Automatic Transmission VS Stick

I have experience driving Volvos with the ishift + D13 engine. 99% of your control is still centered around your right foot, not your left. Learn the transmission and how it works.

I should also mention that the ones we get only have the economy mode, so skip shifting is all it knows. The one thing I have learned it to feel when it is done letting out the clutch because once it does, then it will apply whatever power you told it too. When I first started driving them, starting out empty was hard as it is smoothly lets out the clutch, and then ramps up to whatever the accelerator is pushed to, meaning you might take off a lot faster than you thought.

 

The 14 hr rule is dangerous. I drove back then could take a 4 or 5 hr break would affect hours for the day.

 

Aggreeing with you misread it the first time.

 

Ok, one vote against... {shrug}

 

Ok, two votes against... {shrug}

 

If I hire drivers to run my trucks I'm all over the AMT transmission for them. Driving with a manual takes the next 14 levels of concentration, professionalism, the proper mentality, patience, skill, mellow personality that today's trucker doesn't seem to possess.

I blame our society on that, today's truckers are more and more subconciously aware that life is short so they need to race around and max produce dollars in a short of time as possible at the expense of proper and legal shifting techniques. The 14 hour clock ticking down down down has a negative affect on the driver as well. Before the 30 minute break requirement, you at least could see your full 11 hour clock available on the qualcomm and if you stopped and had a healthy portion of your 14 still avaiable, the remaining 11 hours clock would not tick down.

Enter the age of the requred 30 minute *rest* break and soon as you start your 14 hour clock you see an 8 hour clock immediately, incessantly and aggressively ticking down-- 7:59, 7:58 -- and so on. The pressure just increased by a factor of 10 on the driver. Plus you have these safety manager types advising when the optimal time to take that 30 minute *rest* period so as to limit it to once per 14 hour period--- how is that restful when the driver cannot pull over when (s)he wants to. "...only 3 more hours and I can pull over for 30 minutes ***Yawn, eyeballs heavy and drooping....***

Young buck truck drivers have all this stress todeal with and are ripping off hoods and bumpers because they are trying to look at the stick shift instead of their mirrors, so yes companies are going to the AMT because they don't want to invest the extra time in training these new drivers in proper shifting techniques and proper space management. Cheaper to put these new drivers out on the road pulling freight bringing revenue into the company. They crash out? Just fire the driver and sully their DAC report.

 

One vote for....I like them. 12 speed mack with a window in the back!!!!! Bull frog in color.

 

I've been driving an AMT for the past 5 months and DO NOT LIKE IT! That said it is great when I'm stuck in traffic (every other day in SoCal) and SUCKS the rest of the time.

My issues: It's an Eaton 10-speed in back of a Cummins ISX15. The transmission never shifts the same 2 days in a row. It almost NEVER tries to use the engine's low-end torque instead keeping it up around 14-1700 rpm, unless it's at speed in 10th gear. Some days it will pull down to 1200 rpm in 9th (nice climbing pace when light) but most of the time downshifts to 8th @ about 1300 rpm which slows the truck 3-5 mph and totally ruins any drive you have going uphill. I HATE how slow the truck is bobtail as the computer is limiting engine output until it get to highway speeds. My DD-15 powered Cascadia (with a 9-speed manual) was seriously QUICK once you got it in the high side of trans, this thing is a slug! Moving the truck a few inches (daily at the ports) and hooking to a trailer/chassis are a real pain as you have almost no control over clutch engagement.