How do you get some-one to gel with a 4 over 4 gearbox?
Is it like artic reversing where you just have to wait for it to CLICK?
I have tried everything I know but it seems some trainees just cannot get it.
All suggestions welcome.
Dunno really it just kinda clicked after a while for me, pull away in fourth, flick the switch, up to 6th, flick the switch down to 4th.
You could take them to an airfield and just practice going up and down the gears.
Dogmatix:
You could take them to an airfield and just practice going up and down the gears.
I did that and after a dozen or so gear range exercises they get it right but then we go on the road and it all falls down again
Each time they are in the gear before they need to change range poke 'em with a sharp stick to remind them what they need to do next. 
Coffeeholic:
Each time they are in the gear before they need to change range poke 'em with a sharp stick to remind them what they need to do next.
I WISH 
- they can do it if i talk them through it but not if i dont
I remember when I started driving wagons I could never think what gear to be in, for example when anticipating a round about and seeing my gap.
But if you think of the gearbox in a car as having 4 gears and a 4 over 4 having 8 then just double the gears
Downhill start, 2nd in a car 4th in the wagon
30 mph in a car 3rd gear med to high revs same as 6th in the wagon.
Hope that makes sense.
It sounds like they are not sure what gear they need for what situation, so the end up getting in a mess, try telling them beforehand which gear they want to be in and when to change, they should soon pick it up.
it’s just practice they just need to think ahead which gear they want to be in
I didn’t have any problem when I started using a range change, but I learnt to drive when I was barely a teenager in a vehicle with a 3 over 3 range change box 
good cop bad cop smack across the knuckles with a bit wood when there crap and a doggie biscuit when there brains are running at 100% capacity you will get a more receptive audience when pain is invollved 
it never hurt me 
memoray says it did ok past first time must work
Get them to use one “side” of the box.
I.e. teach 3 > 5> 7
or
4 > 6 > 8
Just get them to use only those 3 gears.
Other than that I dont really know. I just “clicked” so dont have insight into where I went wrong.
sell your truck and buy a auto how would you stand if you took a test in a auto truck, can you only drive auto trucks 
i also think its that fact there not doing it day in day out ,tonight i went to split top gear in my girlfreinds micra on the way home 
ady1:
tonight i went to split top gear in my girlfreinds micra on the way home
Been there, done that. well, not in your girlfriends Micra but you know what I mean.
I often try to find that gear from the missing bit of the H in trucks that only have three forward positions as well.
Coffeeholic:
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I often try to find that gear from the missing bit of the H in trucks that only have three forward positions as well.
Been driving FMs for best part of 7years, still haven’t found that one, despite years of trying. Drove an old Scania once, had a strange range change and splitter combination - a bit half and half. Managed to get it from Manchester to Birmingham & back, but I wouldn’t have a clue now.
Rog, i’m sure u know, driver training should be:
- demonstrate
2 talk through
3 prompt
4 “you’re on your own”
Think i would just draw a plan on paper of the gear layout, simply showing it as 8 positions. Explain there is a slight adjustment needed to change from 1- 4 to 5 -8
…or just slap it in low range, set 'em off in that, sooner or later they gonna ask why it won’t go any faster!?
more seriously… stick diagram on a piece of card on the dash.
Driveroneuk:
Rog, i’m sure u know, driver training should be:
- demonstrate
2 talk through
3 prompt
4 “you’re on your own”Think i would just draw a plan on paper of the gear layout, simply showing it as 8 positions. Explain there is a slight adjustment needed to change from 1- 4 to 5 -8
…or just slap it in low range, set 'em off in that, sooner or later they gonna ask why it won’t go any faster!?
more seriously… stick diagram on a piece of card on the dash.
you missed a few
1.5 cuppa
2.5 cuppa
3.5lunch
4.5 cuppa
5.5cuppa
or was that just my instructor
mezzzz1211:
Driveroneuk:
Rog, i’m sure u know, driver training should be:
- demonstrate
2 talk through
3 prompt
4 “you’re on your own”Think i would just draw a plan on paper of the gear layout, simply showing it as 8 positions. Explain there is a slight adjustment needed to change from 1- 4 to 5 -8
…or just slap it in low range, set 'em off in that, sooner or later they gonna ask why it won’t go any faster!?
more seriously… stick diagram on a piece of card on the dash.
you missed a few
1.5 cuppa
2.5 cuppa
3.5lunch
4.5 cuppa
5.5cuppa
or was that just my instructor
we must have had the sme instructor mezz
I remember when I took my “C” - the instructor said he was so glad that he didn’t have to teach me and my compadre how to drive before teaching us the lorry. So I reckon if you* can’t handle a 4 over 4 it’s pretty sad really. I mean really, flick the switch up and you get 4 more gears - woohoo, not rocket science is it.
It’s about the easiest to get your head around. A flat 8 is more confusing to start with because you have to learn how much knock to give the stick, and where the gears now lie (without knocking it down again).
A 3 over 3 is a PoP same as 4 over 4, but I agree, that missing slot can be annoying sometimes
- this is the “royal” you BTW.
Now if your talking splitters, well I’ve just had the misfortune to spend a month or so with someone who can’t use a splitter properly, to save his life. All you hear is “click click click … click…click …click”.
Bloody hell Brian ! Leave it in low until you get to 5th, you don’t need it in every gear with a half empty trailer on the flat. Once you get to 5th, then you effectively have 4 gears to play with and only have to move the stick once (this is on a 3 over 3 volvo BTW) 40 to 56 mph all covered by a liccle switch. Mind you this is the guy who pulls away up hill in 3rd when the trailers full, and wonders why the clutch gives up 10 minutes later
Right, sorry, rant over - still too close to that memory.
ady1:
how would you stand if you took a test in a auto truck, can you only drive auto trucks
Are you allowed to take the test in an automatic?