Driving an automatic on icy roads and taking off on hills?

Press and hold that button to get it into manual mode.

 

I like @Concorde pic better.

That thing WORKS.

 

You have a freightliner D12 transmission. I driven that transmission for years and never had much trouble. You said it comes to complete stop on hills when downshifting on hills, are you taking your foot off the pedal like in manual transmission ? I did that at first, out of automatic behavior. You have to keep your foot on the pedal and let the transmission shift gears. If you take foot off pedal it will slow truck down not shift gears.

The transmission will turn on the engine brake automatically between shifts to slow the engine RPMs down if needed to get the next lower gear.

The truck has Hill Start Assist. If you stop on hill with the brakes applied. When you take you foot off the brake pedal the truck will not move( the brake are still applied) when you push on the pedal for power the second the engine starts to pull the brakes will release. It stops the truck from rolling backwards. You might have to apply a little more brake pressure for it to activate. If on flat ground at stop light it won’t activate but it will on a hill. There is a switch on dashboard to disable it so hopefully you don’t have it disabled.

Do Not use engine brake in snow or ice in manual but even more important in automatic transmission because the D12 transmission will downshift and drop a gear automatically if you turn on engine brake and can raise engine RPMs to 2200 and turn on stage 3 engine brake if you set to stage 3. Stage 1-2 it can raise engine RPMs to 1750 automatically.

 

The only way to “spin out all 4 axles” would be if you had full locking rears and the power divider locked in.

 

Yep. And I have that.

I don't know why trucks aren't spec'd that way to begin with.

 

It doesn't matter the transmission.

Using jakes on icy conditions is a good way to jack knife and probably have an accident.

The Jake's will lock the drives up.

 

I now drive a 2024 KW T680 with a PACCAR engine and their stupidmatic transmission.
It is probably the most dangerous truck I have ever driven in my 45 years of driving.
Not to mention I’m waiting for it to breakdown like the rest of the ones in our fleet.
I miss my Mack with the Maxidine set up. It was bulletproof.

 

You NEVER use Jake brakes in icy conditions.