what is better MANUAL VS AUTOMATIC?

I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that those who are against automatics or have negative reviews of them, have never driven the DT12 with the Predictive Cruise Control.

This is a completely different beast than the I Shift or the Meritor systems.

I use the cruise at all times in the hills. You set the speed and the engine does the rest. I've taken the Grapevine, Wyoming, Tehachapi, 40 in AZ, all in cruise control and all at or below the recommended truck speed.

The engine will automatically downshift and keep you as close to your set cruise control speed as possible, which so far hasn't been an issue.

It's just like taking a downgrade in a manual, you know what speed you want to be at, set it at that. On the steeper hills, you may have to bump the set speed down. For example: the Grapevine, limit is 35 MPH. I set it to 30 (the minimum you can set) and go down easy peasy. No touching of brakes, engine does all the work.

On the backing complaints, there is no jerking. It has a CREEP MODE. Tap the accelerator to activate it and it eases forward or back SMOOTHLY.

From what I'm reading, most of the negative comments are conjecture. Unless you have actually driven one yourself, you CANNOT comment good or bad about it cuz you simply don't know.

Everyone that was against an auto (including myself) that have actually driven the DT12, have fallen in love with them.

Change is a hard thing to accept and just because something has "always" or "mostly" been a certain way, doesn't mean that a new way is bad simply because it goes against the norm.

 

Not only do I like automatics, but I use a GPS too!

 

A bit fast in that white truck himself me thinks. I don't hear that jake working very much and he was not working to keep space in front of him. I run that road presented here a bit slower (Alot a bit slower...) Im thinking that's Lebec area. I could be wrong, but Im close there.

That particular mountain to the left of the interstate when you go through the Palmdale interchanges leave a chill on me. I don't mind them so much as to wonder about a couple of really bad rainy days traffic got dangerous through there.

 

Im going to stand with arms akimbo and tell yoiu, if you drove a AUTO, we wanna hear your story. If you did NOT drive a AUTO, don't be a silly monkey flinging bad words and dirty thoughts against people who are communicating how best to deal with Autos.

 

When I went to test for my CDL, I was cut off while trying to downshift from 9th to 8th, preparing to come up on a stale green light. I slammed on the brakes and then basically went around the world grinding gears and coasting for what felt like half a mile until I finally slammed it in a gear. Thought for sure I failed. At the end of the test, I was like well I'll see you next week. She said I hope not because you passed. When I asked her about it, she said that her critiques wouldn't be helpful, because the things I screwed up on were things that you develop over time. Most important was that I didn't panic. So she thought

Within a week with my mentor and I very rarely if ever missed a gear. Pretty much the only time I grind gears now is when I'm frustrated by bumper to bumper traffic that keeps making a shift over and over again.

I'm telling you right now, don't shift over train tracks(on your road test) or in an intersection(on your road test), don't hit any curbs and roll your window down to listen for trains at rail crossings.

Are you training in a 10 speed?

 

I hope it's not that 10 speeds.

When are Trucking Fleet Owners going to realize the exquiste exotic perfection that can be extracted from a cow of a truck with a 13,15 or 18 speed? Maybe I go west someday and get a hold of two hoppers on a B or A train with a 18 to do it right. this 80,000 is for the birds.

 

Very close, in the same state anyways lol I-15 Southbound at Cajon scales.

 

Yes I drove the AMT even have videos proving it lol

 

Only big auto I've ever driven is my Dad has a Allison in a Freightliner FL60 he pulls his horse trailer with. I've only driven it a couple of times but I absolutely despise it. Dad says once you get used to it you can use the throttle to make it shift like you want, but I've never driven it enough to figure that out.

I'm not sure I buy that mpg increases with a auto. I have no numbers to back it up but from what I've been told, a auto trans robs more hp than a manual. I don't buy the claim that autos hold up better than manuals either. I do understand that newer autos are much better these days and they don't build manuals like they used to but there are so many parts and electronics to go wrong in a auto than manuals don't have.

I do find it kind of comical that today's younger drivers think a manual is too much work. Boy have times changed since I started driving. The truck in my avatar has two sticks, they would completely stroke out over that.

I stopped at the local Co-op the other day to get some dyed diesel for the farm tractor. A local farmer had left his pickup blocking the fuel pump. One of the young dock workers has went inside to ask him to move his truck but he was busy meeting with the store manager so he told the guy "keys are in it, just move it". The young worker came back out there, with another young worker, and they both just stood there looking at the truck. I finally got out of my truck to see what was going on. I ask and they tell me "the farmer told us to move his truck but neither one of us knows how to drive a stick". Now this isn't some inner city youth, this is a small town and most everybody that works there has a farming background.

 

I don't have any way of pulling FFE's electronic records as reported by the ECM of our assigned tractor to show the fuel consumption Engine ran for around 7250 hours in 10 months, consumed about 85,000 dollars worth of fuel putting up a solid 6.5 or so mpg with a coupld incidents in which we broke above 9 to 12 mpg at times.

I can rely on 6 or so with a manual it's pretty close. Primarily because the engine is pretty close to what it should behave. That I think is key.

Regarding the Palmdale scenario, Cajun would make all the sense in the world. I should have known better but it is what it is. The railroads that descend Cajun have massive forces in tonnage leaning against braking of all kinds until they finally reach a safe bottom. You have something like 7000 tons opposing a lashup of 6 engines, each of which offer anywhere between 3000 to over 6500 hp each against the total tonnage.