DanW
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Dan
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2017
- Threads
- 26
- Messages
- 970
- Reaction score
- 1,134
- Location
- Brownsburg, Indiana
- Vehicle(s)
- 21 JT Rubi, 18 JLU Rubi, 2008 JKU Rubi, 07 Vette
Spot on with proper clutch practices at a stop light. Honestly, the Rubicon's gearing in low range makes the need to slip the clutch even less than on the road in high range.hawkijon, absolutely no offense intended---but someone taught you wrongly about driving a manual transmission.
I know that many will say it's better and cheaper to wear out the brakes than risk damage to the motor and transmission if you downshift incorrectly. So learn to downshift correctly is my response.
No clutch should ever be held in or "feathered" while waiting at a light, stopped on a hill, or moving slowly up a hill. Any stop longer than about 10 seconds you should be in neutral with the clutch fully disengaged [left foot NOT resting on the clutch]. Moving slowly on a hill behind traffic takes a whole lot of experience in fully engaging and disengaging the clutch. I usually use one gear lower and stay in it allowing the RPMs to go up more than my usual shift point as things speed up and slow down just so I don't have to slip the clutch.
If you're "pushing in the clutch at 60 mph to coast to a red light/stop/turn" you're prematurely wearing down the throwout bearing and friction discs on the clutch and causing the brakes to get about half the life they should get. More importantly it's really dangerous as you'll need to downshift to get to the right gear if you suddenly need to accelerate.
A manual transmission is preferred by many of us as we want to be more involved with the driving experience. Just going up in the gears is less than half of using a manual transmission correctly.
A driver should be downshifting when slowing down in order to allow engine braking and ensuring the transmission/engine are fully in the "power band" if you have to accelerate quickly to avoid an accident----due to the distracted drivers all around us this can often be a 2-3 times experience in a single week. Now a-days it's super easy due to the synchronized transmissions. Back in the old corps we had to double clutch when downshifting in order to line up engine speed with the lower gear. [Really easy to hear the grinding of the tranny when a rookie was learning to double clutch ].
The clutch is only used when changing gears and intentionally "feathered or slipped" in first/reverse as you come in/out of parking. [Rock crawling is a whole different story but you don't do that at 60 mph and most never do it.]
Food for thought and my 2 cents.
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