I'm curious to know how people use their manual transmissions under various conditions and circumstances.

For me, I shift 100% by sound/feel, and I only use 5th on the highway. City driving never goes above 4th gear.

Do you shift by feel? By RPM as shown on the tach? By the little shift indicator arrow? Do you use 5th gear all the time? Only under certain conditions?

Votes/Comments?

(Note that I'm not trying to get **** about my driving or change my ways. I'm going to keep doing exactly what I'm doing. I'm only curious how others operate and why.)


-T.

 

That depends. If I'm in cruise mode, just shifting up through the gears, I go by sound and feel. If I'm rev-matching on a downshift, I might glance down at the tach briefly to see that I've brought it up to the proper RPM before engaging the clutch, but usually I go by feel there as well. I use 5th gear in city driving frequently (40-45MPH or higher), if I'm on level ground and not accelerating. The 4.0 has plenty of low-end grunt to do that all day. It saves gas and if I need to accelerate or climb a hill, I can quickly downshift.

My Jeep is an auto, but the other three vehicles I own are manuals, and that's how they're driven. The only other time I really look down at the tach is if I'm running the RPMs up toward redline, which really wouldn't apply to the Jeep, because it's something I just don't do with it. I've disabled the annoying idiot shift lights in all the vehicles I've owned that had them.

 

Since where I live it a bit on the hilly side, there is no normal shifting for me. I do it all by feel and sound. Some hills I hold it to 3500 rpm and some 2000 rpm and then shift. I use 5th whenever I can. The factory shift light is just wrong IMO. Comes on way too early for every gear unless I am going downhill.

 

As a commercial driver it is always by feel. And I don't use the clutch except for starting off and coming to a stop. Slight pressure on the stick and it will fall in when it's ready, RPM's down or RPM's up it will find it's own sync to slide into.

 

Does that not wear on the synchronizers? Is not a clutch cheaper than syncros?

I could be wrong. I'm just imagining the inner workings of a transmission in my head and it seems like that'd be more expensive wear and tear. Maybe not though, I don't know. I'm open to being educated on that.


-T.

 

Also used to drive commercial so I have shifted more gears in a month than most their entire life. It’s all bout low end for me...get it rollin then as soon as possible go to the next gear. I love low end torque of a diesel and would have one in everything I own if possible. Can’t remember the last time I wound out a gear before changing. If you are in 1st then I’m probably in 2nd or 3rd but due to the high gearing of the XJ (3.07), it never sees 5th wit 33s.

 

You only put enough gentle pressure to feel the oil disturbance without actually pressing it metal to metal and use the RPM's to sync them. But yes... At first a couple gears got ground up learning how to do this correctly. But I started a long time ago with straight cut gear truck transmissions that did not have syncros where using the clutch actually made it harder to find the sync.

 

big truck transmissions are not synchronized. meaning, there are no synchros. to answer your question, i drive by feel. when the shifts occur depends on a lot of factors. the only time i’ll tach watch is when the engine is near the rev limiter. because, you know, the pesky rev limiter slows down your acceleration.

 

No, I knew that one. I felt like the context of our back-and-forth was regarding a more typical passenger vehicle transmission though. :-)


-T.

 

X2, I generally shift by feel/memory (after driving a vehicle for awhile I get "familiar" enough with the transmission to know instinctively what gear I need to downshift into, etc. for a given situation), I occasionally glance at the tach or use the shift light when pulling to the red-line for quick acceleration, but not for most "normal" driving. My XJ is also auto, but my Mustang and Motorcycle are both manual (and only the Mustang has a shift light, both have tachs, though I have owned other motorcycles in the past that did not have tachs and had to go completely by feel/sound).

 

Yep... And grabbing a gear is a serious operation too. If you miss you could be in serious trouble because you ain't just sliding it into the next one, it will not go no matter how hard you push or pull on the stick until they sync, clutch or not.

 

Angle cut gears are about as close as it gets. And most Eaton Fullers are still straight cut.

 

I start in the second gear and float the gears only once when I had a really bad back injury that prevented me from using my left foot too often. I had to do it in this method for about a month.

Otherwise I usually look at the tach before changing gears.

 

I don't like floating gears on a synchronized trans, I feel that it is more harmful to the synchros than depressing the clutch pedal. But I honestly don't really know long term effects

I always go by feel, most of the time I could forget that I'm even driving a manual. Never owned an automatic vehicle personally. I think driving old motorcycles with no tach or speedo is a pretty good way to make it 2nd nature

My question to all of you is:
Do you find the gas pedal positioning to be too low to properly heel-toe and blip the throttle for a down-shift? I always engine brake and it would be nice to have the gas pedal sit basically in line with the accelerator

I can only do it with bulky hiking or work boots on, and it's not very precise.
​​​​​

 

I don't do it but only had to do it out of necessity to avoid the back pain