Pete 579 with a PACCAR MX-13 OR FREIGHTSHAKER WITH DD15

Yeah. It’s a little stronger on hills too and you’ll never have to do a parked regen.

 

Having driven a T680 with Paccar engine and my current is a freightliner with the DD15, my preference is for the Paccar. If the Pete is built like the KW T680 (I suspect they are the same under the skin) then it will be a smoother quieter ride than. My Cascadia feels cheap on the inside and it constantly tries to shake the cabinets apart. The cheap plastic handles on two of them have broken too.

 

Has anyone ever drove a new 579 with the Allison TC10 transmission, I hear there suppose to be real smooth and fast shifting.

 

I haven't, but did see one on display at the Toronto truck show last year. Physically it is a really large transmission. No wonder the truck manufacturers charge such a large premium to install one. It takes a lot of engineering to make it fit.

 

I have a Fuller Advantage super 10 auto now in a 2017 Pete. Still a dog if you use drive, it's OK if your light but it still has that hesitation if you come to a light that turns green last second.. You will be sitting there with your foot on the floor waiting for it to decide what to do and then it might slam you all the way to 1st. But... There is a cure, leave it in manual and learn to shift with the button.. You can decide faster than it but you better be right on it or it will shift for you anyway.. You can skip gears up or down by 2 with double button clicks.. In manual it is not bad, in drive it's OK in a parking lot.. I do wish it was a stick though for what I do..

 

It is hard to find any real information on the Allison, since it's relatively new. I did talk to my local Pete dealer and they can order me a new 389 with it, he did say it's about $2500 more than an eaton. I wonder if the weight of it would always be a issue also.

 

When I was working for the Highway Dept we ran Allison 6 speed autos in the 10 wheel dump trucks.. They actually were pretty decent, in fact that is why I find this Fuller Advantage so disappointing. The Allison was much more responsive and faster. We had them mated to crappy Maxxforce engines but they weren't bad

 

I had a T680 with the Paccar motor for awhile and was quite impressed with it, mated to a 13spd. Good power and economy and no trouble with it really. Paccar has worked a lot of kinks out of it here in recent years, so I’d personally take the 579 no questions asked.

 

I hear this a lot from our drivers who have the 579's with the MX13 and Autoshift Eaton 12. It's like... why not just drive a manual?

Total costs between our 579 autos and 388 manuals (not just fuel) are about equal. The autoshifts still end up using the clutch (while our drivers who run the manuals float) and costs over the past couple years have not been substantial enough to justify the extra costs up front.