Cabovers

You are from Ireland, you don't know what winter driving is.

Problem with those automated boxes is that they have all those safety features that don't allow them to do anything that might break them, which means they change gears slowly and in wrong situation or might not change at all even if asked from the button. Using full 7 set of icechains makes it even worse.

My ex boss bought earlier all the Volvos with I-####, now he buys only manual because of all the problems with them.

 

I am from ireland Lenny ,-10 to -20 c in January on crap roads with no salting, I've also driven in Sweden for a few years and I've experienced your winters first hand in a 4*2, I later bought a 6*2 rear lift / steer axle for trips up north.

I never had any real problems with the opticruises, they are very simple and nothing really to go wrong except maybe a sensor, I've never seen one refuse to go into gear unless you slap down too many gears, in that case a manual won't change either, like going from top into the low box.

Why would they change in the wrong situation? In adverse weather you're gonna be changing in manual mode anyway, you'll be deciding when the gears change and what gear you want! Or at least you should be! There's no difference in time changing gears on a manual or auto unless you're trying to break speed records in how fast you move a stick, may seem longer but think about it rationally, anyone I've ever met that's had issues with them clearly didn't understand the thing, they thought you'd leave them in auto all the time and it would know what it's doing, there's no difference in the the boxes only the shifter is electric.

I've never had a control problem while driving one and I don't pretend to be a great driver or anything!

 

Hmm, Ireland got the same conditions as us in the winter + small twisty roads with hills.

I say once again if you complain about auto you can't use it because they help a lot.
Say you got chains on climbing that steep hill from the fish factory. You want to change a gear but you know you can't because then a chain might snap. How good you are it's almost impossible to make a perfect gear change climbing from those factories with 15%+ hills. You might succeed but what if you don't, chain snaps and you roll back down might destroying the truck...... The automatic box always does it smooth in those hills.

I got no problem driving a manual but prefer an auto. The i-shift change down so many gears as it's possible if you are on 1500rpm and want down 3 gears you are in the red zone = box won't shift.

 

I've been driving trucks for a living since 1988. I learned on manual transmission, I've always driven trucks with manual tranys and I like them. I don't really care how good this automatic shifters are and how easy they make it for the driver, I'll always buy my trucks with manual tranys.
If you're a real truck driver then you'll not have any problems driving trucks with manual tranys in any situation.

I only wish to have one of those cool euro trucks to do my driving with. The Scania and the new mb actros are the coolest coe trucks I've ever seen. MAN TGX is a nice looking truck too.

 

Most off those are sold with auto's.

 

most people used to think like you , until they try some good auto

what is best auto you ever try?

they are getting better and better every year

if you try auto from 2000 or something it is crap it can shift proper only on highway but now they almost made no mistakes

here 95% of all trucks have auto , it is hard now to sale used truck with manual gearbox

only segment of transport where auto is still not better than manual is construction and off road

even there are special software`s for off road which allows higher rpm and shift faster , and also spend less time with pressed clutch avoiding power delivery interruptions .....also they have fast 1 to reverse change , they have rocking mode and extra precise clutch control and most of gearboxes are with 12 gears which have than small overall ratio and causing problems with starting and clutch ....know for a case where volvo fmx 460 8x4 tipper getting burn clutch because it is too fast it has 3.76 diff ratio and 11.75 on gearbox first ratio

mercedes mostly put very short diff ratios on tippers with auto to prevent this problems although they have 16speed option

 

As I can see it is the real problem here to find driver who shifts well now. I can see it every day!

LAA Trans and Trans Pele purchased all Volvos and Renault with manual, but Actros with Auto and as I can see, fuel milage difference is more then notisable. Not all drivers can use less fuel then auto

 

Yup I agree , the biggest reason I bought the autos, one guy could do nearly 10mpgs from an r500 and the same truck with the same load could only get 8.5 with another driver, shifting with a syncro box is a piece of cake but some drivers like to try and get 0-60 as fast as they can as if it's a car they're driving when in fact to keep the revs lower the thing would accelerate just as fast, also I suggest if you made them pay back a percentage of the fuel their mpgs would improve overnight, some genuinely don't understand conserving fuel while more as long as they are not paying they don't care!

 

Everyone that drive a truck can drive a manual, for the heck until recently it was very hard to even find a car with a auto. But the same as with trucks when the autos in the cars improved in the early -00s people got more interested in them also.

You shouldn't make them pay back but give them bonuses if they improve it. None want's punishment but everyone welcomes a bonus. Set the first goal at 9mpg, when half the fleet have reached it increase it to 9,5mpg and so on. You will get happy workers that's getting extra for actually trying.

The old company did this. The guy that have the best fuel economy compared to load is a one driving 25m truck, beating some of the semi trailer guys. fh500 i-shift middle consumption over 130 000km is now 36,7l/100km (feel free to convert it) and that's with loads always close to 38t making the hole combination 60t.

 

Of course you're right I should have said I was hypothetically speaking, if you did it that way you wouldn't be able to keep drivers! I had 1 guy in particular , almost redlining the truck before changing gears, dog rough with a truck no matter how many times you showed him how to do it he was too stubborn to change, gave him the very first opticruise, mileage was transformed immediately ! Bought another one that year 2004 and four more in 2005 and one more in 2007, most of the guys were very good and giving them an auto made little or no difference but drastically changed a couple of my boy racers lol Not that they couldn't drive just they were just looneys! You're right on another point too, every truck driver can change gear! I hate that nonsense ' youre only a real driver if you shift' that's rubbish, you still shift the truck in akward or dangerous situations it's just a few guys that can't see the additional cost of fuel when they drive like they stole it so they can 'hear the engine rev'