Are Meritor transmissions harder to shift or is it my truck?

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by ronron85, Aug 26, 2012.

  1. Largecar359

    Largecar359 Road Train Member

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    Meritor is a decently built trans for the price. But they are kind of a fleet tranny in my opinion. Sometimes if you change out the plastic pieces on the shifter and on the bottom of the shift tower they become easier to float your shifts. The plastic flexes which makes it feel like you need to apply more pressure to take it out of gear. Even then though it won't shift like an eaton.
     
  2. Fester69

    Fester69 Light Load Member

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    Just got done in orientation with a tanker co and my truck has a 10 sp meritor. Drove a couple with trainers and itf is much pickier than the Eaton. Found that if you push the shifter towards neutral before you get outa the gas it will pop right out of gear for you most of the time. Seems I can almost float smoother than double clutch, which is the exact opposite of how it was in my old truck with the eaton. Hopefully I can figure it out to the point it looks like I know what Im doing. But I dont expect that to happen real quick.
     
  3. AZtrucker171

    AZtrucker171 Bobtail Member

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    Straight 10 Meritor in my FLD. I personally love it... Drove a Columbia and a Century with Eatons. Those felt sloppy, where mine feels precise... You do something wrong, it'll tell you.. But when you get it right, it's like butter. Click-Click. Love it, guess I'm the only one. Ha!
     
  4. mattbnr

    mattbnr Road Train Member

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    I just drove a freightliner with the 10 speed meritor in it for the last 3 days as my reg truck was in the shop. Hard as hell to float. I had to double clutch it most of the time to get it to do what I wanted.
     
  5. yotaman

    yotaman Light Load Member

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    Don't know what the problem is. I have a 9 speed meritor in my 91 peterbilt If it shifted any easier you could call it an automatic. floating is a breeze.:yes2557:
     
  6. 25(2)+2

    25(2)+2 Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    I drove 9 and 10 directs with Meritors and liked them other than a reman that was tough to break in. After a month it was great, just like the others, but I couldn't shift fast the first bit to save my life, it was winter, and the only way to rock out of being stuck was to let it roll back and try again.


    I started with them, mostly, and Eatons seemed strange when I got into them.

    The Spicer 10 was much worse, they called it the 'Rock Crusher' and it was used mostly on certain Internationals.
     
  7. yotaman

    yotaman Light Load Member

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    Oh yeah, when I bought this truck I had never shifted a meritor before, least not that I could remember anyway,shifted it just like an eaton, piece of cake...
     
  8. bigdad7

    bigdad7 Road Train Member

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    Five years with a meritor it feels like butter now i jumped into an eaton 13 and i,m definitely not as graceful as i was with my 1.5 mil meritor
     
  9. captain1703

    captain1703 Bobtail Member

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    I had a loaner that had the meritor 10 and found if you don't over rev it comes out of neutral easier and while floating the gears to go a bit slower between the gears compared to the eaton and it will shift just as easy.
     
  10. bbauer

    bbauer Bobtail Member

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    I dont like the meritor either, and I haven't been driving truck anymore than 2 days. I can already feel a difference between Eaton fuller, and the meritor. Also figured out I dont like mechanical clutches at all, I'd much rather be running with a hydraulic clutch pedal.