Driving with manual transmission questions

Yeah.. people definitely ride my ass a little more now than they used to. I'm just saving my brakes and the need to stop completely lol. Feel like if your brake lights aren't on people don't get how you're slowing down.
Need a back window decal saying don't honk your horn or ride my ass unless you plan to pull over and fist fight. (i'm a small woman but 11/10 would fist fight the dodge truck guys practically in your tailgate when you're already going 30 over). I promise i'm joking about the decal though.

 

I just slooooow down when people ride my ass. Eventually they get the idea and pass. Works for clueless people with their brights on too.

 

I too have noticed more often than not when someone is riding your bumper odds are it is some clown driving a Dodge truck.

Sales popularity goes Ford, Chev, Dodge so it would seem the odds of a domestic full size truck riding your bumper would follow the same percentages, however over and over it seems to be a Dodge guy in my mirror. Anyone else notice this?

Theory: Maybe they are in a hurry to get to their destination before it breaks down -- again...

 

I recently hit ~43000 on my 2017, the shifting does smooth out as it gets broken in, that said I do sometimes still have issues with my reverse and first from neutral. Specifically for 1st gear the stick always wants to shift half a cm to the right to fully move forward to slot in gear. Done it ever since I bought the truck brand new, still throws me off sometimes. Ground that gear a good number of times I am embarrassed to admit.

It's been a few days since the OG post, but I wanted to mention that I found recently that I have better success taking the truck to ~4k rpm's and then upshifting, particularly between 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, and if I'm feeling spicy that day, 3rd to 5th for the highways. Gained me about 4 mpg tank average for my commute by doing that too.

 

The Sport does, but the Off Road and Pro models do not.

 

When I'm on my motorcycle and my ass is my rear bumper, I keep it in gear and watch my mirrors when stopped until a sufficient number of cars have stopped behind me that I feel like I have enough of a buffer. In my truck, though, I feel safer letting the truck take the impact than trying to hustle it out of the way unless a transfer truck is bearing down on me. I figure sitting at a stop light with the shifter in neutral and my right foot firmly on the brake is only marginally less "in control" than sitting at a stop light in drive with my right foot on the brake and the engine idling below the stall speed. I know it's a bit slower, but I can have the clutch pressed, the truck in gear, and be coming off the clutch in just about the time it takes my right foot to move to the accelerator.

In my mind, that's actually safer as there's no way I'd be under power if my feet came off the pedals during the collision.

 

I'm not going to engage the sarcasm..
My comment was more to address the "absolutes" ppl throw around on TW all the time. Effectively telling someone that downshifting to slow down will be detrimental to clutch life is just not true.. as long as you do it correctly.
She of course can drive her truck any way she wants.

 

Same thing I do at stop lights. Neutral/clutch out, right foot on brake. No stress on TOB.
The arguement against this is that I won't be ready as quickly if something happens and I have to move quickly.
If I know it's going to be a relatively short stop, I'll leave it in 1st with clutch in.
Meh, to each their own.

 

If your seating position is proper your bio mechanics will work for you and not against you. With proper position there is little to no stress.

For the brake - should be just enough to keep you from rolling back - IF you are going to get rear ended let the impact energy be transfered along ithrough the vehicle into the next instead of a hard stop and being transfered into all your soft bits .

The truck can be replaced.

 

after all the TOB drama I've had this is the only way.

 

Thats with the manual transmission?

 

Yeah, with the manual. I don't know if the automatic has it or not.

 

The bucking is from shifting to soon to 2nd and then applying too much throttle.

 

i need to find a taco with this to try it out… I’m not too fuzzed with how it behaves now as I’m not racing through the gears…

bleeding the clutch. That is something I’ve never done before… so it is a bit of a hoop…

 

Not sure I agree with you here. Can you elaborate on the bio mechanics bit? My seat only goes forward and back but I haven’t found a spot where I’m not holding my leg against the clutch spring.

As far as the brakes go, how does burning off mechanical energy as heat result into more force to the squishy bits?

 

Bit late to the game here but -
I've been driving manuals all my life - and mostly crappy ones at that. I learned on a worn out Mini Cooper Mark III with 4 gears. I would have welcomed something like a clutch accumulator on that one. More sensitive and less forgiving than any of my teenage girlfriends!

The transmission on the 3rd gen Tacoma feels solid and predictable but clunky to me. I guess it's because this is the first truck I own; I don't mind the clunks. It wore off the edges after a few thousand miles and I am very happy with it now. The 2 things I really had to get used to were the reverse next to 1st and the steep 1st gear. Never had any thoughts 2nd to 3rd. And it slides into gear as mentioned before. No need for force. That DID get me into reverse when I wanted 1st!

Also, I generally shift below 2k RPM unless I really want to accelerate or go uphill. It's totally smooth, no need for 3k. I never, ever had that transmission 'wobble' that some 90's cars had when you let go of the clutch too early. Oldtimers will know what I am talking about!

OP - here's homework for you: park on a hill parallel parked facing down and get out of that using your parking brake. That was part of my driver's test back in 1983 in Switzerland.

Do you even have to use the parking brake anymore for a hill start these days? It's such a habit, I just do it...

 

You can also just throw it in neutral and coast up to a stop sign or red light.

 

I coast as much as possible - although there is a law against that in many states. Too bad, how are they going to check? It does wonders for MPG.
I use gears for breaking on long downhills, like going down passes. Can always tell if a car in front of me does it, too.

 

As an aside - I really wonder what the median age is for thread participants. I'm 56.