Automatic Transmission VS Stick

Had a eaton Automatic in my T680 and loved it. Now in a 2017 Volvo with the I shift and enjoy this one much more. This after almost 25 years of shifting. My left leg loves me now.

 

Ya... been in both KWs and Volvos...
Pros and Cons but I prefer the iShift Volvo.

I'm fairly new but my left leg is grateful too.

 

What I like about the Volvo is when climbing hills, if I get to 1500rpm it will not hurry and up shift where my Eaton would, then lose power and wait for it to downshift again. But then I learned on the Eaton, could hurry and hit the manual shift button when climbing and I could control it

 

Been in a 13 speed, two 10s and two 9s manual. Drove a Eaton Ultrashift+, fuller advantage and DT12.

Been in autos for a year total, been in manuals for a year total.

I prefer manuals, find them no more difficult to drive in traffic after a year of autos, back in a 9speed now.

But the big advantage that sold me today, starter went out, forklift gives me some extra momentum down a small hill, I drop it into third let the clutch go and boom I'm rolling to the shop. Never going auto again.

 

I hate my auto in the 17 t680. Ducking slug compared to the cascadia and an manual 9 speed. bobtail cascadia I'd start in 4th and could speed shift to high gears and seriously take off. This tranny sucks ### bobtail best u can start is 3rd gear and it shifts so so slow bobtail same as having 35k in the trailer.


And WTF is with it shifting to 9th and instantly dropping to 1200rpm then having to downshift to 8th right away and you go from 60 to 50 or so nearly instantly.

Manual mode up hill is crap too even empty , 9th gear is useless in manual it will NEVER let you go above 1200 so you have to always go back to 8th and get stuck going slowwwww.

I hated the 62 company truck but I really should have waited for a manual on the lease rig.

Thankfully I have a fat downpayment saved and buying my own truck soon 10 speed manual here I come.

 

I found that my truck won't go above 55 in 9th (1200 rpm) when in the manual mode. This is to prevent you from locking it out of 10th. I only use the manual mode when going downhill.

The truck performs much better when left in "D" I just wish it would pull down to 1200 rpm when lightly loaded, instead it downshifts from 9th to 8th @ 1300 instantly slowing the truck 5 mph. Funny thing it WILL pull down to 1200 in 9th when heavy. The only time it will pull down to 1000 (torque peak) is in 10th.

Agree about bobtail, this thing is a SLUG!

 

I just got put in an automatic a little over a month ago. After I found out my 10 speed international was going to be in the shop for another 5 days in addition to the 2 I already knew about.

I agree with most of OP's complaints. Especially the lag when pulling out from a complete stop. But I have to say, I do enjoy not worrying about shifting. And my left knee loves it, because the clutch on that international was really stiff. It felt like leg pressing 100 lbs. Fortunately, it was easy to float.

Like anything it's got its ups and downs. I'm only hitting bad winter weather in the past couple of days. And I haven't felt like I was going to lose control.

 

It's all about the fuel mileage .

 

I drove a Century 2001 with Rockwell AT, and it was in tune with the engine, rapid response and none of the gear jumping you mentioned. Ice and snow? Certainly. Even a couple jackknifes to really exercise the AT. Came out of them on ice with transmission and engine supplying power correctly. Every time I reach to shift which is not there, the AT shifted. What more can a man want? The only negatives were two tows and destroyed JIT team loads due to bricking because we never shut off engine. The AT would simply brick when overflowing with non flushed buffer. (Engine was a Detroit 500)

With that said, I prefer a manual above all else.

 

Ive got one of the few surviving lease 579s that central bought with a 13 speed. No way in hell I'm going to an auto.

My mentor traded his lease in early this year and got an auto, he doesn't have to worry about students ####ing his trans up and gets a mpg better than me on average, no thanks....not worth it to me.