Why Not Automatic?!

You know what i love my automatic 780 but now that its in the shop and im driving a 13speed 670 i really don't mind neither

 

I got a 2013 Volvo with their D13 engine and I-shift. The D13 is strong and economical, good motor, and the I-shift is a good tranny. It has a manual shift setting that allows me to choose my gears, which I need. I ran the truck on auto for 1,000 miles, got 6.45mpg, then ran manual shift for 1,000 miles, got 6.85mpg. Comparable conditions, running around the mid-west. One for the human. I don't like the auto, and don't mind if I scratch a few gears, who doesn't? The manual has a lot more control, especially in downhill situations with a loaded trailer. Also, the tranny and computer don't just drive off from a stop or slowdown, there's a delay first, then a surge. If you're jackknifed into a tight slot and manuevering for position, that surge can get pretty nasty. And coupling is harder because of the surge. You get under it, give it a little throttle, and it takes off and slams into the kingpin. Or you're pulling out from under it, nudge the throttle, it can zoom out from under it. I like the control and safety of the manual tranny more after driving the I-shift for 30,000 loaded miles. If the truck companies and insurance companies want more safety, that means manual transmissions, in my experience. FYI

 

i cant stand them. most trucks ive gotten assigned to have been autos. But IMHO, they are worthless. I can shift a standard faster than it takes the brain of the automatic to decide what gear it THINKS is best. but a lot of times, it just stumbles over itself. Sometimes, when i have to pull out into heavy traffic with a heavy load, right in the middle of my turn, the tranny will stumble over whether it wants 2nd or 3rd. and that can be dangerous bc it drastically increases the time it takes me to pull into that intersection.

another thing i HATE is driving them in the snow. You can not select to start out in a higher gear than 3rd. which means if you need tire spin to get thru some snow, 3rd gear does not allow the tires to spin fast enough to do any good. ive gotten stuck in LOTs of snow bc of this.

my current truck is a 2008 KW T660 with a 10 speed auto. but by march, my company is going to be putting me in a brand new '13 Peterbilt 386 10 spd manual, and I've gotta say, March can not come fast enough!

 

I dont mind em anymore but I would take an auto over a 10 speed any day.. and, 13 over all

 

i forgot to mention this as well. The only time an auto is worth a darn is in heavy traffic. Such as rush hour or some other form of traffic back up. But my auto still has a clutch, so even tho its an auto, it makes no difference in the heavy traffic bc ive still got that clutch to press. so really, my auto is a complete waste. My company does have some 2010 Petes with a clutchless auto and those make more sense in heavy traffic. but if you've ever driven a clutchless auto, you'll understand what I'm about to say. they are VERY hard to get use to when needing to back under a trailer or backing into a tight dock. bc there is no clutch, you can feather that skinny pedal as lightly as possible, but once that transmission hooks up, hang on! You're going for a bit of a ride! the first time i drove one of those, I had been driving a truck for over 4 years, so I had done my fair share of hooking to trailers. well, my company wanted me to run into town with one of these trucks while my 05 379 pete was being serviced, so i could hook to my load and bring it back to the yard. Let me tell you, i looked like a complete fool and 100% rookie trying to back it under my trailer, and every time the tranny hooked up, it'd take off and id have to slam on the brakes to keep it from backing into the king pin to hard.

I talked to the Lead mechanic at work later that day about my experience, and he confirmed it wasnt just me. lol. said most of the drivers were complaining about them at first, but eventually, once they got use to them, they really liked them. But bc of most of the complaining, the next few shipments of Petes have all been standard.

 

As a student driver, it sounds like you are doing fine. When I took my driving test, the examiner only wanted to see me downshift twice.....which you can do. It is more difficult to learn how to match up the gears when downshifting....it takes practice, something you will not have until you get through school and out into a driving job.
Don't worry about what your instructor says regarding downshifting. He is not the examiner.

When downshifting from the high range to the low range, you will usually be going too fast and have to brake to get your speed down.

One tip that is handy for 10 speeds: 15 mph = 6th gear, 25 mph = 7th, 35 mph = 8th, 45 mph = 9th......you add the mph numbers together and you get the gear. Something you can do quickly and tell from your speed what gear to look for when downshifting. So to grab a gear in the low range, you need to be going slower than 15 mph, as in 10 mph to grab 5 th gear. When you are turning, you will need 5th gear, depending on how fast you take the turn. Practice on grabbing 5th gear when you turn, and at 10 mph.

Because you are likely double clutching, you are focused on the clutch and not your road speed in a turn. After 20,000 miles of driving you will not have a problem grabbing 5th gear when you are turning.....and your instructor should know this, but he has probably forgotten how long it took to learn this.

