auto transmissions

Well I'm glad to see your getting advice from people who havn't a clue. My previous truck, '00 Mack CH had an eaton/Fuller Autoshift with clutch. When we traded in the truck it 978K on the original engine/trans. The clutch lasted 670K and was replaced only because the clutch brake gave up the ghost. The shop suspected that the clutch itself still probably had at least another 100K on it, the company told them to replace it anyhow to save on downtime (Eaton has reported clutch life 1 million miles on Autoshift equipped trucks). During the first 3 yrs we had problems with the shift motors, that turned out to be a supply chain problem with Eaton (lowest bidder situation using cheap crappy material). In the first 3 yrs we replaced shift motors every 6 mos, after that we didn't replace them until about 4 mos. before the truck was traded off.

Once you get used to it, they are great, you have to be smarter then the computer, you can see what the road and traffic are doing and adjust accoridngly. Yeah, the jake ssucked on it. We also have 10 days cabs (between 300K and 400K miles) with the same autoshift tranny. Only one has had any type of major problems and that was from driver abuse which led to a premature failure of one of one of the gears.

My '09 Mack Pinnacle is also an Eaton/Fuller autoshift (with clutch pedal), so far 117K with zero problems, my jake brake works excellent, hell bobtailing it'll put me through the windshield if I forget to turn it off. As far as what people are complaining about, hell I see driver with manuals having the exact same issues.

Contrary to popular belief you can rock an autoshift when stuck, it take s patience and skill. My old truck did not have a 3rd gear start, 2nd was the highest I could start in, in 8.5 yrs I got it stuck twice in the snow where I couldn't get it out by rocking it. Once required a slight tug to get me moving, the other time required a HD wrecker and 100ft of cable to get me out of a snowbank. My current truck has 3rd gear start, so far I've gotten out of everything I've gotten into except one situation where the trailer was stuck so bad it had to wait 4 days til the ground thawed enough to get it out.

Since I run Colorado, Wyo. and Montana with it, always heavy loads, all seasons I'm in the Mtn's with it at least once a week and never have any problems. I spend most of my time with mine in Manual (hold) mode which allows me more control over it. I'v enever had a problem with backing, hooking, etc.. There is one local dirt hualing company that are in the process of replacing all 75 of their tractors with one's equipped with autoshifts.

From reading some of the comments, I guess some people just don't have patience for new technology. Especially since most people don't realize that the autoshift trannies are the exact same as a manual tranny. In fact, the first generation Eaton/Fuller's could be swapped from auto to manual in about 3 hrs by removing the shift tower, shift motors, and putting a stick in their place and changing a couple of settings on the main computer.


By comparison, we have two '04 Freighshakers with MB engines, 9 spd Eaton's. Both have about 500K on them, one already had it's clutch replaced and the tranny pulled and rebuilt (and no it wasn't a rookie driver, he has 20+ yrs and well over 2 million miles), the other one is ready for a clutch as well.

 

Well I'll put it this way. If auto's are so great. Then way do the majority of companies not only don't have but don't want them?

 

companies are starting implement them. I forget the fleets, but there are a couple that have gone totally auto shift and more are starting to implement them. The first generation auto-shifts were known for lots of problems, but each year since they have gotten better. One of the local heavy hual companies has two Mack Titans with an 18spd autoshift that they regularly hual upwards of 140,000 lbs with and no problems at all.

 

It is a sign of coming of age, It will not be long before the autoshift takes over the industry, like it or not it's going to happen. The Truck and Automotive industries have federal mandates for safety and pollution which will require tighter controls on how engines are used in conjunction with the torque/powerband.

Personally I like a manual shift trans, but my Dads last W-900 used a C-16 600 hp CAT with a 18 speed auto-shift (Had a Clutch Pedal for stop / start) and he really liked it. That truck would just cruise no matter what.....

 

I'm afraid PJ that you are right. It is a sad fact of to many wimps who's legs hurt when they have to use the clutch.

 

My legs never hurt when I DID drive a 13. I shifted that 13 just like the autoshift - float the gears.

 

I can and still do on occasion drive a manual, it has nothing to do with my legs hurting. But you sound like one of my co-workers. He quit the company for five years and then came back, they bought him and another guy '03 Visions with auto-shifts. Both of them used to whine about how terrible they were, how much they sucked, how bad they were on snow, ice, in the mtns, etc. By that point I had been driving mine 3 yrs, so that let me drive each of these trucks for a week in the Mtn's to see what was wrong with them. The only issue was with the engine/tranny not working properly because of the first generation emissions. This was a common problem across the Mack line, and was not limited to the auto-shift trucks.

After a year they got rid of both and bought Columbia's with MB engines and 9spd, which are the biggest POS I've ever seen. The one Columbia was totaled back in Feb. and because of the economy has not been replaced, but the guy is forced to drive an auto-shift daycab now. For the first 2 months he #####ed every day, for the last 8 months, haven't heard a peep out of him ######## about it, in fact he finally had to break down and admit that while he still wants his manual back, he enjoys the auto-shift.

The other guy, who threatened to quit if he was ever given another auto-shift, was forced to drive my new truck for 5 days in June while I was off and his was in the shop. All he did was ##### about how bad it sucked, when asked what sucked, his only response "the whole thing". On the third day my boss rode with him for a few hours to see what sucked. What sucked was him as a driver, they had to clear 9 different trans. related codes from the digital display that were all caused by driver error. When they tried to explain to him what he was doing wrong, he threatened to quit over it.

I guess you old timers will just have to admit that your afraid of change, and afraid of new things. It's a fact of life this is what the next generation of innovation is, things change and change for a reason. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad, but often the bad is worked out and makes it better. As I stated to someone in a different post about the auto-shifts, given the choice, I would learn to drive a manual first, get some exp. and then drive an auto-shift if that's what the company gives you. You'll have exp. in both, and like riding a bicycle, you'll still remember how to drive a manual.