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Automatics in large trucks, HA!!!
Big Sky Redneck
Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
First person to comment about my dusty dashboard does naughty things with goats!
Somebody here said autos in big trucks is the way of the future, well I bought this with an open mind and after owming it for 10 months I mist say this is the sorriest damn setup I have ever driven!! Even that old Western Star with a mechanical 444 Cummins and a 13 speed would outrun this thing. My old Pete with a blown motor would outrun it, tbis thing is sorry!! I?ve lost drag races with an empty trailer to loaded trucks going light to lihjt, even Swift trucks with a manual transmission out pulls me from a dead stop!! You will never convince me that an auto shift is good, NEVER! And we won?t talk about trying to back this misserable pile of electronic garbage, impossible to go backwards gracefully!!
https://youtu.be/ppqeiEN2RpI
Somebody here said autos in big trucks is the way of the future, well I bought this with an open mind and after owming it for 10 months I mist say this is the sorriest damn setup I have ever driven!! Even that old Western Star with a mechanical 444 Cummins and a 13 speed would outrun this thing. My old Pete with a blown motor would outrun it, tbis thing is sorry!! I?ve lost drag races with an empty trailer to loaded trucks going light to lihjt, even Swift trucks with a manual transmission out pulls me from a dead stop!! You will never convince me that an auto shift is good, NEVER! And we won?t talk about trying to back this misserable pile of electronic garbage, impossible to go backwards gracefully!!
https://youtu.be/ppqeiEN2RpI
Comments
the truth of the matter is, I wouldn't have noticed your dirty Dash had you not pointed it out.
But I do agree with you, automatics don't belong in trucks. And I bet you that automatic will need to be replaced long before a manual would
I don't object to women, I object to easing the requirements for living in the real world.
The thread about the all wheel drive is a good example. They claim it will screw up the happy transmission or brakes or something because it's too hard for weaklings to learn to drive under hazardous conditions?
I'll never buy a new car if I can't get a manual. I'll drive old cars.
1/2 the people driving couldn't handle a 4-5 speed transmission let alone a rt 13 or 18 speed
I started with a B model Mack with a 5 and 3
That said, my last 18-24 months of OTR were spent with an automatic trans and I enjoyed it. I went through school and was taught double clutching and that is how I drove. I could float gears if I needed to but preferred to use the clutch. When I moved into the automatic (Volvo with a 12 speed) I didn't have any issues with being able to keep up. I was able to climb and go down hills fine and merging was never a problem. I spent most of my OTR time in that truck going from Seattle to Tulsa and back making that trip once a week every week. There were times I had to manually shift due to weather, but not many.
I'm wondering if you don't have something else going on there causing you to accelerate that slowly. I never had that problem even on the few occasions where I was loaded to gross.
So I did what he said, pop first, and RPM shift the others. Scared I'd hit a guard rail on the curves, but he said I was doing fine.
At a safety check I glided in just like he said andhe did the talking. Police nevr even blinked towards me, and him with beer on his breath must have been a relief. Maybe whiskey was the norm.
Now, I love my GM 4L60E so far even though it skips 3rd gear on most local roads, but that is a little itty bitty truck by comparison.
That said, to government, in its wisdom, will eventually push fuel economy standards high enough that manufacturers will go over to automatics in the rigs. Just my 2?.
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.
remember this conversation the day you all get old and your knees give out.
It took Dad 42 years driving logging truck before his knees gave out. Not a bad run, IMO.[^]
I never thought you could get me into a Volvo, much less one with an auto trans. It took me awhile to figure it out, but once I did, it was a pleasure to drive. Heavy stop and go traffic on the hills in SanFran, beats a 10spd Eaton any day. Volvo has their jake brakes wired up to work with the autotrans and cruise control, so pretty much all you have to do is steer the thing. The hardest part of cruising down I-5 was staying awake!
I'll agree with BSR on one thing though, they need the big horse power to make em work right.
remember this conversation the day you all get old and your knees give out.
You only need a clutch to start and stop. My knees have gave out a long time yeah yeah I can still driver semi.
By the way, I cut my teeth on a 5 and 4 ... And I still like it...
Brings back old memories
Just like the Edison light bulb, windows 98 and the Riddle Coach Manufacturing Company progress will happen. Nobody said it will be a perfect climb but a climb it will be. It might be two steps up and one back but we are going, like it or not.
