Automated Tranny Pros and Cons

That'll go to his head

 

Have not seen their posts.
Must travel in different threads.

 

Thread on pros and cons. I've yet to hear any pros that would motivate me to buy and automated manual

 

Nah, don't overrate me. I just have my moments every now and then.

 

I won't claim that LOL. Maybe 'olhand.

I don't have a terrible dislike for an auto, but right now I wouldn't buy a truck equipped with one.

I rented a new T680 a while back with the MX-13 and auto 10 speed. It has the same problem as a manual 10, in that the spread between the gears is really too great IMO. Hooking a trailer and docking wasn't super smooth, but I could see it getting better with practice. Same with slow and go traffic. I didn't seem to ever find the right gear. Manual selection helped, I'm sure with practice I could feather the throttle to make it do what I want.

My main complaint was the slow shifting, even with an empty trailer. Part of my ride was making a left turn onto a 4-lane divided with 55 mph traffic. By the time it had shifted twice and blocking the first set of lanes, my manual 13 would already be completing the turn and into high range gears.

IMO automated manuals will never perform like a hand shift until they widely adopt the dual clutch design like what's found in some cars. Gears are pre-selected with the spare clutch, and the shifts snap even faster than floating a manual. I have one in a '12 VW Passat and it's the best automatic I've ever driven.

 

One thing about the "automated manuals" is that if you go a fair distant at different speeds without a stop, you can forget that you need to push in the clutch when stopping. I had a couple stalls when I first got mine.

...and I should add that with 2050lb/ft of torque, that is unpleasant.

 

Passive regeneration is better for all involved. 

The XE will cruise at any rpm above 1050 in 12th gear which is 60 mph and above. It will downshift to 11th to pick up speed but will upshift to 12th on flat land. Between 57-59 mph it will allow cruising in 11th when loaded to keep from lugging but you can manually upshift and it will downshift if it senses a power need and will stay in 11th. At 56 mph and below it won't allow an upshift to 12th because that will allow a sub 1000 rpm cruise speed.

 

Well, the bit about the EGTs, I'd be a little skeptical of, since the soot is burned off by combustion of diesel fuel which is sprayed into the exhaust, and that system can adjust the fuel flow in accordance with the air intake accordingly... wouldn't rule out the possibility of the aftertreatment system having some interaction there with the automatic transmission, though I'm not entirely certain to what end, other than to keep the RPMs up to decrease the soot load.