Gear change exercise

[rog]

ABOLUTE CONFIRMATION

Just rang DSA on 0191-201-8161 and had it confirmed that the LGV gear exercise is no more as of January 1st 2008.

[muckles]

gsm31:
It’s probably the only time you will use the first 2 gears.Most of the time you won’t go any lower than 3rd.Tricky bit is the 2nd to 1st.Plus there is the correct moving off/slowing down procedure and the mirror checks between changes.
They should leave it in the test.
I’m against qualifications being devalued.

From what I’ve read here and elsewhere I reckon the test is harder than when I took it a few years back.

I went straight from car test to C+E in a Ford Cargo with 6 speed box, no range change and a 30ft flatbed trailer. No theory test, no having to couple and un-couple the trailer and I’m sure the whole test lasted about an hour.

So now you need:
A C licence
A theory test
an 8 speed box, most will have range changes.
A box van trailer
You’ll have to demostrate coupling and un-coupling.
and it last 90 minutes.

Okay so no gear change exercise, but with modern boxes even non auto one’s gear changing isn’t the art is was with old boxes like the old Eatons and as has been said there are plenty of gear changes and mirror checks in an hour long test round a town or city to find out if the driver is upto it.

[macplaxton]

ROG:
ABOLUTE CONFIRMATION

Just rang DSA on 0191-201-8161 and had it confirmed that the LGV gear exercise is no more as of January 1st 2008.

Told you so!

[donpablo]

mmmmm the gear change excercise i didnt master it untill the day of the test!!! one mistake a missed mirror or no signal or not cancelling signal and it is a b**ls up still it showed you can use every gear, i thought it was important but then again if it goes it could mean another few minutes driving that could fail you, i dont know what to think, i don’t think it should be made easier, but maybe in 10 years time all trucks will be auto of some kind? the other week i drove a daf auto through central london 1st time i had seen the box , but loved it, made it easier to look for the turning without worrying what gear to be in.

[rog]

I went straight from car test to C+E in a Ford Cargo with 6 speed box, no range change and a 30ft flatbed trailer. No theory test, no having to couple and un-couple the trailer and I’m sure the whole test lasted about an hour.

DITTO in 1988

[mothertrucker]

ABOLUTE CONFIRMATION

Just rang DSA on 0191-201-8161 and had it confirmed that the LGV gear exercise is no more as of January 1st 2008.

Told ya so!!!

just pulling away.
apparently i was causing an obstruction while i was trying to pull away.
DOH!!!
At least i won’t have to do that this time.

Oh yes you will (Sorry - I fogot Panto time is almost over!)
The examiner will still ask you to pull over and pull away again more than once so whether you are doing the gear change or not you will still have to do it right.

[rog]

Told ya so!!!

That is the only subject that I have a Degree in

[superlez]

muckles:

gsm31:
It’s probably the only time you will use the first 2 gears.Most of the time you won’t go any lower than 3rd.Tricky bit is the 2nd to 1st.Plus there is the correct moving off/slowing down procedure and the mirror checks between changes.
They should leave it in the test.
I’m against qualifications being devalued.

From what I’ve read here and elsewhere I reckon the test is harder than when I took it a few years back.

I went straight from car test to C+E in a Ford Cargo with 6 speed box, no range change and a 30ft flatbed trailer. No theory test, no having to couple and un-couple the trailer and I’m sure the whole test lasted about an hour.

So now you need:
A C licence
A theory test
an 8 speed box, most will have range changes.
A box van trailer
You’ll have to demostrate coupling and un-coupling.
and it last 90 minutes.

Okay so no gear change exercise, but with modern boxes even non auto one’s gear changing isn’t the art is was with old boxes like the old Eatons and as has been said there are plenty of gear changes and mirror checks in an hour long test round a town or city to find out if the driver is upto it.

IMO the right answer is so blindingly obvious that even Stevie Wonder could see it - even if he can’t yet drive a truck!

Keep the gear change - but only for C tests. With the C+E, you have the uncoupling which would surely take as long and most artics will probably have so much horsepower and torque that you can forget all about the low switch when you’re driving along without a load.

This way you’re still keeping something which should be of value in rigid tests- and saving time on tests with trailers.

