One of my friends who helped me haul my horse from Va to MT a couple of months ago says that it is "fine to ease the clutch out into a lower gear w/out matching rpms when you need to slow down". I always thought that downshifting like this would cause excessive wear on the clutch, and have always 'blipped' the throttle accordingly(and still do) before releasing the pedal and allowing the clutch to engage. He says that this is "stupid if you want to slow down because it takes away all of your compression power"---???(wouldnt the relatively stronger initial slow-down that my friend claims is "the engine's compression power" just be the clutch matching up an engine at low rpm to a transmission at high rpm, thus creating excessive clutch wear?). Downshifting like this does seem to slow ya down abit better but Im afraid that it isnt that great for the clutch especially when Im pulling a trailer--my mom has done this for years and many miles on her car and is still on the same clutch but its also just a little VW jetta. I figure if I really felt the need for some extra braking ability Id buy an exhaust brake. My friend did drive a big commercial truck for a few years so he is probably right but I also know that those vehicles are built a lot different that ours. I just wanto see what yall think-I trust several opinions more that I trust one.
Thanks, Drew Stuart

 

Your friend is wrong, and you and your mother are right.

 

What Clayten said.

 

It's putting so much heat to the clutch that it has to cause wear, especially under load and downshifting, and on top of that 'easing the clutch out' just does wonders, lol. Your instincts were right.