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When driving a stick shift, do you gear up through all five speeds every time, or do you skip some?
I learned to drive in a '47 Studebaker which only had three, and that seemed like enough. The last stick I had, 20 years ago, as I recall, I would often start out gingerly in 2nd, provided I didn't need brisk acceleration like getting into traffic, and I think I also skipped 3rd or 4th when going right up to highway speed.
After many years in an automatic, I just bought my wife a 5-speed Sentra. Any thoughts on this? Why do we need five, if not driving for high performance or competition?
There is one point in my route that I skip a gear and that is when I leave my driveway in the morning. We live on top of a very large hill so I use gravity to get the truck moving and skip gears to get up to speed.
Skipping gears is OK most of the time assuming speed is sufficient to avoid lugging the engine, but there are some risks when rpm is high. Some transmissions are subject to added wear when skip shifting at high rpm because synchronization of the higher gears is better when the next lower gear has been spun up.
So skipping a gear or two at moderate speed and rpm is not a problem but running up to the red line in a low gear and then skipping gears to a high gear can accelerate wear on some cars.
When driving a stick shift, do you gear up through all five speeds every time, or do you skip some?
I learned to drive in a '47 Studebaker which only had three, and that seemed like enough. The last stick I had, 20 years ago, as I recall, I would often start out gingerly in 2nd, provided I didn't need brisk acceleration like getting into traffic, and I think I also skipped 3rd or 4th when going right up to highway speed.
After many years in an automatic, I just bought my wife a 5-speed Sentra. Any thoughts on this? Why do we need five, if not driving for high performance or competition?
2nd gear starts on a sentra would be hard to do on bigger motors you can do that but high revving 4 bangers don't have the botom end grunt
At work one vehical a toyauto pick up has 5 gears, but 4th and 5th are so close in ratio, often times I skip 4th. Skipping gears shifting up isn't any problem, so long as no real lugging takes place.
With that truck if there is a long hill to climb and I am too slow for 5th I will pop it down to 4th or what ever I need to not lug.
In down shifting I often skip gears if the stop is say a red light I can see from a long way off, and coast to the light slow, trying to avoid any stop at all.
On a motorcycle I never skip gears since I want to be in the power band at all times.
Being in that power band on a bike means the difference between life and death.
2nd gear starts on a sentra would be hard to do on bigger motors you can do that but high revving 4 bangers don't have the botom end grunt
I've started my 1.3L 86hp Corolla in 5th, true, I probably shortened the lifespan of the clutch by a year, lol, but it works.
2nd gear is fine, on many a 4 banger, the first gear is a pure "get it rolling" gear, in the wet, you can often times pull off smoother starts with 2nd.
I've started my 1.3L 86hp Corolla in 5th, true, I probably shortened the lifespan of the clutch by a year, lol, but it works.
2nd gear is fine, on many a 4 banger, the first gear is a pure "get it rolling" gear, in the wet, you can often times pull off smoother starts with 2nd.
All depend on the gearing though, not the engine.
How the hell do you get the car moving in 5th? If I'm on a downward slope, say coming from a stop, I might let the car roll a little and go right into second. If I'm merging onto the highway, I might ride 3rd gear up to about 4k-4.5k, and shift right into fifth. Other than that, I skip gears when I downshift, that is, if I actually feel like downshifting.
After many years in an automatic, I just bought my wife a 5-speed Sentra. Any thoughts on this? Why do we need five, if not driving for high performance or competition?
Gas mileage and cruise-ability.
Think of it like this; the 5th gear on a 5 speed manual is usually less than 1.00:1 ratio. The 4th gear of a 5 speed manual is often the 1.00:1 gear. Which means at 1.00:1 the transmission input shaft and output shaft are at the same revolutions. In 5th the transmission output shaft now spins faster than the input shaft. Gears 1,2 and 3 mean the input shaft spins faster than the output shaft.
The end result when you're in 5th gear is just enough to keep the vehicle moving but drops the engine rpm down. Lower rpms = less fuel consumption and also more friendly cruise speed manners.
On the older 3 and 4 speed vehicles, the last gear in the transmission was the final gear, of a 1.00:1 ratio. And as I understand, most vehicles then had something like a 3.31 rear end gear all the way on up to a 4.10 gear out back....which meant fairly high rpms doing 65 down the highway. Then again gasoline back in the good old days was less than 40 cents a gallon and the interstate system didn't come about until 1958.
Also by todays standards on manual transmissions, a 5 speed is the entry level; a performance vehicle such as a Corvette or a Camaro SS/Z28 comes with a 6 speed manual. They haven't used a 3 speed manual or a 4 speed manual since the late 70's/early 80's.
As for skipping gears, yes it can be done. i currently drive a 5 speed manual truck every day. Some days I'll start off in 1st, wind her up, hit 2nd, wind her up, hit 3rd, wind her up and then skip 4th and go to 3rd.
Dad's 1968 Camaro SS sometimes we start off in 2nd gear....it's got a torquey engine along with a fairly low rear end gear, so often the 1-2 gear shift is so quick since it winds up rather quickly, plus the torque moving it.
How the hell do you get the car moving in 5th? If I'm on a downward slope, say coming from a stop, I might let the car roll a little and go right into second. If I'm merging onto the highway, I might ride 3rd gear up to about 4k-4.5k, and shift right into fifth. Other than that, I skip gears when I downshift, that is, if I actually feel like downshifting.
A buttload of clutch wear, hehe.
It's geared fairly short though, it struggles to to much more than 110 Mph, and that's on the clock, real speed is probably a decent amount less.
I would in no way recommend it, I just did it to see if it could be done.
I do often start from full stop in second, but usually I'm rolling just a little bit when I do, just happen to forget to change down at the lights sometimes
Either way, clutch held for 95.000 miles so far, don't seem to be dying yet, and that car gets abused, so starting off in second, and skipping gears should be ok, in any regular powered car.
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? If I'm on a downward slope, say coming from a stop, I might let the car roll a little and go right into second. If I'm merging onto the highway, I might ride 3rd gear up to about 4k-4.5k, and shift right into fifth. Other than that, I skip gears when I downshift, that is, if I actually feel like downshifting.
