Normal Clutch life?

Double clutching has bound to cause more wear but I'd think it would be minimal.

 

Biggest clutch killer IMO is trying to start off like you're driving a car. No foot on the go pedal if you have a foot on the clutch.

 

Starting in the lowest gear helps dramatically with clutch life. Not riding the clutch too.

I know of clutches that lasted 1.5 million miles. Or more.

 

The new aero trucks seem to mostly have the auto-adjusting clutch in them nowadays. I've heard lot of o/o's say they might get 350-400,000 mi. out of clutch, like in volvos or others. Heard same with automatic trans. from owners. Part of why I got rid of a volvo. I had problems with my 13 spd/clutch at like 450k mi. I was pissed. One yr. later on a new clutch and warranty expired of course, it was acting up again. I always float gears, and it had auto-adjust crap too. Mechanics I asked said I should get million mi. out of clutch. I said, yeah right. Decided to get out of that truck. Also many other parts broke, wore out, cracked, or went bad on that volvo, low miles too.
Before that, My KW W900 had 900k mi. on it when I sold it, had no clutch issues ever, other than manual adjustment when needed. Same for my other old trucks over the years, no issues. Still miss the guzzling KW though.

 

I have a Cascadia DD15 with over 1 Million on the original clutch.
Its all about how the truck is driven.

 

My clutch went out at 808,000 miles. I believe I could have gotten more out of it, however my hood was taken off by another driver so my truck had to go to the shop.

I already knew my clutch brake was gone but those shop guys don't know the little tricks to get around that and I believe they stabbed my clutch in the heart because when I went to pick up my truck the clutch went out.

Double clutching is probably the best thing to save your clutch. What you're doing is letting the clutch out gently and releasing that power to the drive train in a smooth motion rather than dumping or jumping it in all at once.

It takes tons of practice to float gears and while learning it is inevitable that someone would dump a bunch of power into the drive train and create damage.

Never ride the clutch while driving. My biggest weak spot is riding the clutch while backing to 'feather' and finesse the trailer into the hole. Just try to get it over with quickly.

 

I saw on a thread here telling drivers to start in 3rd loaded and 4th empty. I'd guess those drivers won't get life out of a clutch. I use 2nd loaded, 3rd empty and 4th bobtailing.

 

I always use first gear, loaded or empty. Clutch only to get going after a stop, no throttle, just let the clutch out at idle. Shift gently using or losing throttle, It's not a race car. If you time your lights well enough you will still be rolling when they turn green.

 

My 13, I start off in LO even bobtail.