what is better MANUAL VS AUTOMATIC?

I know - mine's got a 13 speed. All that shifting/floating/splitting - I think they call it work.

 

Just wait until you've got a load on and the dang auto won't stay in the gear you need it to be in. The manual mode on an auto is a poor substitute for handling it yourself.

Now when you're bogged down in traffic and your left leg is screaming at you for a rest...well everything has a downside.

 

Suck to do that all day long? A Manual?

You learn the rig and shift it without a thought. You want this gear and it goes into that gear. Better than a Auto. Give me a 13 or 15 tree anytime. Im all over it. I'll do that all month. I spent my life doing manuals and will die with one in the hand.

With that said, we were issued a auto rockwell truck at 20 miles back in 2001. For husband wife team work. we put 220,000 on that Century in 10 months. Been towed twice due to Auto software bricking because teams never shut off the 15 minutes it needs to purge the buffer. So it dies and kills the whole truck right there. With that out of the way, going into the rocky intermountain ice and snow all winter plus really intense 8000 plus mile coast to coast runs twice a week Jersey to LA Sunday, wed reload back to Jersey by friday or early sat.

Truck turned in the same mileage per gallon if not a hair more than what we would use on a manual so there is that.

The States that Issue CDL have already started restricting people who do not learn to drive manual. It's auto only. To be boxed in and unable to hire on to a trucking fleet that has no auto is to hurt yourself and essentially insult 100 plus years of trucking with what I call push button trucking. We are also potentially being replaced by OTTOS such as one that finished delivering Beer under total Computer Control by itself a few months ago.

You want to learn that manual. It's best in mountain country with Jacobs Braking work.

I present to you US 19. Love me a Cat with turbos that just wont quit.

 

I often hear the 'left leg' complaint - I never had a problem with it in traffic, unless in <5mph on an incline traffic. I'd just float the gears and keep a steady speed relative to traffic.

 

Well that's not bogged down, it's moving slow. Take on Atlanta at 1700 on a Friday right after some nimrod has caused a wreck at 285 and blocked off two lanes and you'll know what I'm talking about. Stop and go sucks but it's an unavoidable part of the job.

 

Automatic for me. Great for beginners as you can concentrate on all the other aspects of driving the truck. When you get driving and backingredients down pat, then add in shifting.

 

My left leg is so hardened to the shifting, you can see the difference in my walk. I use that for a comic fun once in a while.

The student must understand learning new things is a stressful issue in and of itself. All the little nitpicking thoughts of problems will go away when they consider much bigger issues such as being confronted with Dispatchers ready to run them into the ground in 90 days.

I forgot to note that yes I used the manual mode often in the mountains it's the way of forcing the automatic to behave a certain way all the way down a mountain or all the way up on really big split ice, ice or snow and ice. The engineers who built our Century matched the Rockwell Auto carefully to our big 500 detriot so that when it's time to shift either way Im reaching for where there is no more manual stick.

The last two trucks I got issued was a 13 speed, a 15 and then a final company 10 speed roadranger. It's your standard sloppy seconds Fleet equiptment purchased by brain dead cheap fisted fleet managers who cannot count higher than 10 on the fingers. And will not. If there is any transmission I hate and loath, it's that one.

 

It's going automatic because trucking companies cannot get people to drive the manual. Ergo... many hires and who gives a #### about shifting. That's all gone. Push this button and away you go.

THAT is not being a trucker. That is being a pusher of buttons and steering wheel holder of the worst kind.

Wait until a million Ottos put drivers out of work entirely running robots around the USA.