East Bound and Down

Well I drove the semi on the road for the first time last week.  I know.  My father-in-law is Brave.  I have to admit it was a lot different than I though it would be. 

The weirdest thing to me is that you don't use the clutch to shift through the gears after 1st gear.  Then the second weirdest thing is that there are two ranges of gears.  The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th turn into the 6th, 7th, and 8th and 9th gears all with a flip of a switch on the side of the shifter.  So when you have a loaded down trailer you have to shift a ton to get the semi up to speed.  If you don't have anything on the trailer, you can throw it into 6th gear and go from there.  I have to admit I haven't been able to get this to work. Yet.

In the below picture I've circled the switch on the side of the shifter. 

I'm not going to say that the semi was a sports car but when you give it some diesel you feel the acceleration.

-Trucker Ryan

P.S. Maybe now I'll become an Ice Road Trucker...