Automatic Truck

Just curious, why do you want an automatic?

 

Volvo makes a nice truck.
Dealer network is your only avenue for parts.
Freightliner can be repaired anywhere.
I like the KW and Pete..but the jakes are rather weak..but a more comfortable and quiet truck.

 

My Eaton Autoshift has been great. Shifts a little slow, but I've been told that the dealership can can adjust that within the computer.

 

if It has to be a auto it would be Volvo i-shift.. I was skeptical since all the other autos I've driven were junk, but now I'm drinking the I-shift koolaid..

 

If I had to choose, I-shift all the way. We have a Mack with the Mdrive (same as an IShift) it's the nicest auto I've ever driven. Never thought I'd like an auto.

 

My company has some Mack trucks that have the I-shift. We had problems with the manual setting. It wouldn't work. I've heard that Mack is working to resolve the problem.

 

U will have electrical problems when the connectors get old

 

Best driving experience of my whole career was when driving a Volvo with Volvo engine and Volvo automatic transmission. Wasn't nearly as tired at the end of the driving day. This was pulling tankers coast to coast.
If I were to buy a truck, it would be the Volvo with Volvo I-Shift automatic transmission.

 

We got a 2001 century with a rockwell auto assisted by a manual paddle under the steering wheel for mountain work etc. I got the truck at 20 miles and got the wife trained on it. We teamed on that thing 221000 miles that first year.

As a team, we never shut down. You have to shut down at least 30 minutes each day so that the transmission can empty it's software buffer. If you did not shut down, it bricked. Requiring a tow to the company shop equipped with a computer to restore it very similar to reformatting our PC's and reinstalling everything. And off we go again. We had two tows that year until dispatch was told to take it easy and allow us to take 30 minutes to a hour to shut it off.

I'll die with a manual in my hand, there is nothing like a manual done right. However the auto we had was tuned very carefully mated to the 500 detroit we had that every time that thing started lugging enough for me to reach to shift (That took about a couple of months to stop doing.. lol) she will shift.

On some really bad days where we had a couple of jackknifes on ice that auto maintained the power to the drives and I think it understood what the situation was because the wheel rotation versus power versus road speed during a jackknife was really abnormal. It was just enough to get out of it breaking one of the rules of never applying or adding power to try and break a jacknife. In the old manual you would slam it into nuetral and then work really fast to get her back as your speed dropped usually doing either stab or squeeze braking. ABS coupled to the auto took care of that problem too. We tripped it a time or two and it did well.

But the two tows that was needed gave us a bad name because the loads absolutely cannot be missed appointments and being totally busted and having to be given to another team which had to give up whatever it was doing and race back to dallas to get this one... it's no wonder dispatch did not like it too much.

In bad traffic that auto took alot of pressure off. And again when people did crazy things requiring me to trip the ABS and get that thing stopped like right now to avoid hitting them (And I had to make room where you normally did not have it before impact...) you learned to back off a bit.

Backing with it is not that fun. You almost have to have a eggshell on that thing to keep it right at 1300 rpm above torque all the way back. The flip side is good, you evaluated the situation and made sure you got it in there in one single move. =) That became a trademark of mine. A favorite display of skill. smooth move all the way into the space and done one time without stopping or pulling up.

Would I buy a auto? no. I'll get a 13 or 18 speed manual first. Either under drive or double over.