Indian River

It does not skip gears at full throttle and it will never start in any gear other than 2nd unless you manually select 1st gear. Besides that, I'm not sure how much different it is from the standard programming because I haven't driven Eaton 12 speeds that much before I did tanker. I'm not even sure if Eaton has a specific programming for tanker because if that's how my truck is set up then that would be sad lol. Not skipping gears when loaded makes sense, but when I'm empty it would be nice if it did. I can just tell it to shift in the middle of changing gears and that does make it skip a gear, but I've found it usually causes a delay in shifting, and again, at that point I might as well be driving a manual. And starting in 2nd is perfectly fine when loaded but I would love the ability to start in 3rd while empty. It seems to me that Eaton hasn't found a reliable method of being able to sense the weight of the vehicle so they had to program it that way. And I know everything is working as intended. I've had my transmission software updated and they programmed the shift points in the shop at Indian River.

 

There's a tanker profile in the new Eaton Endurant XD 18 speed transmission series. eaton-cummins-endurant-xd-series-brochure.pdf (eatoncummins.com)

 

I use manual mode mainly in 55 zones as you described. Lock it in 11 and not having constantly changing up and down.

I have a 2023 and when I first got it new it would skip gears when empty. I also got a lot of transmission error codes and after the shop updated the software it will no longer skip gears unless I force it to.

The Volvo ishift and the Freightliner DT12 are far superior units as far as shift profiles.

 

You'd think they could read the signal from the suspension pressure sensor and at least guess whether the unit is loaded or not based on the amount of air pressure in the drive axle suspension.

And then after that, maybe, if we're really really lucky, they'll figure out how to read the change in suspension pressure to figure out when the surge is moving forward and backward, and adjust the shift timing and clutch engagement/disengagement appropriately.

Honestly I wish we had CVTs in the tanker world.

 

I've driven the Allison auto and it is like a dream. Works just like an auto in your car etc. They accelerate like crazy, just mash the pedal and it surges forward with no pause in-between gears.

When I worked at Sysco they had a few older tractors that had the Allison, not sure why they stopped buying them.

 

Allisons would be nice because like you said they work like an automatic in your car because they are true automatics (with planetary gears and a torque converter) unlike the automated manuals (manual transmission with a clutch that is controlled by a computer) that Eaton, Detroit, and Volvo/Mack are making. As far as I know, there's no real good reason Allison transmissions never caught on in semis. It used to be that "5 speeds isn't enough" or "6 speeds isn't enough". But now Allison makes 10 speeds so I'm not sure what the excuse is now.

 

Sysco had the 6 speeds and while we were rarely loaded to gross, they were never an issue. This was in South Florida though, no clue what they would be like in the mountains.

 

Well from what I've heard about the 6 speeds the trucks usually had to have the rear end geared for a lower top speed to make the gears short enough so it worked great for local delivery/city driving, farm work, stuff that doesn't require a lot of highway driving. The alternative was having a higher top speed but the gears were too long and the truck would struggle a bit in the higher gears. I've never driven an Allison (other than in a GMC 2500 pickup) so I don't really know from experience.

 

Why does your tank stuff slow down when it’s hot, and pick up in cooler weather please?

 

In their case when it's been as hot as it's been this summer it affects the cows which means less milk. They do a lot of milk running.