Automatic transmissions

My company has the Allison 6 speed it is great for in the city but falls short in the mountains / long haul. 6 gears leave to much of a step between shifts which hurts the fuel economy and you can not hold a higher gear only force it down a gear. The TC 10 may solve these issues but was not available at kenworth and freight liner when I checked in March. I was told that the fuel economy was not up to scratch by Kenworth.

 

I have a '14 Volvo 780 with the I-Shift transmission and love it. I will not go back to a manual transmission. This transmission will sense the load you are under and start in the highest practical gear and then skip shift up to 10th gear. It will run 65 mph at 1100 rpms and can run in 11th all day if you are operating below 60 mph. When going down grade, set the cruise at the speed you want and the truck will keep it within 3 mph. I thoroughly enjoy driving more now because of the automated transmission.

 

I love the cruise brake feature. Specially if you have the premium shifter you will have the option for economy or performance. In performance it will down shift earlier in the hills and hold the gear longer before upshifts. If you keep the cruise speed and cruise brake speed 3 mph apart you can use the Eco-Roll feature. The transmission will go in neutral and the engine speed to idle and you are just coasting down the road. It is a bit funny until you are used to it.

I am on a run right now that has 19 drops in CA and 6 of them were in downtown L.A. I would never want to drive a manual in these kind of circumstances again. I have done about 90,000mls on the I-Shift so far and in my book it is better than sliced bread.

 

On the I shift it is next to the seat do you get hung up on it when you go to the sleeper

 

Not sure about the first ones, but I believe the newer ones have a "fold-down" position on the shifter. I'll defer to those that have them.

 

I love my eaton auto in my KW700
I proved I could shift in 1972 in a 2 stick autocar dumptruck

the same thing was said in 1978 about power steering
people said it was bad and wouldn't last
no one likes change

 

The early Volvo auto-transmissions were crap. It looks like they really got it right with the I-Shift! I'm interested in driving the Volvo along with the Evolution's new DT12 tranny.

 

It does fold down but takes a little getting use to, but I wouldn't trade mine for the world. I can do 2 13 hr days here to Windsor ont, and feel fresh, truck is smooth, quiet,and easy to drive. I've done the long hood, big cat, super trucker 18 sp thing, been there, done that, sold the tshirt, I love comfortable, and quiet now, very thing at your fingertips, lots of space, huge fridge, workstation, all the comforts!

 

Hows the fuel economy with the i-shift? I'm usually 65k plus with mountain passes. I'm looking at a new truck, since mine can't go to california in 6 months.

 

I drove for Maverick my first year otr. The truck was a new 07 with an Ultrashift auto. I loved the auto and have missed it ever since. The problem I had was with backing. Most of the time it was fine, but if you were backing up even a slight include...loaded...especially while at an angle like backing up hill into a parking spot... it would start jerking and jumping and sometimes even shutdown. I would literally have to shut the engine down and let the ecm reset before it would move an inch.

I've never really known if that was driver error or just a trait of auto transmissions. What are your experiences with this sort of thing in the autos? Are the newer autos better at backing up grades?