Floating through gears / first time experience

[DiCaprio]

Hey guys,

i recently watched for whatever reason some truck videos of truck drivers floating through gears. If you don't know what it means it's basically shifting without using the clutch. Truck drivers do this because big work truck usually have between 14-18 gears and it's really exhausting for the left foot if you'd double clutch all the time. You'd have to double clutch in most big rigs because the transmissions are not synchronized. So i guess it's a way of lazy driving.
Anyways there also is a video of an asian dude using this technique in his Mini Cooper. It got tons of views and dislikes and it probably has one of the most controversial comment section.

I figured imma try it myself. I'm still pretty young and not afraid of doing stupid stuff to my daily like racing, handbrake turns, 100+ mph Autobahn for 4 hours and now clutchless shifting. My car suffers, but it's a Toyota so what could go wrong? (yet just a waterpump gasket failed in two years of abuse. Was leaking a little bit, nothing major.)

And suprisingly during my first attempt i managed to shift from 1-5 without using the clutch and without any grinding noice. I'm not kidding you.
But this was only a one-timer, after this i never managed to do it again from 1-5. I managed to downshift one time, but it's a lot harder than upshifting, since you have to bring the revs up instead of just letting them drop.

So i tried to focus on the higher gears and upshifting only. I can now upshift 95% of the time from 3 to 4, 4 to 5, or even skip 4th gear and go from 3 to 5 gear. If done right the gear slips out very easily and "float" right into the next higher gear. It's not like you have to force it into gear, a little pressure is needed, but too much will make it grind like hell.

Timing is super important. When going uphill i have to shift late with the revs and speed being higher and when going downhill i have to shift earlier with the revs and speed being lower. At first i thought it's only going to work at one certain speed and rev range, but that is wrong.
If you go downhill you'll accelerate as a result of different forces on your car. Once you get it out of gear, you might be too fast to get into the next gear and the opposite with going uphill. If you are shifting too early going uphill, the revs and speed will be too low to get it into the next gear. And the only time i was confident doing it, was when the area was flat, then it's always the same procedure.

And that's the thing. It's not about knowing when to shift driving on a flat surface area, it's about experience driving all kinds of roads. I read in truckers forums that most truckers think that they are decent at floating gears, but really when a mechanic opens their trans you can see how fucked up their gears are. So what this technique does it helps saving your clutch, it's a relief for your left leg, but if done bad or even mediocre it damages the gears and synchros. So if you have synchros let them do their work. If you don't have synchros just double clutch.



I highly recommend using your clutch. And i'm not responsile for any damage done to your cars trans if you read this and decide to give it a shot.
I wrote this because i think it's kinda interesting just like other driving techniques. It's nice to know that i excists. I mean just like trail braking, rev matching or heel-n-toe it's not really needed. Heel-n-toe if you want to set times at a track maybe, but that's about it. Thought i enjoy using heel-n-toe in everyday driving.


Greetings from Germany