Auto Vs Manual

I don't care WHAT I'm driving, from as small as my lawn tractor up to my Mack, don't care if I'm pulling a trailer or not, or what kind of trailer or what is in the trailer. I prefer to shift the gears myself. I never have cared much for automatic transmissions in ANYTHING.

 

I'll die with a manual in my hand and bury me in it.

With that said, I was issued a auto my last year as a team. I went crazy for a while reaching to shift where there is nothing to shift either up or down. The rig computer was tuned just so by the engineers correctly shifting when I wanted to shift so that validates that part of auto.

Auto has failed us several times in that year when the software buffer filled up leaving the computer with no place to store anything and it would brick. Turn your rig into a tow call, loaded and all. Axles pulled out of the bogie drives to move it kind of deal. What a waste and loss of accounts we had on those several loads that cannot for whatever reason be delayed. So there is always that....

To be fair we are told to shut it down. We never did. Not for 220,000 miles in 306 days or so that year. It never shut down. Hot fueled every 24 to 30 hours and maybe once or twice to have a alternator replaced (We had a inverter which was used only when the alternator was displaying 15 volts at cruise on good roads.) Now...

With that said, fighting the winter ice in the rockies, that ####### automatic did a fantastic job, even under splitter and interlock on split ice under manual paddle control. But again I'll do a manual.

Edit, we have had three tractor jackknifes on ice and no time to do anything with the auto to manual paddle. None of that so there it was in auto wondering wtf we are trying to do while the drives slipped and tractor started coming round. Each time spouse (With me barking at her and once grabbing the wheel just so.. talk about breaking every rule...) or myself will wrestle the ##### back in line and the auto will take a moment and settle at whatever gear and rpm it was. None of that hunting around for a dumped gear or grinding.

For tanker work, I have hauled raw milk for a while early in my trucking which was outstanding for it's time either a Mack R body 5 speed with walker axles in the back for farm manuvering in difficult terrain (Some of which made a man out of me... especially when a trainer with a 13 speed double under diamond T got a hold of it) There are no baffles in the two tanks inside that trailer. So a manual is best at walking away from the light without making excessive trouble with that liquid.

I would not do tanker with auto. There are certain situations you need to be light on the shift or dig down and pull when the liquid gets just so it will make the auto go crazy. Then the tanker will get to misbehaving. You don't want that.

 

I drove automatic transmission pulling tankers, liquid and dry bulk. Ran 48 states and loved the automatic. If I planned to be an 0/0, would buy an automatic.

 

The new automatics are amazingly smooth if they are paired up to the correct engine. I hate backing with an auto, but over 5mph you barely feel the shift, you just hear the rpm change. Drove my 1st auto cascadia recently and was actually impressed, far improved compared to the auto centuries I experienced in 2010

 

Backing with a auto. he he he. I never said anything about that.

Here goes.

Put it into reverse, stand on clutch until it shakes into reverse, start marching back at idle knowing where exactly you gonna plant that trailer in one move. That is the least trouble.

Every pull up will cost you a few moments waiting for the tranny to shift foward or reverse while you stood on the clutch. shrugs.

 

@Thull is an example of a smart man. He has asked countless questions including a huge thread on right turns. You go my man. Your on to a very successful career.

Keep up the good work. Don't forget to thank the few who run thus site for your accomplishments!!!

 

None of the newer autos I've seen driven had a clutch pedal... just set the toggle to drive or reverse and go. Hated backing though, the cascadia wouldn't engage reverse @ idle! You had to rev it to about 850-900 before it would grab, really sucked in some of the docks I hit daily.

 

Yeah that sucks about auto-shifts, but at least you can back up. I've had plenty of newbies come up to me and ask if I can back their rig into a dock, usually a tight one with trailers on both sides. I used to do it for free, but I ask for a couple of bucks nowadays. Times are tough and a driver has to make a living.

 

You understand that if your auto-shift is not under warranty that its going to cost you a small fortune to repair it, correct?