Manual transmission folks 2nd gear ?

How often do you find yourself starting out in 2nd gear. I’m not talking about from a dead stop like at a stop light or stop sign. I’m always making a complete stop in those circumstances. I’m referring to times when you are rolling to a stop and instead of going down to 1st you leave it in 2nd and feather the clutch and drive on. Although I don’t do it a lot I’m wondering about accelerated clutch wear. YMMV

 

Always in my 2nd gen and pretty much every other manual trans vehicle I've driven, if I'm still rolling I hit 2nd and keep on instead of trying to jam it in 1st which is pretty hard on the syncros.

Usually 2nd matches the speed pretty close if rolling.

 

But going slow enough that if you let the clutch out the engine would lug or stall. A little blip of the throttle and would easily go into 1st gear, no jam.

 

This, pretty much any MT I have ever driven or ridden gets a rolling 2nd gear. For the past two or three decades I stopped caring and bought vehicles with automatics

 

If I’m below about 5-10 mph I’m going to 1st. This engine is too gutless to lug out in 2nd in my experience.

 

Maybe it's from growing up driving older trucks that didn't have a syncronized 1st gear but I almost never try to hit 1st gear unless I'm stopped, never feel the need to.
Most manuals really don't like going into 1st when they are moving.

 

I have nothing against autos or people that want them but it sure would be nice if there were more manual options.
Unfortunately for those of us that like driving manuals 90% of the vehicles now don't even have the option and Tacoma is the only truck that still has the option.

I haven't driven a 3rd gen manual but my 2nd gen is just fine in 2nd if it's rolling at all, even could take off in 2nd on the flat although that's kinda hard on the clutch.

 

If I'm coming up to a stop sign I usually push the clutch, give it a little gas and let it slide into first as I come to a stop. Cops don't generally cut you slack for rolling a stop sign in 2nd and we have a ridiculous number of police where I live.

 

Sounds nice. If you make a complete stop around here, it’s an act of aggression. If you make a complete stop and wait more than two seconds, you better get ready for fight or flight. Of course since we have no law and order, more and more stop signs have been added over the past several years as an attempt to slow traffic, so many treat them as speed humps.

 

My 4.0 frontier was more like that, but I find the 3rd gen to be super anemic in 2nd. I can start from a stop but it requires significant clutch slip.

 

All the time. CF clutches wear long.

I've had constant trouble with the TOB for some reason. Hoping the last fix solved it, but here's my clutch at 108k that includes a good bit of wheeling and 0-60 fun. The FW looked just as good.

Just in case, that TOB with red death had only 15k on it.

 

During my tour in South Korea anyone below E-5 in rank had to get a military driver’s permit so they could legally drive civilian streets when on duty. When taking the test in a 1 1/4 truck the motor pool sergeant yelled at me (PFC at the time) something fierce for taking off from a stop in 1st gear. He explained how 1st gear was used and it definitely wasn’t driving on paved roads.

 

I’ll leave it in 2nd if the road tilts down or if I can accelerate gradually, otherwise it’s a lug fest.

On another note, 2 of my neighbors expressed interest in buying my truck (because it’s a manual) IF I ever sell her.

 

Interesting perspective.

The amount of civility has almost vanished. Time for the authorities to get back to the basics of society.

 

Our issue is on the prosecution side. Agreed though, civility in metros is nearly gone with the dodo bird.

 

My thoughts are that if you enforce the little things the bigger things will take care of themselves with compliance. Compliance could lead to civility between the citizens not just in driving but in other areas of life.

I'm not in a Metro area and no one uses their turn signals here; many do not stop at stop signs and thus can't/won't follow the right-of-way rules. I'm actually amazed when someone actually stops at an intersection and gives the right-of-way. It happened only once today in my driving; I contemplated taking down the company name on the truck and getting ahold of their safety officer.

 

It's a 50/50 gamble for me. I feel like most times I try for 2nd and press the gas as light as possible to not ping the motor. I always feel bad for the people behind me, but oh well.

 

If I come to a complete stop, I'll go into first but if I have a little bit of forward motion I'll stay in second gear. I've done this for decades and 15 to 16 years ago, I had to replace the engine on my 1994 SR5 and figured I would go ahead and replace the clutch at the same time as everything had 311,000 miles on the books when the engine went bad. I stopped into the shop during the process and saw the original clutch. There was no need to replace it. I don't think you are hurting anything based on that experience.

 

Slowing down for a light that just turned green or stop and go (slow and go?) traffic I pretty much always shift to 2nd, and don't slip the clutch much at all. That almost always works fine even if the RPMs get a little low and I have to slowly dig out of it. Occasionally if the timing isn't quite right with the car ahead of me and I do have to pause/brake briefly, then I shift to 1st of course.

Rolling into a parking lot I like to downshift down to first, because I can easily adjust up and down between almost zero and 10mph with one foot driving since the engine braking is so strong at low rpms in 1st gear. I find double clutching with a strong throttle blip allows it to slip right into first at around 10mph or below.

 

In that situation, I double clutch down shift to 1st. One thing I dislike about the DBW throttle is the computer always under revs the first blip down shifting to 2nd or 1st, so it requires two quick blips to let it know what I really want.