AMT vs. Fluid drive autos

You can put an Allison in pretty much any highway truck you want. I know of a fleet in BC that tried them and loved them pulling tandem and tri_axle vans through the mountains. Don't know if they are still doing it as I heard the fuel economy may not of been good enough.
I think the modern Allisons are better on fuel since the addition of lock up torque converters and electronics to stop the drag when sitting at a light.
This fellow has one: Tri axle western star dump with DD-13

 

Yup. The newer allisons can drag 80,000lbs down the road. Most all the tri axle dumps are running them around here. My mechanic really thinks they are the bee knees. Boy does talk them thing up. Lol

 

Allison has the TC10 for highway trucks. Not all OEMs offer it though. It’s 10 speeds with a .86 overdrive and has 4 models, an 80k, two 90k models, and one rated for 110k gross. I’m seriously considering one in the future when that time comes around again.

 

There's an oilfield service company that runs a ton of 6 speed Allisons on 8 axles grossing up to 105500 here in ND. I ran one in a '15 Western Star, never gave me any problems. They make a 10 speed auto now as well. The company I work for now has a few DT12s, and the couple times I drove one, it seemed to work nicely. They have a creep mode that I think slips the clutch. The guys that drive them regularly dont seem to mind them too much.

 

You obviously haven't driven some of the current generation autos. They get better every year, and the difference between autos of 2014 and autos of 2018-19 is like night and day. But granted, some companies don't configure them properly or keep them updated (software), but that's no excuse to trash the entire hardware segment.

Some applications will NEVER be well suited to autos. But typical OTR or city work? Don't knock it until you've tried a new generation auto that's not trashed with poor fleet feature programming.

 

I'm not a mechanic. I can't speak with authority on this subject. However I wonder if maybe one reason the auto shifts are used is simply because at their heart they are just "manuals". A true automatic transmission has many more moving parts AND can be a bear to rebuild. Something tells me autoshifts are easier on the bank accounts during their liftime. My Chevy S10 Pickup I finally sold a few years ago gave me a transmission problem. It was a 1995 manual 5 and orphaned when it come to spare parts. I finally took it to a transmission shop and had it rebuilt. Took about 2 days. Like I said, I don't know, but I expect it comes down to money!

 

TC10

 

I think there are a number of reasons that combine to create a choice that's hard not to make. For typical OTR fleets with no specific demands ...

• More new drivers are coming in with poor shifting skills and/or CDL restrictions
• Slightly to greatly better average MPG. Even just a 0.2 MPG improvement means millions $'s saved in fuel costs each year for a medium to large fleet
• Much improved hill descent engine braking, reducing wear on service brakes. (Autos are allowed to far exceed RPM limits in downshift operations versus RPM limits of manual trucks, especially when the engine and tranny are working truly in unison, and engineered for one-another as is the case with Detroit and a few other truck component combinations of late)
• No weight increase
• Better trade-in value given the current trajectory of the industry
• No clutch maintenance requirements. Most new generation autos will never have any maintenance issues before trade
• Most drivers prefer them if an honest poll is taken of drivers who've driven both [recently].
• More attention can be paid to other driving functions, especially for new drivers who struggle with stick shift operations
• You can eat a corn dog and safely approach an on-ramp at the same time.

 

Allisons seem pretty big and bulky. At least the older ones were.