Auto Tranny

I have an autoshift, not a true automatic.. But I just hit the "Low" button. It will only allow the trans to downshift, not upshift..

 

I work for a company that now has the "Autoshift" transmissions which is to mean you only use the clutch when stopping and starting. I personally hate them. Basically we run very heavy loads usually gross 78 - 80k always. What i have found is use your jake brake on high and mostly just brake normal as you would. However the trans has a manual button that you use to shift it manually like in the mountains or whatever. downshift a little early and use jake brake on high and you'll be good to go. The worst part of the auto or autoshifts are they shift very sloppy at low speeds and rock the truck. The lighter your foot at takeoff the less jerky they are.

 

I drove a Volvo, and some Mack trucks with 'autoshifts', and from what I remember, they had a Hold position that would hold the gear. If you wanted to change gears while in Hold, there were Up and Down buttons. The Volvo had the shifter mounted in the floor on the right of the drivers seat. The Macks had a swing arm attached to the drivers seat with the same kind of shifter. You moved the shifter forward or backward, just like in some cars with automatics where the shifter is between the seats. However, in the trucks, there was no 'P" for park. Just R-N-D-H. Buttons on the side of the shift lever for Up and Down.
On Freightliners at the time, they had a paddle that was on the opposite side of the steering wheel from the turn signal lever. It stuck up to the right, in a kind of 2 o'clock position. It had a small button on the end of the paddle that you slid between r-n-d, and you could push the paddle forward to downshift, and pull up on it to upshift.

 

I have driven a Freightliner and a Volvo with the two pedal (no clutch) 'auto-shift' and both handled downhills great. The Freightliner had the manual up/down button to allow you to downshift and hold the gear that you need. The Volvo works great with just the engine break. Depending on how steep the decline is, I just set the engine break to the correct strength setting and it will keep me steady 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time I simply downshift manually and it will hold that gear until you touch the accelerator. If you go immediately into another decline just touch the manual downshifter on the steering column and it will put you back into the gear you downshifted to previously (if you manually downshifted 2 gears, when you tough the shifter it will sense a similar downgrade and automatically downshift 2 gears). It is much more difficult to explain than it is to do -- and on most downhill grades I never need to touch my brakes.