We no longer fly commercial aircraft long distances with piston powered engines. When jets started flying the the first one, the DeHavilland Comet broke up in flight with alarming regularity; yet we all fly jets today in great safety.
The clutch pushing gear grinding hammer down in the Monfort lane Smokey the Bear at mile 102 days of trucking are coming to an end.
It is what it is.
That was some time ago. Unless automatics have improved, I agree wholeheartedly.
quote:Originally posted by TRAP55
Not all big truck automatics are created equal. From my experience, Volvo makes the best, Freightliner a rough second, and the one International uses is a pile of crap. Whatever they use in their van trucks is even worse, if that's even possible.
I never thought you could get me into a Volvo, much less one with an auto trans. It took me awhile to figure it out, but once I did, it was a pleasure to drive. Heavy stop and go traffic on the hills in SanFran, beats a 10spd Eaton any day. Volvo has their jake brakes wired up to work with the autotrans and cruise control, so pretty much all you have to do is steer the thing. The hardest part of cruising down I-5 was staying awake!
I'll agree with BSR on one thing though, they need the big horse power to make em work right.
The $1.5 - $2 million dollar Prevost motorhomes use the Volvo engines and the Volvo automatic transmission.
https://www.prevostcar.com/coach/powertrain
[8D]
The Prevosts I?ve worked on used Allison automatics, I?ve serviced quite a few of them in motorhomes and military vehicles. Allison is an entirely different breed of transmission that can take abuse like no other.
OTR trucks use Auto Shift which is not a true automatic. An Auto Shift is a manual gearbox with the clutch pedal and shifter tossed in the trash and is controlled by computers and servos. Again, I?ve worked on a lot of these, mostly replacing the shift module because they love to lock up between gears. This auto shift cost me $13K last Feb when the servo that controlls the clutch siezed frying the clutch and destroying the input shaft bearings.
Trap, you know what we call drivers who like Volvos doncha? [:D]
And Bruce, not all advances in techy things are good. Do you know Uber cancelled its self driving trucks? Do you know the Tesla electric truck has not made an impression on the industry yet? Do you know these trucks with autoshifts damn near cannot be given away as a used truck? Do you know the maintenance costs on these are more than double a normal transmission? Untill Allison builds an affordable 18speed true auto transmission that works that these failures of adding electronics and gadgets to these unsynced transmissions will continue to lose popularity except to those who probably shouldn?t be in a truck anyhow?
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I've driven a couple different trucks with autos. None of them were geared as ridiculously as the one you're driving.
10 speed auto shift with 3:25 rears. The entire thing is setup for emissions.
One thing good about it, once you do get it going she just lays back and cruises at around 78MPH like there?s nothing to it, just floats like a boat.
And Bruce, not all advances in techy things are good. Do you know Uber cancelled its self driving trucks? Do you know the Tesla electric truck has not made an impression on the industry yet? Do you know these trucks with autoshifts damn near cannot be given away as a used truck? Do you know the maintenance costs on these are more than double a normal transmission? Untill Allison builds an affordable 18speed true auto transmission that works that these failures of adding electronics and gadgets to these unsynced transmissions will continue to lose popularity except to those who probably shouldn?t be in a truck anyhow?
You are talking about TODAY; I am talking about tomorrow, they will get there soon, we are not there yet. We no longer have carburetors on cars and that is a good thing. It took the better part of 10-15 years to get the fuel injection systems ironed out but not one car or truck has a carb today. In the future auto trans probably Allison will be the normal transmission in heavy vehicles.
How do you guys like the auto on snow and Ice?
I chained tbis thing up more times last winter in the snow on flat ground than I ever have in re 20+ years of playing with these things!! Absolutely helpless and worthless in the snow!! I?ve been stuck in parking lots and driveways with this stupid auto shift because the geeks that programmed this hink of electronic garbage havent figured out how to make them go in the snow.
I don?t care how much a person worships new ideas, you cannot program one of these pigs to act like a damned grocery fetcher!! Youndrive these things, you ride in your pickup. Huge difference.
And Bruce, if you were a trucker this is the truck I would picture you driving [:D]
Looks good to me!!! [:D]