Hello I'm Chris. On one of our previous videos we
had a look at how to position your hand correctly using the palming method. In this video I will
show you what to do with your feet and when to change gears in a manual car. But why do we need
to change up gears at all? Well as you speed up, you'll have to change up gears to match
your speed. First gear is powerful, it's also the slowest. First gear is used
to get you going, slow crawling situations and steep hills. When to change gears can vary
from car to car, whether you're on a flat road, uphill or downhill and how much weight is in your
car. Let's start on a flat road. In this car, first gear will take you up to about ten miles
an hour before the engine starts getting too loud and you'll have to change up to second. The
engine sound is important. When it sounds like it's starting to work too hard or is starting to
get too noisy, then change up gears. Second gear will take you up to about 20 miles an hour
before the engine starts get noisy. Again, then change up to third at about thirty miles
an hour. We can then change up to fourth gear. Forth gear is not powerful but it can go a lot
faster than first, also the higher the gear that you're in, the better for fuel economy. But how
do you actually change up gears? What do you do with your feet? Well, you'd firstly build up speed
and momentum with the gas pedal, hear the engine sound get louder which then tells us to change
up. You'd have to come off gas, clutch down, change up to second, clutch up gently and then
back on the gas. Make sure you don't look at the gears when driving as that could be dangerous.
Also, don't force the gears. If you feel any resistance then you're probably trying to change
to the wrong gear. Once you've changed gears, then both hands back on the steering wheel. Let's have
a look at when to change down to a lower gear. You'll have to change down gears if you've slowed
down and there's not enough power to drive at that slower speed. I'm about to turn left. I'm slowing
down for this turn to about 15 miles an hour and now second gear will be best at this speed. I'll
be driving too fast if I was to turn in third. But let's see what happens if we do turn left
in third gear. The engine doesn't like it, it shakes the car, feels uncomfortable, feels
out of control. So second at that speed works perfectly. Be prepared to change down to first
gear for a left turn if the road you're turning into is very narrow or if it goes up a steep
hill. Always make sure that you've slowed down before changing down gears. I can see
a mini roundabout coming up, so I will slow down and then change down to an appropriate
gear which will be second for this speed. I'm making sure that I come off the clutch before
the roundabout so that I don't coast. Coasting is driving with the clutch still down which could
make you free-wheel and lose a bit of control. But what happens if I don't slow
down before changing down? Well then you'll get a very jerky
motion in the car like this. But what happens if you pull away in any other
gear but first? Well, unless you going downhill, there's a good chance you're going to stall the
engine. Block gear changing is simply when you skip gears. For example, you can change from
third gear to first as long as you've slowed right down to an almost stop. There's no need
to change down through the gears when stopping. Block gear changing is better for your gearbox
and your clutch and it's less work. Block gear changing down is a lot more common and block
gear changing up. I'm in fourth gear and going to be stopping on the left. I won't have to
change down through the gears because I'm stopping. I can just leave it in fourth gear
and get the clutch down just before it starts to shake and judder. Low gears are normally
best if you're going uphill as they have the most power. Build up speed and momentum before
changing up gears. If not, then the car will struggle. If you're going uphill and the car does
start to struggle then change back down gears Let's find out what happens if we don't build
up enough speed and we're going uphill. So I'm changing up gears too early here and the car
is struggling little bit, it's a bit sluggish, now I will change up to third gear and now
the car is very unhappy. Really struggling, so I'm going to change back down to second and
it's still not enough power so I go back down to first. Sounds a lot better. So I'll build up
a bit of speed before changing back up gears. I could use fifth gear in this car at 40
miles an hour, plus I'm turning onto a dual carriageway which has a 50 mile an
hour speed limit. I'm on the slip road, which is normally used for acceleration
and to match the speed of drivers on the dual carriageway but the driver in
front is preventing me from doing this. Increasing speed slowly. I'm in third
gear at the moment, get up to fourth, checking my mirrors and blind spot, then signal
right to join the dual carriageway. Still slowly increasing the speed. The driver in front
is still accelerating slowly but I can get more speed out of forth then I can get up
to fifth and overtake because it's safe. Planning ahead, I can see traffic
building up. So I'm slowing down, leaving the gear as late as I can. Now I can
change down to third gear and that matches the speed I'm going at so I've gone from fifth
to third. Gently increasing speed. Watching the traffic lights as they could change at any
moment and now I kept in fourth gear. Okay the traffic is starting to clear now. I'm building up
speed, watching this white car cutting in front and now I can get up to fifth gear. Speed limit
on this dual carriageway is 50 miles an hour. I'm going to leave the dual
carriageway now still in fifth gear. I'm going to try and avoid changing down through the gears so we'll leave the
gear change as late as possible. I'm still in fifth gear. Slowing down. Clutch
is down. Straight to first gear as I'm stopped. Well that's the end of the video. We really
appreciate you watching this video. Hope it's been useful. Please subscribe to our channel
for our latest videos and hopefully see you soon thanks again.
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