Bad news for manual lovers

Really? ONE YEAR, and you're talking ####? Wow.

I'm sure we've all seen photos of Swift, Werner, CRST, etc. trucks in accidents... sometimes even the chicken trucks. Got news for you... driving a manual didn't make anyone driving those trucks a better driver. Maybe you think you're special because you drive a ten speed... got news for you.. so did tens of thousands of people before you... a good number of them washed out, too. I'd be willing to wager that it was for reasons other than shifting which washed them out (e.g., rollovers, multiple accidents, multiple service failures, etc). Was shifting ever the cause of someone getting the boot? I'm sure it was, but I'd be willing to wager it pales in comparison to the other things I mentioned.
A steering wheel holder with an auto is a steering wheel holder, all the same. A steering wheel holder with a ten speed is a steering wheel holder, all the same. While I do agree that training solely on an automatic can place limitations for the future, 1: it's their choice to make - not yours to make for them, and 2: if someone can stay in their lane, go down a mountain grade without their brakes kicking out as much smoke as a Grateful Dead concert, and can back into a hole without tearing someone else's hood off, that matters infinitely more than how their truck shifts. I've yet to see anyone less critical of the megacarriers like Swift, Werner, England, et. al. for having manuals in their trucks.
And when a driver does #### up, guess what? It's on them, not their transmission.
For the record, before a bunch of grown men start whining about my post and making allegations, no, I've never driven an autoshift, but I wouldn't be opposed to driving one, especially if the IShift is as good as the hype makes them out to be. And spare me the, "driving an auto ain't trucking" ########.

 

Really well thought out response. +1

 

WitchingHour seems like a bright chap. I enjoy reading his posts.

 

Thanks Stile, that was the answer I was looking for.

 

Pardon me bein so young and a rookie but what are 6x4s and such are those them old 2 sticks I hear about?

 

It's actually easier to downshift going down a hill in a Volvo with iShift than it is with a 10 speed - and safer.

Of course, you should be in the proper gear before beginning your descent (especially in a manual), but sometimes those grades like to get steeper halfway down the hill, or a load pushes you down quicker than you expected. It's nice to be able to hit a button and grab a lower gear without worry.

 

Well, I guess that was my major concern. I just couldn't see myself relying on the truck to make a decision for me based upon weight of load and/or road conditions.The truck doesn't know you are driving on ice and the law of gravity works the same in all conditions. I guess I'm old school insomuch as sometimes I believe the decision to downshift should be that of the driver and not that of some engineer that worked it out on a drafting table 2000 miles away.

And I know what you mean about the grades which is why I used that stretch of I-70 as an example. Some of those grades are the steepest from Idaho Springs down into to Denver...which is essentially the last 20 minutes of that piece of real estate. I hate that drive and in the past I make sure I have absolutely no distractions (no radio, cd player, CB, cell phone etc.) during that drive. Gettin' the life scared out of me once there was enough.

 

I don't know about the newer models of Volvo's that have the auto in them, but husband drove a 2005 in 2007 and I can't say that it caused any problems with hills, and ice and snow. We pretty much went through it all back then. That was the winter that so many states had run out of salt and plowing seemed to be a chore.. Of course we didn't drive through a foot of snow either. Had been on black ice in NB with high winds.

I think USX was using them too to attract more women drivers at that time. They are also easier on people who have a touch of arthritis also. But I do imagine now it is because young people have not been around manual transmissions that much and therefore do not know how to drive them.

Can't say we had problems with the components of the auto not working, it was usually something else like injectors, air conditioning, I believe it was the drive shaft once, batteries. With all the electronics on even a manual nowdays that can cause a glitch, it is a pain to drive them some times.

 

By 2015 the trucks will self park too.

 

Automated big rigs can save fuel, reduce odds of accidents

This is about automatic transmissions in trucks.