Going from Automatic To 10 speed???

I understand.

Well, there are times when I just override the shifting pattern by shifting through the gears on my own just by clicking one of those two buttons on the side of the shifter

I call it being the "eyes of the gear box".

 

The rock quarry by the Raleigh-Durham airport is like that.. when you load on the bottom level, you hit something like a 12% grade right away as you go back to the upper level. Watched a couple dump and end dump drivers trash their transmissions going up that thing.

 

My company has a few autos. I am tempted to ask for one since I do so much city driving, it would be nice.

But Company trucks are typically limited to 62mph. (61 with half worn tires) My Volvo does 65. Also with my old Volvo I am on paper logs. The new Automatic shift trucks are E-logs.

Mikeeee

 

Yeah sorry about that man, your thread kinda got hijacked into just a discussion about automatics rather than switching from one to another. The situation is rare, I think most of the big companies that do training start everyone out on 10spd manuals. During the hiring process no one is going to ask what kind of trannys you've used primarily. Years of experience is experience. You will likely have to take a road test, but the person giving the test is going to be most concerned with you being able to safely drive the truck-backing, turning tight corners, not hitting anything, etc. not shifting the thing perfectly. Don't sweat it.

 

yes your exp. will count, but,, your going to have a serious learning curve. As much of a supporter of autoshifts and automatics that I am, I do agree with the idea that you should have some exp. driving a manual. If for no other reason than future job changes. I drove manuals for my first 3 yrs, since then it's been all autoshifts. But, because of those 3 yrs, I can easily hop into a manual and generally have it down within a few minutes, the shifts might not be the smoothest for a few hours, but I can still drive it. The biggest thing, go with the company you like, and in the future, if your changing jobs, let the company know.

 

so, again, your company has your trans set up a certain way, to 1. protect the trans, and 2. stop you or someone else from abusing it and damaging. Eaton, on the autoshifts generally has them set so that you cannot start in any gear higher than 3rd. After 13 yrs driving them, there is no reason to. There is enough on demand hp and tq starting 3rd, especially bobtail, that you don't need to start off any higher. I've driven one that started in 4th, trust me, you don't need it, your not on a drag strip.

what exactly is my problem, your exp. is wrong, your exp. is based on how your truck is setup, not the overall of the trans themselves. Did you know that these transmissions are programmable by the manufacturer or the dealer. They come from the factory with one specific setting, and it can be varied by your employer (or you if an O/O) via the dealer. The can be programmed with a "performance" mode, no your not running a drag race, but it will change the shift points. It also depends on how much HP your truck has, my 455 hp truck has different shift points from my older 350 hp truck as well as from a newer 350 hp.

yes, autoshifts and automatics don't often shift well under load on inclines, under some circumstances, it's not a fault of the transmission, it's a fault of the road. The transmission is doing what it's supposed to do. Here's an example, about 5 winter ago, while chained, I had to stop on Vail pass because of a 4-wheeler that spun out. When I tried to get going, I could not upshift past 3rd gear. Why? Well, I weighed 78,000 lbs, I was on a 7% incline, and I was underpowered. I had to run 1st gear almost to the redline, then shift to 2nd, then run 2nd to the redline and do it again. It took 5 tries before it finally made the shift to 3rd. Did I stall, yes, but it was a combination of things and not solely the fault of the transmission. You know what I learned that day PATIENCE. Guess what, last winter the same thing happened on a different road with my newer truck, I was expecting the same problem. But, the extra 100 hp of this truck overcame the problem, I still had to start of in 1st, I still had to manually up shift. WHen I let the computer do it, it kept trying to shift too early. Hence, manual mode, each time I ran the gear almost to the redline before shifting. Whereas the computer wanted to upshift at 1800, I knew I needed to run it to 2200 before shifting so as to keep forward momentum. Again, as I said, you've been driving these things 2 yrs, I've been driving them 13 yrs. I've learned some tricks and techniques that work. I also know that some things that work on my truck won't work on others, and vice versa. Now Sasquatch (you know being heavy handed and abusive) do you understand.

 

You can switch it over to manual for cryin' out loud! See, some have no idea what they are talking about.

 

I honestly thought I would hate automatic, but after driving in LA so much for Andrus, I came to appreciate it. Automatics are NOT as bad as people are making them out to be. I will be going back to manual starting on the first of April since I am changing companies. I have no worries though, manual, auto, It's all good.

 

So, you have had similar experiences with stalling and still resorted to being rude and namecalling? And still had to do it yet again at the end of this somewhat useful post. The way you eventually got up those inclines is the same thing I had to resort to for these shorter steep ones. Start in 1st and manually shift way up over the regular shift points. And NO, I do not understand you and never will understand angry short tempered people like you. How do you know that I am heavy handed and abusive? What about wanting my truck to start in 4th when bobtailing makes me so? After a couple years driving 10spd manuals and doing so I don't think that is abusive, abuse causes damage, starting in 4th when bobtailing does not cause damage, neither does starting in 3rd, what is the big difference and why does it matter to you? Also, what is heavy handed and abusive about my experiences with stalling on those inclines? You make assumptions about someone with no evidence. You have no idea who I am or what I am like. However, your true nature has been shown pretty clearly here.