PS - why would there be more driving time on tests - at this stage anyway? Surely that means that all the vocational test routes would have to be redrawn for C tests, leaving us with all manner of different routes to be remembered by examiners for different classes of test. Sounds like a total nightmare to me…

[rog]

PS - why would there be more driving time on tests - at this stage anyway? Surely that means that all the vocational test routes would have to be redrawn for C tests, leaving us with all manner of different routes to be remembered by examiners for different classes of test. Sounds like a total nightmare to me…

Remember, we are talking about the DSA and they are the… “EXPERTS”

[Lucy]

most artics will probably have so much horsepower and torque that you can forget all about the low switch when you’re driving along without a load.

[coffeeholic]

Lucy:

most artics will probably have so much horsepower and torque that you can forget all about the low switch when you’re driving along without a load.

I love the smell of hot clutches in the morning.

[superlez]

Coffeeholic:

Lucy:

most artics will probably have so much horsepower and torque that you can forget all about the low switch when you’re driving along without a load.

I love the smell of hot clutches in the morning.

Fair enough - I thought that some of these 450+ horsepower trucks fitted with splitters would easily pull off in 5th…

Which then leads to the next obvious question - when you have to focus on observation, mirrors, positioning, control of speed, steering, use of ancillary controls and such like - how does the examiner have time to watch what you’re doing with the gearbox!? Or is this not part of the test anymore?

I thought that this was the whole idea of the gear change exercise.

[macplaxton]

SuperLez:
how does the examiner have time to watch what you’re doing with the gearbox!? Or is this not part of the test anymore?

He can hear/feel it when you make an duff change (he’d also have an idea of how you’d been taught). Remember he’s a trained observer.

[rog]

macplaxton:

SuperLez:
how does the examiner have time to watch what you’re doing with the gearbox!? Or is this not part of the test anymore?

He can hear/feel it when you make an duff change (he’d also have an idea of how you’d been taught). Remember he’s a trained observer.

Spot on
Instructors do the same - we can hear if you flick the switch or slap across into another range. Lift your foot off the clutch and be in the wrong gear, we will all feel it, including you. Not much different than selecting the wrong gear in your car - you know when it is wrong by the feel and the sound - oh, and that churning feeling in the pit of yout stomach perhaps followed by a red face
IF IT GOES WRONG - PUT IT RIGHT - NOW

[donpablo]

mmm the daf auto box showed 5A on the dash as i pulled away it was a 480 and this was with a load! if this was a manual i wouldve selected 3 low then flicked the switch up to 5 high, probably unneccesary then?

[wheel_nut]

If you set off in high range all the time with my old boss, it made your ears go red

Could that be incorporated into the training Rog?

[rog]

Wheel Nut:
If you set off in high range all the time with my old boss, it made your ears go red

Could that be incorporated into the training Rog?

SORRY - it is now not PC to do such things

[Lucy]

donpablo:
mmm the daf auto box showed 5A on the dash as i pulled away it was a 480 and this was with a load! if this was a manual i wouldve selected 3 low then flicked the switch up to 5 high, probably unneccesary then?

Not at all. My Iveco has to all intents and purpose the same gearbox - ZF AS-Tronic - with adapted software to turn it into a Eurotronic. It’s a cracking box once you get the hang of it, but it WILL pick some truly clutch-destroying gears for pulling away sometimes, as it’s relying on the load sensors to tell it what’s ok.

I call them Nora’s “Over Ambitious Moments” and manually select back down to a more sensible gear. With a 12 speed box, I would only ever use 5th to pull away when I was either solo or empty skellie…Loaded Empty (loaded with an empty container onto the skeletal chassis) I would go with 4th, and Loaded I would go with 3rd unless the contents of the box were light enough to enable me to run with my second steer up - under about 12 tonnes including the container, in other words - in which case it’d be 4th again.

I know of a few people who allowed the truck to pick the gear for itself, and the result was a burnt out clutch and a very unhappy gaffer after a very short space of time…You have been warned!

Remember that AS/Eurotronic is NOT a fully automatic box. It Is AMT - Automatic Manual Transmission - and therefore still needs a driver’s watchful eye and input just like any other manual. You just use different/fewer actual controls to do it!

HTH!

[rog]

With possibly a few exceptions, the lower half of the gearbox are ‘lifting gears’ (to set off in) and the top half are ‘driving gears’.

[Lucy]

ROG:
With possibly a few exceptions, the lower half of the gearbox are ‘lifting gears’ (to set off in) and the top half are ‘driving gears’.

Exceptions like Sutton Bank, you mean…