 own it's own it does it at 1200 that little bit makes a world of difference me hill I pull it keeps me from dropping another gear shame the way some of theses autos are programmed a driver can gauge a hill better

great tips and lovely story man

Wow, awesome. This is the realm of the Pros. Great !!

Its hard to really explain it. But you do it fairly well. Its a much quicker shift. The window is very short. However going down a high grade is a whole other issue.

Awesome Video!🎥

I always love your stories. You tell them well

You offer good advice, good channel

Thank you for sharing ❤

Merry Xmas , guys ! Greetings from France ☺

Thanks for your help! This advice is a game changer!!

Have a blessed 2019.

great info, thx for your experience David...cheers!

Merry Christmas and happy new year

When I used to go up mountains with a 2016 Cascadia with an automatic, I had to use "manual mode" because the shifter would constantly juggle between: 9th gear 7th gear 8th gear 9th gear 7th gear 9th gear 7th gear 8th gear 9th gear Has anyone else experienced that phenomenon with an automatic?

Great video. You should double clutch and have a fast arm-hand movement to move between gears, but at the same time touch the shift lever carefully and smooth to engage the gear, the truck will almost swallow the gear that is needing, never force the lever to engage a gear, it means that the transmission mainshaft sliding clutch cannot synchronize the gear, if you force it, you will break something or engage a gear that is not according to your wheels speed and something will be broken when you release the clutch quickly. Make sure to keep the engine sound strong and some extra power in accelerator pedal.

MERRY CHRISTMAS dave and cat as always thanks

Dave you and Kathy have a Merry Christmas

With the 18 speed, and the c15, it tends to like a gear and a half at 1400 on the bigger hills, less gear changes to get to the gear you know you'll need in the end is the goal when downshifting I find with cat torque

Grind it till ya find it!

Great advice Dave especially on an old 13 speed Roadranger. Happy Christmas. PS was wondering if you ever looked up that old English truck movie I recommended. HELL DRIVERS. I think you'd get a kick out of it.