Taking off in 1st ???

Sounds like you are referring to LL as low gear, LL is also called creeper gear (LL=low low) usually seen in construction trucks like dumps. 1st gear is intended to be your starting gear, not LL, unless conditions require it. As others have said you can safely start in a higher gear, but not to the point of stalling out. All depends on how the truck was spec’d. This is true for loaded as well as empty, just listen to the truck, it will tell you everything you need to know. Stalling is bad, as is lugging, and might hurt the engine, tranny, or driveshaft. Turn down the tunes, and listen. When in doubt use a lower gear. Not considering mud or snow, that’s another story. Just trying to give you a simple answer. Oh, and don’t experiment with the boss on board, just take it nice and easy!

 

I use 1st for creeping in a back-up. 2nd if heavy,(79K), on a hill or usually 3rd.
normal F/L Cascadia, 10 speed.
have over 30 yrs driving, never had a problem.

 

Use the lowest gear that lets you let the clutch out at idle without stalling. You should not have to rev a big diesel to let the clutch out.

 

Some trucks have really weak idle. Whether it should be fixed immediately or not is up to the owner. I had a 70k or so dump truck heading up a steep hill. The transmission popped out because somebody had made an 18 out of a 13 and it couldn't handle the torque. So I had to get going in a low gear, but a bit of fuel pedal kept it from stalling while letting the clutch out.

Must have been that illusive 25% grade in Vermont I keep hearing about.

 

Never rev a big diesel to let the clutch out. Everything falls onto a particular gear that will have a bite taken out of it if you did.

Ive been in low before the bottom of the transmission when loaded against really extreme pulls like 3 miles at 25% in Vermont once. That was the only gear in which the little 350 would hold power above stalling. (And burned up doing it....)

In the bigger Detroits say 500 and up, it's rarer to be in lowest. There are a couple spots where you are sitting looking at sky straight up at a stop sign (Never try to shift until that turn is complete. You will stall and create a problem for oncoming traffic)

If empty I start off in a gear somewhere in the low range that the truck will accept without stalling or bucking. It depends on the exact situation. In bobtail I don't even need low range. But that's not something I share with newbies who will tear the transmission out of one trying to start in high range.

If it's a auto, I don't worry about what gear it picks provided I can get it moving with that clutch. It will sort it out by itself really quickly.

I am sorry if these are not definitive answers you are looking for. When you are trying to get a big rig started, you have availible engine power, gear ratio, final drive ratio wheel and tire size, grade you are on, flat, down or up and how steep and so on so forth etc. Even the type of ground or ice/rain etc all makes a difference in how you get it going.

Emphasis on not too often we put em onto a goat trail in low low. Or lowest gear. (This happens much more often off road with a dump truck, milk truck or ready mix concrete mixer) which is non highway stuff to worry about here.

 

Actually not always. For me my enemy is loose rock. Walk to any Ozark Hill and see lots of loose rock in the dirt bottom to top.

Because of this if I get stuck here it's going to be on loose rock believe it or not.

Lepton1 and I went over a special form of shifting which isnt taught in school and I don't know where to begin to describe what you will have to do without reopening that discussion all over again.

If the ground is green grass, that means there is water below in the soil. YOU WILL GET STUCK as soon you sink on it. If you see bare brown or dried grass etc on dirt, that is where you want to put a big rig. 9 times of 10 it's good ground.

The shifting. Where do I start. Ok... let's see. Offroad just delivered shingle into a muddy rained out construction of a group of houses. Why they want that shingle that day that morning in 4 inches of rain is beyond my understanding.

What I did understand was I was faced with a mud problem getting back onto pavement with a 400 cummins 87 Freightliner COE with the tall roadranger 10 which is NOT my favorite transmission. And a empty flatbed.

What I did was put interlock in after making a preliminary aiming of the whole rig going on a particular path to the pavement over that mud. Once I start I am not stopping.

Put her into 5th, dug into clutch releasing it slowly dragging the rpms down and punched off the trailer trolley allowing the whole thing to move under full power. The timing also including having that truck hitting the mud right about 1500 rpm. I aint shifting at all. NO MATTER WHAT (Torque began around 1400 on to 1900 or so I think it was for that engine, redline 2300)

So she hit that mud wallar, RPMs got cut in half foot stayed on the floor and I wrapped myself around the wheel with the airride seat locked.

She hit that mud, sunk down with the left front but did not get a chance to do anything bad because by then the right front bounced against the pavement two feet and slammed back down followed by the drives which was by now making sure the two houses next to me were covered in large grapefruit sized mud globs. Trailer rattled onto the pavement and that was the end of that. I have no idea where I was in RPM, probably 900 or so when I slammed onto pavement. Once the drives touched it, they spun the mud off and then squealed into traction at about 1600 and began that famous hopping back there which I hate.

Esentially put the truck into motion at torque but get it through the dangerous spot before it has a chance to fall down to idle and stall. Essentially driving below torque all the way down on the RPM gauge in a one shot deal to get out of there.

I remember that squelching noise she made sinking that left front steer all the way into that deep deep mud. But I managed to force it out of there with a slight new constant pulling to the left all the way to the home yard. (Front end alignment issue now)

When I got there, got out and closed the door, my safety boss was standing there eyeballing my left front of tractor. Where did you do with my truck like that? Like what? Oh, this mud which by then had pretty much dried into a 4 inch thick covering of everything from below the drivers mirrior all the way to the axles.

(Oh joy says the mechanic who now has to chip or blast a foot of mud off everything under that side before fixing the new steering break)

No one was happy.

Then the safety boss asked me this. Am I stupid? And the reason he asked was because they had many loads go there to that particular customer building houses in the rain and I am the only truck presenting with defects and muddy issues at the end of that day. If it was such a bad spot why not everyone else?

 

It really depends on what the rear end ratio of the truck is, and whether or not you are heavily loaded and starting up a steep hill, a gentle Hill, or on the level.

I agree that you should be able to idle the clutch out without revving if possible. That is the absolute easiest on the clutch engine and Driveline.

And just because you can pull out in a particular gear, meaning a high gear, without stalling the engine doesn't mean that you should. Even if you are empty, the easier that the clutch lets out the longer everything will last.

Generally speaking, if you are driving a LL transmission, the Lolo part of that is really used either on an extremely steep grade with an extremely heavy load, or when you are off the road. It's important to be able to crawl when you are off the road because if you go too fast you can break Springs along with creating other problems also.

 

Sounds like low low agear is screwed up...I would not use it it doesnt want to come out of that gear. Just use 1st gear when loaded. I had an international once that would not let me out of gear at a stop sign. I told the boss I wanted a different tractor, which he had available.

I am not sitting at a stop sign stuck in a gear. I eventually got it out of gear....it had 500k on it but was a fleet truck. Somebody had just about ruined that tranny...it was not an eaton though.

 

as you become more experienced it will just come naturally to you you'll know what gear to use for the right take off slow low is generally used for heavy loads up a hill if your on the flat 1st or even 2 nd is OK.