Environmental driving

[Matheous]

Would I be helping the environment by pulling away (on level ground -or downhill) in 2nd gear providing I stay under 2.5k revs. ?

[steffomini]

Maybe,but it won't do much for the car and why bother??????????

[Matheous]

Maybe if we all did just a little bit for the environment- things might be a little easier in the future for our kids....

[Panic Button]

I don't think it would affect your fuel consumption much, but it would speed up the time that your clutch ends up in a landfill site.

[Toureman]

Probably cause more pollution burning your clutch.

[PhilBy]

You are putting the car under unnecessary load and therefore increasing harmful emissions.

[Matheous]

Ok -I get the message- I'll not do that unless conditions require it - eg. snow on the ground !

[Panic Button]

Funnily enough for some big trucks that is exactly what you do, but then we have more gears.

On the HGV test there is an exercise for downhill starts where you select 2nd or 3rd, hold it on the footbrake, release the handbrake and then pull away when safe.

However some trucks such as Volvos have cut offs to stop you overloading the clutch, so if you try to pull away in anything but first when you are heavy the accelerator doesn't work. Scares the crap out of you until someone explains whats happening.

[Matheous]

Many years ago -I almost went for an HGV but changed my mind because another driver in the same company failed his test the first time -and I thought he was a good driver. Another driver who had only a few months normal car driving passed his first time which I felt was wrong as he had virtually no road experience. Don't know what the situation is nowadays.....do you have to have a minimum road-driving experience or could someone still pull this off?

[Panic Button]

I was going to say anyone could do it, but that is not true. There are many people who could not do it. You need to be a confident person, and feel comfortable driving smaller vehicles. You need to know that you will not be intimidated by the size of a larger vehicle once you have learnt to drive it.

You also have to be able to forgive other road users for their accidental or deliberate poor driving. If you are the sort of person who gets annoyed easily, and feels like taking revenge then you should not follow this course.

Don't assume that a failure on a PCV or HGV test is a sign of a bad driver, or that a 'good' driver will pass first time though. The standard required is high so nerves can be a major problem. It is very easy to fail.

There is no legal 'experience' requirement except having a car licence, but obviously the more experience you have of roadcraft the easier you will find it.
It can be very satisfying.