Automated Tranny Pros and Cons

Okay, totally different from the one I was thinking of. I was thinking of the ones you used to see on most of Werner's trucks.

Yeah, we got that cleared up. But they both had the saving grace of being able to be converted to a full manual transmission. Used to see it a lot with used Werner trucks, as Fleet Truck Sales was pretty popular back when they sold the trucks still within warranty (~300k or so, IIRC).

 

Video showcasing the automated tranny in real life working scenes--

 

Good job pagan22, Glad to see you want to learn how to drive a MANUAL Trans. In the long run you will be making more money than a lot of people that cant drive and have to have the auto trans. Many doors will open for your quality driving skills. Big money for Manual Trans drivers, Chump change for autos, that cant drive. I know a lot of companies in Chicago land that run manuals, and you can start on the bottom making about $22.00 per hour, and climb from there.

 

I was at a stop during the week and a couple of Spanish dudes were spotting all day and night. Many dents and bends on one of the trucks. Talked to one of them, and they have been spotting for about 10 years. I watched them and these guys can blind side backing within seconds in between trailers with no problem, they were great. put them on the road for another 5 years and you have a couple of QUALITY drivers on the road.

 

I drove one of the frieghtshaker daycabs with that automatic, hated it, still love my M-drive works much smoother.

 

I got up this morning and the first few miles a light on the dash was flashing Check Trans. I pulled over and turned truck off then back on and no problems rest of the day.

Another annoying thing about it is, say coming down a downgrade but not steep enough to touch the brakes, just want to 'let 'er drift' like the signs say around Auburn on I-80 coming into California, let off the go pedal and try to let er drift, the tranny wants to downshift aggressively so then it is time to go back to work and touch the go pedal again.

in a regular tranny, it is nice to pull your foot back in those situations and let er drift and let your foot and leg drift too. The auto needs constant attention.

Caught it a couple times in top gear going down the hills, I go to push the paddle to downshift from 13 to 12 and boom the tranny was about to downshift too evidently because it went from 13 to 10 screaming the rpm's up. So then I have to pull the paddle up to upshift it. It did a great job though we went down 55+ mph's which in my truck I wouldn't let it get out of the 45 mile per hour gear going down the same hill so in that sense, we get down faster, less fatigue on the driver.

Oh and here's another backing video from today, runs pretty smooth in reverse now that we have come to an understanding.

 

See, that is the problem with that Freightliner trans, the two days I spent driving it, and the week we had it and my coworkers drove it, none of us liked it, we liked the gear shift placement, that was it.

 

To each his own, but in the video the guy is complaining about the sensitivity of backing with the auto. He says he is in R1, which IIRC is reverse low.
Again, IIRC, my truck with the same Smart Shift defaults to R2.

Just sayin', but my low gears are extremely sensitive to "feather". I so far have not had a use for them and I program the tranny to start in 3rd or 4th at least.

 

The pros about driving an automatic.
You get to drive an auto.

The cons.
You don't know how to drive a stick. Makes finding jobs easier for US that CAN drive a stick. As we're a dieing breed.

Yep, I landed a local job. Because they couldn't find anyone that could drive a stick.