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Originally Posted by ronwest
I don't know about modern RR's (my experience was with RT915's in the early to mid 70's).
We never used the clutch when the truck was moving but most important was to change gears with TWO definite but quick movements ie from the previous gear to neutral and then to next gear... it's hard to describe but sort of "click (neutral)...click (next gear)".
Last truck I had a drive of was a 460HP Volvo a few years ago and it was like changing gears in a car - synchro box, not as critical to match revs as in the old RR's.
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Sorry Ron, not clutching is not a recommended practice these days, in fact Eaton (the makers of Road Rangers) get really upset if you drive them without the clutch.
They were originally designed to be driven without the clutch, but mechanics found that the sliding clutchs inside the box were wearing at unacceptable rates, this wearing allows the box to jump out of gear.
There are 3 sliding clutches in a road ranger and you can see very quickly by looking at these whether a driver has been using the clutch or not, there is a torque loading on the gears when you pull them out of gear and wears the bevelled edges of the gears down with time.
One of the other bad habits is to drop the range change button, then move the gear shift to neuatral as you rolling up to a red light/stop light, this puts both parts of the gearbox into neutral, there is a synchro ring in the rear part (the range change bit) and this practices wears it out really fast and it starts to grind.
And another bad habit is leave your hand resting on the gear lever as you are driving down the road, this puts pressure on the forks that go into the sliding clutches and wear them down to a razor edge until they break.
Just some more tips .
