A note to the anti-auto crowd

The only automated trucks I have driven in that jerked was when there was a problem.
I cant believe they are meant to work that way.
I know on the ZF (Freedomline) that there are 2 little clutches much like a clutch brake behind covers in the gearbox.
These are accessible via the gearbox bell housing.
If you get water in the gearbox the friction material comes loose and you get jerky slow shifts.
When you change a clutch just change them as well.
We have change a couple at about 500 000 miles.

 

Would you guys ever have to wade through deep water on your runs to more remote places?

 

Hey scania still got a head ache? I went to work with my 18 speed and missed all the fun. Your alright with me !!

 

Eh i am set in my ways for now one day might import that 800 horse v8. Scania when i am a millionaire....

 

Haha , Ahh yeah I do but seriously thinking of going getting a cure! Better leave the phone outa reach tonight or I'll be kicked off the forum, cheers mate take it easy, safe driving.

 

No we try keep out of the water here , maybe 2ft at the most.
There are things that can eat you in the water here a lot of the time.

We had a few problems with the aluminium heat exchanges on the retarders.
They would leak coolant in to the gearboxes.
ZF did a recall and replaced them with stainless.
I had to pay for mine as I bought the trucks 2nd hand.
The water also steamed a bit of moister in to the shift units that caused a bit of fun and 1 computer failure.
We only found out about the internal shaft breaks about a month later when the shifts got slow and jerky.
Worst was when it wanted to up-shift on a hill.
It would disengage the lower gear wanting to shift up.
The little internal breaks normally break the corresponding shaft for a quick engagement in to the higher gear.
Now with the friction material missing the shaft takes to long to slow and by the time the gear can engage you have lost to much speed for that gear.
The computer now tries a double down shift often with the same sort of result.
It is a cheap easy fix if the gearbox is out.

 

I haven't broken anything doing that yet. Common sense, I can see how that can get in the way, but on flat ground you would be suprised what they can do. The highest gear I ever took off in without slipping the clutch at 76,000 lbs was 5 HI. It didn't want to, but it did. Under normal conditions I take off in 2 LOW. This is on an 18 speed by the way.

 

I've driven a 2000 pete with an 18 autoshift and an 06 KW with 10 speed autoshift. That 18 was a beast. Even as old as it was, with a bit of tweaking to the computer it would have shifted as close to perfect as you could get. It got a little confused out in the fields but you could pull out at 94,000lbs, hit resume on the cruise, and hang on for the ride, jakes barking and skipping gears all the way up to speed. I'd drive one of those again.

The 10 speed was a dog. Engine turned down so the shift points were all thrown off, not enough gears, and it shifted hard with the jerking you guys were talking about. I found it shifted best when I took my foot off the throttle when it went out of gear for a second, made it a lot smoother.

I've also driven some volvo automatics from the 90's and an 01 FL60 with an auto but those are best never spoken of again. They worked ok, the FL60 worked better (pulled the front wheels off the ground towing my caddy) but only until the transmission blew out. Then after they were fixed, they worked pretty well until the transmission blew out. Repeat indefinitely. And the FL60 was brand new. Tranny lasted about 3 weeks.

 

Good god don't, if you become a millionaire stay away from trucks, they're a money pit, buy yourself a nice car instead and a couple of fast bikes, get yourself a wannabe model of some sort that wants a sugardaddy and while you're lying on your yacht she brings u ice cold beer and provides ' services ' , that's a better plan than an 800hp scania

What's the situation there regarding importing vehicles?

 

Something i figured out farmin scania though if i ever quit truckin, i wouldn't have much left to compete for time.....