Automatic v.s. Manual.

I had a 379 with 550/18 autoshift and loved it. Put 500k on it and only problem was when clutch brake quit. I had to be on an incline to get it in gear. I got it back home and put a new clutch in it since the truck had 900k. I would often get on the radio and just mention "automatic" while going through the big hills/mountains and would get the usual crap from guys who had never even driven one. I would find out who they were and blow thier doors off and tell them "they just got passed by an automatic" and they would shut up.

 

the best we had was going up I35 dallas and some driver had to get on the cb about usx and the auto's and how no real trucks would ever drive one, that was followed by the normal cb bs THEN we hit the bumper to bumper backup and for the next 1-1 1/2 it was just stop and go, then we hear the same guy say on the cb MAN I WISH I HAD A AUTO.....LOL

 

Never drove one but ahd a 15 over on my Pete and loved it. Never had any problems but to this day i'm a 4 X 4 man. As long as you kept the cables tight on them they were a dream witht he old 325 CAT.

 

I agree! My company had autos for three years. We just started getting our new trucks this month and they are manuals now. I forgot how much I enjoyed shifting gears after driving a auto for the last two years. We have one lady that drives for us and got a new truck three days and didn't know how to shift and blew the u-joints apart on a truck with 250 miles on it. Anyone can drive a auto and look good but takes skills to drive a standard lol

 

We are going to automatics. You just can't beat them with the fuel milage and the wear issue. I don't have to worry about putting a driver in a truck and over reving the engine or naming it into gears tearing teeth off or burning a clutch up or any other damage a driver can inflict on a truck. So actually the maintenance costs go down with an automatic. Out of the five trucks that I run with automatics I have had only two issues one was a clutch replacement at almost 1,000,000 miles and only did that for procossionary reasons the clutch didnt go out. The second was a wire that got pinched. They also get better fuel milage too. I don't buy into the whole anti autoshift mumbo jumbo. As states before they do have a manual mode, you can pick which gear you start out in, you can hold a gear and you can downshift if needed for the hills. The drivers have enough to worry about out there with safety and everything else and my opinion is that taking away one responsibility (worrying about shifting gears) allows them to focus more on the task at hand. So ultimately the autoshift saves money on maintenance, saves money on fuel and should increase safety. It is just a manual transmission with a solo clutch that has a computer tell it when to shift.

 

We had 2010 Freightliner Casacadias and they were at Freightliner all the time for the transmissions and check engine lights on and only got 5.5-6mpg and that's on flat ground in the Texas Panhandle. At one time we had 9 out of 34 trucks at Freightliner for locked up transmissions. Nothing like being stuck at a green light being stuck in 10 gear.

 

I go Manual all the way... I have driven Auto on day cabs and conventional tractors (Not willingly) and I hate them! And Yes there is a button to switch to manual but, when going down hill when the rpm's get "to high" it will shift up on you...lmao at least that was my experience...

Give me a 13 speed with a C15!...

 

the 2010 auto's were so bad us xpress stopped getting them...(remember that us xpress used to be 100% auto's) they were burnning out clutches...... locking in gear is the first sign of the bad clutch.....

 

It was enough for my owner to say we ain't buying autos anymore.