Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

"M" for Mountain Mode
{ right @5speed }

 

90% of the time we are on dry flat land. If one needs more control, manual mode.

So I will gladly trade a few days of extra caution for the driving in construction or city traffic without the hassle of a clutch.

But it's always good to have diversity in debate.

 

LOL, yes sir

 

I agree and having never driven an automatic, I'm not qualified to debate the differences. It's just when I read folks saying it goes (or can go) into "free wheeling" when going down hills that makes me nervous. If there's a way to control them better through this "manual mode" when needed, it really sounds great.

As you say, I guess it depends on where you mostly drive too. When I ran for WS I'd have to "estimate" that I spent less than 30% of my time on flat dry roads. A lot of mountains, snow and rain filled most of my days.

I'd still want a Johnson bar though. ... lol

 

I agree. Having terminals in both SFS CA and Spokane WA, I'd sometimes get caught in that loop having to run between them for a couple weeks. Not fun at all. But I can say that just staying with the truck traffic in CA we'd mostly run at about 60 to 63 without worry. Not in OR or WA though. Double nickel the whole way!

Running in and out of CA (east west) wasn't too bad. The bridge law never bothered me much. For the most part the load weights were setup for it knowing we were going there.

 

Its just this truck that does that as it lacks the manual mode. The Volvo and KW weren't like that.

As it stands if I were to be offered a manual to replace this auto I wouldn't want to swap. The transmission otherwise is too good and the benefits of an auto far outweigh the negatives I posted.

I may feel differently this winter though. Having said that I was talking to a driver here yesterday who suggested a technique that might keep it in a lower gear. It will be a few days before I can try it though.

Johnson bar would be great when setting off from a stop uphill. The hill start assist thing works but makes some ugly sounding noises when it releases.

 

Ahhh .. I see. I must have missed that it was just your truck. Well I'm hoping to hear from Rusty next week and with any luck, I'll have a chance to find out what these autos are like to drive with soon.

Starting out on hills was never too bad. Just have to get that clutch grab right before coming off the break. I would "think" with an auto, you could just left foot the break pedal until ready to go? In any case, it will be interesting to find out.

I never used the Johnson bar in that way. It was for getting the rig straight again if the trailer started sliding to one side or the other going down steep hills in bad winter weather. That happened a couple times in my 2 years and being able to lightly apply just the trailer breaks first would help pull the rig straight. It can be a tad unnerving when you see your own trailer catching up to you. LOL

 

Oh man that sucks! Things like that can stay with ya for a long time. I've seen a few incidents that even after 4 years off the road come back to me at times.

 

Yup