[JoseTheScorpion]

Mods- can this be put to vote for all BHPians

Is skipping gears good or bad?

I have a Scorpio-N Z2 MT Petrol variant and I had always had this question lingering in my mind, on whether it is a good idea to skip gears.

Drive style I

So I normally, drive through the gears as mentioned in the manual

1st gear - to start momentum
2nd gear - @15kmph
3rd gear - @30kmph
4th gear - @40kmph
5th gear - @50kmph
6th gear - @60kmph

Drive style II - skipping gears

But, I have tried skipping gears and it looks that we can easily run on 3 gears

1st gear - to start momentum
3rd gear - @20kmph
6th gear - @60kmph

I like the 3rd gear, as it has good torque to pull the car from as low as 20kmph to triple digits.

Anyway, I feel, since the gears are still inside their power band, should be ok to drive like this regularly.

what do you guys say? please share your feedback, ideas.

[sunikkat]

I don’t think skipping gears can do any harm. Having owned Octavia MT for 9 years, the least used gear was 5th. I always skip that and go directly from 4th to 6th.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by JoseTheScorpion

Mods- can this be put to vote for all BHPians

Is skipping gears good or bad?

what do you guys say? please share your feedback, ideas.

Nothing wrong. As long as you match your revs properly and don't Crunch through the gears.

I go first to third quite often and have been doing so for years and years especially when on a slight or mid level downhill gradient when the car has just begun to pick up momentum. I wouldn't do it on a steep gradient though.

In the city and on highways when the momentum is right and the revs match, I do 2nd to 4th and 3rd to 5th too, quite often, especially if there is a clear stretch ahead.

[m8002?]

3rd to 6th is bit of a stretch.

In the highways, I skip when planning to overtake like 6 to 4. Then again go back to 6 after completing the manoeuvre.

In the cities, I skip when slowing down only...mostly 3 to 1.

[JoseTheScorpion]

Originally Posted by m8002?

3rd to 6th is bit of a stretch.

In the highways, I skip when planning to overtake like 6 to 4. Then again go back to 6 after completing the manoeuvre.

In the cities, I skip when slowing down only...mostly 3 to 1.

moving down from 3 to 1, wouldn't that be very jerky.

in my opinion, for a smoother ride, the best way to tackle, speed breakers or potholes, is moving to 2nd gear. I move to the 1st gear only if the car is standstill, basically only for initial momentum.

Also, I think your FE will increase the lesser you go to 1st.

[narayans80]

Skipping gears on upshift is very rare, I don't even remember when I last did that. However skipping gears on downshift is a regular affair. 6 to 4 or 5 to 3 happens quite often. On the rare cases like Hospet-Almatti NH mini mountains, I've shed all speed and even gone from 6 to 2 or 6 to 1.

Originally Posted by JoseTheScorpion

moving down from 3 to 1, wouldn't that be very jerky.

3 to 1 use case will happen when you slow down to ~ 5 kph from 25-30 kph and within a second or 2 have to move again. The speeds have to be very low and you have to release the clutch slowly for a smoother experience.

[Jeroen]

As long as you don’t lug the engine it doesn’t matter. In theory, especially when downshifting you will put some additional wear on the respective synchromesh rings.

I have a six speed gear box on my Mini. And it has one of these shift indicators as well.

When I accelerate moderately I will often go 1st, 3rd, 6th. I prefer to pull just a bit longer in each gear and shift less.

Remember it wasn’t all that long ago, most cars, be it petrol or diesel only had four gears. Nowadays we get 5 or even 6 as standard. All those gears are good for getting the optimum fuel efficiency at any cruising speed. But you don’t necessarily need all of them to accelerate smoothly. Although on most cars to accelerate really fast you might have to use all gears.

My Jaguar, with an autobox will always pull away in 2nd gear. Only when you put it in sport mode will it start using first gear as well.

Jeroen

[Mukunthan91]

Interesting thread. I have always changed gears in sequence for upshifting, but I have skipped gears during downshift especially when crossing a speed breaker.

[PrasannaDhana]

I never skipped gears while upshifting. Mostly because I rev them fully and enjoy the torque rush of the next gear.

All of us would have skipped gears while downshifting though.


Doing 60 kmph at 6th would lug the engine in a Scorpio N, wouldn't it?

My Safari Storme Varicor 400 stays comfortable only when the speed is above 80 kmph to upshift to 6th.

[somersault]

When I was driving the Swift some 15 years back, my sequence for the most of the time for speeding up was 1st then 3rd and then 5th. This helped in lesser clutch press and also a kind of mix of both words performance. The shift from 3rd to 5th was the most pleasant where I used to go with high rpm in the 3rd and then move to 5th for cruising. Drove for 8 years, never faced an issue. In fact the manual shift time decreases my overall 0-100. This way I was able to achieve the most. So to answer - No issues for skipping gears.

Never tried this in the downshift. If I was approaching signal then I used to go from 5 to 4 to 3 but beyond that, it was break only and then finally pressing the clutch to shift to Neutral.

[amitayu]

I don't skip gears in upshifts. Never really felt the need for it.
I frequently skip gears (4 to 2) while braking especially in traffic conditions just to be in the strong torque band to accelerate.

But I often find the gearbox suggesting against skipping in the form of getting hard to slot the gear. I usually follow such feedback and don't skip in such instances.

[itspatra]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Doing 60 kmph at 6th would lug the engine in a Scorpio N, wouldn't it?

Exactly my thought. 10kmph separation seems to be short. A better way to look at it would be engine RPM. At the minimum 1500-2000rpm band for all the gears, otherwise you would be lugging your engine which is not ideal.

This is an amazing video I have watched before on the same topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpGsNXUlX1c

[PearlJam]

It general, it shouldn't matter as long as you are in the "reasonable" RPM range. However from the speeds that you mentioned, they are very low speeds, so it may not make sense to skip gears as it looks like you will cross the "reasonable" RPM range if you do that. In other words, it might make more sense to skip gears only at higher speeds.

For example, my Verna 1.6 CRDI has very tall gearing in general, but there's a much lesser 'gap' between 4-5 and then 5-6. So many a time, I simply shift from 4 to 6 directly, after taking the 4th gear to a slightly higher RPM. These will be at speeds of 90Kmph and above.

So it all depends on your vehicle characteristics.

[Joe367]

Originally Posted by JoseTheScorpion

So I normally, drive through the gears as mentioned in the manual

I think providing such instructions in a manual is pointless. It is not possible to shift gears according to just vehicle speed all the time. . We'll get an idea of how the vehicle behaves in each gear after driving for a while. It should be completely ok then to skip gears or hold a gear - to save some fuel or to accelerate quickly.

[sanjeevs]

It does not matter a lot as long as you don't lug the engine and be closer to stalling the car. It all depends on the rev of the car or the power band in which you are driving and maintaining the required speed levels during upshifting.
I have even tried double clutching or rev matching during downshifting the gears especially on a uphill or on a hilly sections and it really helps especially when you want to remain in the power band or want to maintain it. I have done from 3 to 2 and also tried 3 to 1 when the climb is very steep.
I have even tried pulling on some of the decently designed speed breaker all in the 3rd gear and my car does not even stall even once. Decently designed speed breaker means the slopes are perfectly done on both the sides. I have a Indica Vista with diesel engine with the Fiat make (Quadrajet).