I normally drive 2 ton Internationals and shift without the clutch but, Saturday I moved some calves with the new ton and without thinking I was up to 4th without shifting. When I relized what I had done I wondered if this is good for the transmission or not. It shifted better than some 2 tons I have ran. Any help would be appreciated. TIA john

 

i asked this same question a while back and got a bunch of different answers. most people were almost angry that you would do this. mine shifts smooth at around 2000 rpms without the clutch. i am sure that it is not good to do this and i do it very rarely. but it is fun to play with every once in a while. i have driven big trucks for the last 11 years and never had any trouble with the transmissions but i promise you will get a bunch of different opinions.

 

I shift without the clutch quite a bit in my truck. I am careful not to force it or grind any gears though. I don't want to wear out the synchro's. I talked to my dad about it because he has had many Dodge Cummins trucks as well as big rigs. He said he shifted without the clutch as well and the same principle applies to the medium and heavy duty trucks. He usually put around 150k on his pick-ups and never wore-out the synchros or clutches for that matter.

I guess you can wear out the synchro's shifting harshly without the clutch or you can wear out the throw-out bearing and clutch discs by shifting with the clutch. I don't know which is better, but something is bound to wear over a long period of operation. Probably depends on how "good at shifting" you are.

 

Get a hold of Amish Hauler. He shifted his truck without the clutch since it was new and towed with it as well. I think he just recently damaged the synchros at 150K miles. Not bad for someone who's got more power than stock and tows as well. He could probably tell you. I say that as long as your not grinding anything and your smooth and not harsh with it, your alright.

 

Are those with the truck or the vette?

 

Wow. I never thought about shifting without the clutch until I saw this post. I tried it today, and man was it smooth. Kind of fun too!

 

I almost always do it this way. Have for years in my old ZF's and now with this NV5600. Never had problems. This NV is kind of a lumpy tranny compared to the ZF's tho.