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<blockquote data-quote="HFolb23" data-source="post: 4821479" data-attributes="member: 55674">Thank you all for the advice, it’s reassuring.Just to clarify, I have a Class A CDL already. This is not a state exam, it’s just a road test for the company, presumably to establish wether or not I’m worth pursuing as a possible new feeder driver IE: am I worth training. Shifting up I was fine. Wasn’t forcing the shifter, letting it fall into gear. Grinded 2nd a few times and noticed that it felt like I was pulling REALLY far back and slightly to the right to get it into 1st, but 2nd through 5th I was fine and smooth. Being limited to our yard, I couldn’t get to the upper range. I did go back to my bad habit of shifting without the clutch and didn’t notice any issues but I’m sure the trainer is going to want me use the clutch and probably start in 1st.5th to 4th was easy. 4th to 3rd was a nightmare. I know the shift pattern. Clutch in a few inches,&nbsp; pull down from 4th to neutral, let the spring push the shifter back to center, clutch in the same few inches, tap the accelerator to bump the RPMs, then pull straight down into 3rd. COULDNT GET IT INTO GEAR TO SAVE MY LIFE. All it wanted to do was grind and go back into 4th. The feeder driver I called said I need to keep the RPMs around 1250, I was shifting around 1300 even though the sticker on the tach said it wanted to shift at 1100. He asked the mileage on the truck and when I told him it had 800k on it he said it’s worn and I’m gonna have to just mess around with it until I figure it out. The truck is a 274 series Mack ten-wheeler. We had another Mack with the M-Drive auto shift, wish I had that truck to use.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="HFolb23, post: 4821479, member: 55674"] Thank you all for the advice, it’s reassuring. Just to clarify, I have a Class A CDL already. This is not a state exam, it’s just a road test for the company, presumably to establish wether or not I’m worth pursuing as a possible new feeder driver IE: am I worth training. Shifting up I was fine. Wasn’t forcing the shifter, letting it fall into gear. Grinded 2nd a few times and noticed that it felt like I was pulling REALLY far back and slightly to the right to get it into 1st, but 2nd through 5th I was fine and smooth. Being limited to our yard, I couldn’t get to the upper range. I did go back to my bad habit of shifting without the clutch and didn’t notice any issues but I’m sure the trainer is going to want me use the clutch and probably start in 1st. 5th to 4th was easy. 4th to 3rd was a nightmare. I know the shift pattern. Clutch in a few inches, pull down from 4th to neutral, let the spring push the shifter back to center, clutch in the same few inches, tap the accelerator to bump the RPMs, then pull straight down into 3rd. COULDNT GET IT INTO GEAR TO SAVE MY LIFE. All it wanted to do was grind and go back into 4th. The feeder driver I called said I need to keep the RPMs around 1250, I was shifting around 1300 even though the sticker on the tach said it wanted to shift at 1100. He asked the mileage on the truck and when I told him it had 800k on it he said it’s worn and I’m gonna have to just mess around with it until I figure it out. The truck is a 274 series Mack ten-wheeler. We had another Mack with the M-Drive auto shift, wish I had that truck to use. [/QUOTE]

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