Autos vs Manual transmissions

Eaton started making auto-mated manuals for the government, specifically the military. With the current crop of recruits, the modern combat solder is no longer able to drive a stick shift with a clutch. As such Allison sells a lot of truck duty automatics. Eaton wanted a piece of that pie, the huge government contracts that go out to manufactures. The cheap and easy way to do that was stick a computer on the manual transmission they have been making for decades, and teach the computer to float gears like a real truck driver.

The government did not buy. The first iteration had a clutch peddle; the government said no to that. New recruits didn't know what to do with a clutch pedal. Next deal had a centrifugal clutch, that sucked big time off road, so the government said no again.

So here is Eaton stuck with all this technology and development they paid for, and no takers. Government thought the auto-mated manuals were too unreliable; Allison still gets all the governments business.

So what did they do to recoup the money spent on developing this hunk of crap. Of course they figured they would try to sell these things to the mega-crap fleets. They just had to think up a slick campaign to convince management at the megas needed to pay a premium for automatics. Of course they tried to sell them on driver comfort, driver retention, and driver recruiting; but what they didn't realize is that the megas don't give a crap about their driver, they have more then enough of them already, and with no real shortage in sight. The only thing that toke, was the sales pitch about fuel economy. And if you didn't know already, the managers at a mega are too dumb to even calculate fuel economy. So here is the hook; put a fuel economy gauge in the truck, make it lie to the truck owner, and you will sell more trucks and of course more automatics. And no one in the corporate trucking world is ever to smart to notice because they cannot calculate fuel economy in the first place. Don't believe me, just ask Jimmy Haslam how well mega's keep track of their fuel.

 

HAHAHAHA you saved the best for last beautiful

 

I’m not looking to be told I’m a liar and how stupid I am. I respect your opinion and agree with some of your points. I was just pitching real world numbers from our regional short haul fleet in for everyones consideration.

 

I never called you stupid, I said "the claim that automatics get better fuel milage is stupid." Very different thing. However, if that was something you believed, I can see how you take it personal. But, it is not what I said.

The whole claim that automatics get better fuel milage centers around a marketing claim, that is promoted, but unsubstantiated by those that sell the automatic. That claim is 'a whole fleets will get better fuel milage when using all automatics, since the automatics factor out of the average, the poor fuel economy of the bad drivers in the fleet. That claim is stupid and unsubstantiated. Unless you are responsible for that claim, don't worry about being called stupid.

Despite what many have been lead to believe, an automatic by itself, will not provide better fuel economy for just one driver. No one of any engineering authority has ever claimed that. No one claims a quality driver that gets 6mpg will get 6mpg + 5% more when using an automatic.

It is all about fleet averages. And if you have a fleet of window licking steering wheel holders that grind gears all day, you could buy them all automatics and maybe save up to 5% on fuel. That is stupid!

The whole thing is just stupid marketing.

 

The computer determines the starting gear based on the load, based on the air ride sensors. I've started off in 3rd gear @ 80,000 lbs and I've started off in 1st gear @ 15,000 lbs. Since I'm smarter than the computer, if I don't like the gear preselects, I'll manually downshift. And if I'm really bored, I'll hit Perf mode and get wheel spin going from 1st to 3rd at weights under 50K with the pedal buried.

Huh, that's interesting, I wasn't aware this was a drag race. Yes, they do sometimes lug the motor on upshifts, and they do skip shift. If you feel the need to hit every single hole going from the basement to the penthouse, maybe you need retrained. At 80K, I can start off in 1st and be in 12th after 6 shifts, yeah, it does suck that shift from 5th to 7th and the motor lugging. But it's fun at 80k to start off in 1st, go to 3rd, then 5th, then 7th, then 10th, then 11th and finally 12th, although sometimes it does skip 10th.

And yet, I do it every day, probably 15 or 20 times a day, and always on the first press of the button.

Usually if my trailer brakes are frozen I beat them with a sledge before I try to move it. Anytime I think my trailer brakes might have an issue, I hit my hill hold override button. The times when I don't I just take off gently.

Yeah, I do love my power leash, especially in max mode when it drops two gears for max engine brake

So what your saying is the transmission is smarter than you and you need retrained. Got it. Oh, and I carry a repair kit to splice air lines.

 

And yet, last winter, I ran (as a company we ran 30 of them all in automatic trucks) 10 separate ISO containers (basically a shotgun tanker) each loaded between 44,000 and 46,000 from Denver to Casper without problem. Univar and several others are using automatic Pete's to haul tankers in the Denver area. I see a couple of the fuel haulers are now running automatics as well.

 

EXACTLY. 90% of those on here crying about auto's got their exp. driving one that was spec'd by a mega or Penske/Ryder/etc, the same has held true for those who bashed the autoshift's (although they do have serious issues). Go drive one properly spec'd, using a salesman that knows what they are doing, and it's night and day. Things aren't "locked" out. We recently hired a driver that came from a mega running a Mack with an M-drive, it was a fleet spec truck, bare basic M-drive trans, put it in drive and go, the Maxx brake was locked out, the Perf mode was locked out, it hit every hole from the basement on up, and it was castrated at 355 hp and 67 mph. He's shocked at the difference, the truck he drives for us, 455 hp, 75 mph, Maxx brake works, Perf mode works, a full gauge package. When he did his road test and saw how the truck was equipped, he told my boss no thanks. We asked why, he told them what he drove before, my boss laughed and told him to give it a try. Now, he's glad he tried it.

 

Wow! I didn’t know you and I drive the same truck with the same drivetrain doing the same type loads. Thanks for your insight, and I will immediately talk to my company about retraining me. Splice kit? What are you, a master mechanic? How impressive you know how to do that. Maybe you could post a YouTube video? For all of us who aren’t as smart as the auto transmission.

 

"Don't believe me, just ask Jimmy Haslam how well mega's keep track of their fuel"
Nice!

 

I get a laugh when I hear people all concerned with saving that extra drop of fuel with transmissions, computers and aerodynamics etc. yet the drivers idle their trucks for hours on end for no reason.