Manual vs Automatic Transmissions

They're just facts, man. And the wave of the future.

 

Yep.. Auto's are the coming thing. Most who said "I'll never drive one". After a short time say "I'll never drive anything but an auto".

 

Honestly speaking I dont even care, hopefully I'll be an owner operator until my career comes to an halt and I can buy what I want. But some of you guys reasonings on why the "Auto" is so much better is bogus. But hey, enjoy those things, I really mean it

 

I always find it amusing when those that have trucked so little seem to know so much about trucking. When and if you ever become big riggers I am sure you will educate many over the CB and at the lunch counter.

 

Exactly, hearing Autos are "The Wave of The Future" from a "Wannabe" holds as much water as an Little League Slugger telling Barry Bonds that the day of the long ball is over

 

Well, I can remember very clearly when the whole idea of autos in class 8 OTR trucks was considered nonsense. "they'll never be able to makes autos that can do the job needed in OTR trucking" kind of stuff. I guess what is so amusing is the resistance by some to autos. You can tell they have insecurity issues when they demean the character of folks who like autos. If it was me, I would be encouraging others to use automated and automatic transmissions exclusively! Makes those who have extensive experience with standards just that much more in demand for a set of well rounded skills. Y'all are ranting and raving about something you should be embracing, at least for others. Celebrate that some drivers are being taught using autos only. Encourage the use of autos by all new drivers!

 

Guess same can b said about tractor brakes. Disk or Drum.

 

The top three youtube truck vloggers are, Trucker Josh, JadeandJon, and John Vollrath and all three drive automatics and love them, and they aren't newbies with John having been driving for nearly 20 years. It's just a bunch of macho man backward anti technology super truckers who like to tell people things like "Don't use a GPS, I just use my CB and a pay phone for directions" and nonsense like that. Sad to say most of these anti technology super truckers are older and stuck in the year 1977 or earlier.

Why make the job harder than it has to be super truckers? Is your manhood threatened that much by an auto shift that makes the job easier? Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway all these old worn out backward anti technology super truckers will be retired, dead and gone soon, along with their backward cave man ways.

 

At least you said "resistance by some". Not all resistance is by insecure drivers. If you like autos, more power to ya! I prefer manual.

After all these years, I still like grab'n gears!!! Some will say, "why work harder then you have to?" And I say, "What's wrong with a little hard work??"

You are definitely right about skill-set. License holders who enter trucking not knowing how to shift a manual are FLAT OUT less skilled then drivers who can. I guess that can be a plus when a driver doesn't have to concern himself as to whether or not the company he wants to driver for are auto, or manual.

My concern is, shifting to a degree, has weeded out potential drivers who couldn't "walk and chew gum at the same time". Either from those too intimidated to enter the field in the first place, or those who tried yet washed out regardless. We all know there are drivers who shouldn't be out here. I predict widespread use of autos will simply allow even MORE people who shouldn't be driving trucks, to be driving trucks.

Of course there will be great drivers out here that are auto-only. But there will also be more bad drivers.

I shudder at the thought that any crackhead walking the streets can hop into a big truck, push a button, and be rolling down the road. I wonder how shielded we have been from "jackings" because the street-thug types have not known how to actually drive the truck.

Many of us have likely been protected under an umbrella of "Security through obscurity" whether we know it or not. I'm not saying these are reasons to be against autos, but it could certainly end up being a problem.

 

One of the problems with auto's that some of you wet behind the ears diaper wearing newbese/wanabes don't know that you have less control over your rig than with a manual. Such as when pulling smooth bores when letting up off the fuel to control the surge or gassing on it to control the surge, your automatic will downshift or upshift when you don't want it to because it does not know what you want to do, it just does what it is programed to do. At stops it will hesitate while it figures out what gear to be in when starting to go, granted it might be only 1 or 2 seconds but when your dealing with traffic it can be an issue and 1 or 2 seconds can mean the difference between a good day and bad day. You can put it in manual mode but shifting is still slower with an auto.

I drive an auto and love it. Its very smooth shifting and for the most part ok to drive but I would love it just a little more if it was manual. People don't like change and sometimes it's for good reason. So before some of you wet behind the ears diaper wearing newbee/wanabees get down on the backward anti technology super truckers with their cave man ways maybe think about why they don't like them. They might be easier to drive in some peoples eyes but they are not necessarily better.