We will not have many opportunities on the Rubicon Trail to shift up.

1st gear must always be engaged at absolute standstill. Same for reverse. Even ever so slight movement of the truck will cause the gears to grind.

Shifting up you will have to remember another specialty: To go from 1st to 2nd gear do not speed up like you would with any other car. Simply step on the clutch at crawl speed and shift into 2nd. There is not even gas needed when letting the clutch out after shifting into 2nd. In 2nd gear you can of course speed to then shift into 3rd. Remember to shift early as described in the on-road section. You can cruise along in 3rd with almost no gas. Same is true for 4th.

Do not use high rpm in any gear. Always shift early. The engines have so much torque that you can shift successfully at so low engine speeds where any other car would fail. This might take some habit braking for you.
There are two important reasons why you want to keep rpm down. #1 is the fact that high rpm lead to excessive gas consumption. #2 is that high rpm will get you hyped up. But in a challenging environment you want to stay as calm as possible.


When slow crawl speed is need again simply step on clutch and brake and come to a halt. Only when completely stopped you can engage 1st gear. Do not shift back from 3rd to 2nd - the gears will otherwise grind.

As described in the on-road section - please move the shift lever slowly from gear to gear. Old heavy duty transmissions do not like fast shifts.