After 20,000 miles you won't be using the clutch, so you will have a lot less to do in a turn. And a lot more time to grab the right gear. If 5 th is too fast, then grab 4th gear. When I roll up to a stop sign, empty, I grab 2nd gear (if no turn, I grab 3rd gear) after I brake down to 3 - 4 mph, and if traffic is clear, I take off. If I am loaded, and making a turn at a stop sign, I will grab 2nd gear and go if traffic is clear. If there is traffic I will grab 1st gear, and then put in the clutch and wait for traffic to clear. Most of the time I can grab 1st gear better without using the clutch than using the clutch, because when the gear is lined up, it goes in......with a light touch, it just goes in real easy.
I haul grain, so I am either empty or full, no half loads.

Most of the time on downshifting when I am empty, I skip from 7th or 8th gear down to the low range gear I need....I use the brakes to slow me down. If loaded I will downshift from 6th gear to the low range gear I need and use the brakes to slow me down. Most drivers just don't have the time to use downshifting to slow the truck down....you have to use the brakes. I ask the truck owner what he wants and do as he wants, cause he knows how long it takes to downshift through every gear....if he wants me to take a half mile to slow down for a stop sign, I will do it.....but most do not want that.

 

I have driven 9 spd, 10 spd, 13 spd, and 18 spd tractor trailers. I have also driven my brother's auto shift Eaton.

My brother bought an auto Eaton 10 speed for pulling a grain trailer for hauling grain to the point of sale. I advised him to get an auto as he had no experience driving a manual 10 spd. He only drives a few thousand miles per year, and the learning curve for him to learn to drive a manual would be difficult. He has a lot of experience driving manual shift farm tractors and clutchless shift farm tractors, so he could learn to drive a manual truck if he wanted to. But in this case it made a lot of sense to go with an automatic. I have driven it, and it works great. It shifts well, up and down the gears loaded or empty. I could find no fault with it. My dad also drives it and they both like the truck.

I also drive school buses, and they are all automatics and shift like car automatics. You need to pay attention to the kids on the bus and the area around the bus when you start and stop. I notice that not having to focus on shifting the bus does allow me to focus more of my attention on the kids on the bus and unloading procedures.

I think you limit your driving career if you do not have 25,000 miles or more of manual shift driving experience. At that level you should be able to shift without using the clutch and a minimum of gear grinding, although you will never eleminate that sound to your ears!!!

Whether or not the trucking companies move to auto shifters is something that will depend on the cost of their operation and will be deteremined after 750,000 to a million miles of driving on those trucks to see what their long term cost is.

 

I forgot one other thing that's more challenging with the automatic tranny. I picked up a load from MillerCoors, about 46,000, right around my max limit. My GVW was OK, 79,400, and my tandems/drives were OK, but I was 250lbs over on my steers because I'd filled my tanks before getting the load assignment. Trying to move 5th wheel one slot with the automatic transmission was quite a pain. I got there, but not as smoothly as I want. The fully loaded trailer didn't help me, but even with the landing gear cranked quite a bit, the transmission surge hit the stops on the 5th wheel stops pretty hard a couple of times. "One foot on the brake, one foot one the gas..." I'm not Sammy Hagar, but I can't drive 55, and I don't think the auto tranny is for me.

 

"The students at my school are so arrogant just because they know how to shift."

Don't concern yourself with them. They won't be in your cab with you when you start making a living. They have their own path to run, and there a lot of skills to learn. Shifting is part of the job, and being smooth and steady is more important than being fast. Actually, knowing the right gear selection for the situation is a big part of it, and knowing how to get there is a learned skill. Make thousands of shifts, you'll be fine.

 

Beneficial to learn to shift well, even if you plan to drive autos you might not always have a choice and it would suck to get moved to a standard and not know what you are doing. Students suck at downshifting, and downshifting under pressure is hard to get used to but after you have driven for a while (especially if you can stick to one truck) you'll find a system that works for you. I tend to skip gears when downshifting and often I brake with my left foot because my right foot is busy controlling the RPM's. Both of those would get you in trouble with an instructor but that is how I drive. Sometimes you have to slow down so fast you can't downshift and then you have to learn to hunt for gears. It all comes with practice. Just do what you have to do to get through the initial training and you'll find you learn more in the first few days of work than you ever did in school.

As for my opinion on auto's, I love them until I get to the hills and then I love an 18 speed because those half-gears are so much easier to shift while maintaining RPM's while the auto seems to always want to shift too soon or too late.