Automatics..for newbies..really???

Taking the roadtest for your cdl,

with an autoshift transmission,

will get you a restriction on your license.

You will NOT be allowed to drive a manual shift !!!!!

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...tightens-cdl-documentation-testing-rules.html

 

I think the biggest problem I see in this forum is the confusion between an autoshift and an automatic. The autoshift is a 10 or 12 speed transmission that uses a centrifugal force clutch or an air assisted one to engage and dis-engage. It's the same type of design in your manual truck except it has x-y actuators that replace the stick. The transmission is a direct connection between the flywheel and rear axle just like it is now. An automatic uses a fluid driven torque converter that on older transmissions was not a direct drive connection. Now some of them are direct connections with lockup torque converters. Automatics are used in light buses and trucks. Class 8 trucks use autoshift transmissions because an automatic would not be able to hold up to the abuse.

Back when I started in '94 some people were still disconnecting the front brakes, because they said it would cause you to slide the front wheels. A lot of trucks were still on the road that didn't have front brakes. I've driven autoshifts for years and love them.

For those that have never driven one now you use the fuel pedal like you did the clutch.

You've been watching to much Black Dog and Smokie and the Bandit. You don't shift a lot going down the road. You shift a lot in traffic.

 

Right, I keep forgetting. Shifting a manual is black art rocket science that requires years of intense training to master. That's why the pay is so much higher for guys who know how to do it.

 

Tain't what this thread is about. No one in this thread including myself ever suggested new drivers should take the test in an automatic. This is about what job someone should or should not take not about the CDL road test.

 

Um, not true. Please click the link to my review of the truck I drove with a fully automatic transmission.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...eelers/157871-truck-review-12-mack-cxu-w.html

 

No people think the autoshifts are like the auto in the car they drive with a fluid driven transmission it's not. A cars auto transmission only has 2 gears 1st and reverse. The car moves with high pressure fluid not gears. Transmissions in the trucks are manual transmissions with a box on top like this.

 

there is a difference between the autoshift and the automatics. What I drove was a 2 peddle push button automatic, I had very little input as to what it did. Put my foot on the brake, hit the D button and go. An autoshift can be converted to a manual for about $1,500, the automatic I drove cannot be converted.

 

Umm, if you didn't know how to shift you wouldn't have a job where I work. I'm not cutting up guys who run auto's here, but I am saying newbies SHOULD be shifting for the first year of their tenure at a big starter company, then they can decide to switch to an auto if they so choose. Think about that for a second, before you come on here bashing the idea.

Also for the record, you say shifting is so easy, learned so quickly. That may be true for your average door slammer out on the big super slab, but lets run PA and WV back roads in the winter then go play in the mud on a gas well lease road, coal mine haul road or construction job when you need to be able to make those gear changes or end up stuck or spun out.


I have heard from some experienced hands that those auto's will spoil you though, they said their nothing like the old autos so sluggish and rough.

 

I thought about it for several seconds. I still feel the same way. Turning down an otherwise good job because the transmission is just DUMB.

Umm... I did. Without a trainer when I was about a month out of school. And what'd ya know, I lived to tell about it. Like I said, it ain't like shifting a car, but it ain't rocket science either.

 

That's great I'm glad to hear you got to experience our beautiful backwoods scenery around here, I'm also POSITIVE that was a good learning experience for you.