Automatic vs manual transmissions

Don't stress about the autos.

Just make sure you have a manual paddle and mode to work the mountains and winter weather in.

Do not join a company that deliberately configures your transmission to where it's a rolling death trap for you or for the two dozen families around you on the interstate. If you find a company that has configured a transmission and tractor to where you don't get to do a #### thing or make any meaningful decisions as caption of the ship, QUIT.

And god help you if you discover you have a 10 speed Road ranger mated to a POS 310 HP Cummins for fuel savings and told you will be running Cabbage today. You will quit very soon. Trust me.

 

I had to trade tractors with a fellow worker, his is an auto matic, but the freakin thing has on the dash, a warning your too close ahead, your over the line on the right or left, freakin things drove me nuts. No take off power. just keep your foot to the floor.

 

I realize the trucking world is going automatic and it totally freaks me out. I've driven a couple automatics and it just pisses me off. Constantly reaching for a shifter and clutch that isn't there. The ones I drove had the paddles but I was utterly confused how to work that to my benefit. I looked like an idiot just pulling into the streakin beacon because it was ... jerky because I couldn't control it with a clutch.

#### they're so doggy, too. I definitely could've gotten up to speed much better with a manual.

Sorry that is no answer to your questions.... I'm sure there's a learning curve, but my stubborn ### doesn't want to learn it.

Call me a perpetually "stoopid" "mouth breather," but "fingertrip" control of a truck isn't really what I'm interested in.

 

Maybe someday you’ll learn that the computer can run the drivetrain better than you can. Obviously, I can also run it better than you, (type doesn’t matter). We all start somewhere.

The drivers job is steering & braking. Always has been. All it’s ever been.

The mouth-breathers are the ones who can’t account for — and thus predict — what’s going on around them. Fail to anticipate, and fail to act accordingly.

Here’s the test: on a rural Interstate, ever find yourself completely surrounded by other vehicles? That’s the guy in the meme, “Can’t fix stupid”.

They then expect the truck to save them from themselves. Hell, they even start the day that way.

The better the driver, the easier the transition. On a Detroit DT12. The rest (except Volvo) ain’t worth it.

I get tired of the Dirt Drivers cutting around me and slowing. And then all their relatives catch up and do the same. Fill both lanes, jammed together.

No one behind me for a mile.

So, before that coalesces: Cancel cruise. Glide down 10-mph. When the gap is 500’, re-engage.

Think your fingers can deal with that?

Modern trucking ain’t automatics, it’s millions of barely humans crowding the roads with inadequate or non-existent visuo-spatial & abstract reasoning skills.

An auto like this DT12 w/triple disc makes it easier to protect your record. The “why this is so” you need to figure out.

Man trans has become niche applications. Drums should have disappeared two decades ago.

 

Yes it is.

 

The new DT12 is a much better than the older systems. It has three modes, economy, performance and manual.
Not a perfect system, it takes a while for it to learn some things. It has a load sensing function. So going from loaded to empty can be interesting sometimes.
Backing is much better with the DT12, it will crawl when needed, just like a manual.
As far as winter driving, not going to be a problem.
The economy and performance modes adjust the shift points. It really is just RPM ranges.

The jake in high setting will put you in the windshield.
Usually drops 2 gears and will spin up the engine to 2000 to a max of 2300 RPM.

The one thing I am most not liking is the coasting.
The transmission will go into neutral, and coast the truck.
Tap the trottle and it will kick back into gear.

It is more a finess system, you get a lot of results with very little throttle adjustments. They are not race cars, they take a bit to get wound up. When up to speed they do good.

 

I drove sticks for 20+ combined years and had to move to an auto last year. I was just like the OP ... avoided them as long as I could. But the transition wasn't bad. Hills and snow/ice just weren't the problem I thought they would be, but a suppose a LOT has to do with how they are configured in your fleet. I can tell you our [2018's] DT12's behind a 505hp Detroit works really well.

I read so much bad information posted here from people who either

• just don't know WTH they're talking about
• conflate perimeter safety devices with automatic transmission
• have only driven older generation autos
• have only driven poorly configured autos
• have only driven autos with weak power plants

A lot of improvements are made each year with them. But from what I can gather, the Detroit auto is competing with the much-acclaimed Volvo autos and may well have Volvo beat in terms of performance and function [when well configured].

All that said, I'd happily go back into a 13 or 18 stick, otherwise, I prefer the auto I'm presently in. (I'm done with lame, doggy 10 speeds) I deal with bad traffic situations just as much as the next guy, but I don't find the autos to be all that great in stop-go traffic. I can take them or leave them as far as that goes.

 

I like my DT-12. Drivers seem to forget the basic idea of not using the engine brake in bad weather.

The engine brake will give you maximum braking power from 75mph all the way down to 15 mph or something. This it what drivers don't understand. In stage 3 it will never give up ! As the trucks slows it will keep dropping gears to keep the engine RPMs 1700-2300 for MAXIMUM braking. It will never stop or give up, it will keep slowing the truck and keep dropping gears till you turn it off.

Stage 2 and 1 are like 1200-1700 RPMs just less braking power. So drive are turning the engine brake on slippery roads(when they should not) then freak out when the transmission drops a gear and cranks up the RPMs. Because they did not ask it to drop a gear or expect that to happen. Then they feel like they have no control over the transmission.

So now you will be going downhill with engine RPMs 1200-2300 and 1700-2200 is normal and that why the computer wiil drop 2 gears. You just use the regular brakes to stop from rolling past 2400 RPMs


Their is also a special down hill mode. This will hold the truck at any speed you want down to 30mph. This will tell the transmission to hold the gear or speed you want. You turn on the cruise control, then you turn on stage 1 engine brakes (the computers will probably drop a gear and raise the engine RPMs at this point). Then you use the regular brakes and slow the truck down to any speed you want. Now the fun part ! You take your foot off the brakes and set the cruise control.

The transmission will do all the work now and automatically switch between stage 1-3 to hold the truck at the speed you set. You will be going downhill without needing to touch the brakes at 2200 RPMs

 

I agree with all this. Stage 3 is very aggressive with downshifting and keeping RPMs above 2,000, but it's a good setup. if you want to initiate enhanced braking, just pull the stalk all the way down to stage 3, and let it drop 2 or 3 gears, then move to stage 2 for a smoother, less radical downshifting down to the bottom of the ramp.

The stone age dinosaurs here will read this and call us "idiots who don't know how to drive and are going to kill others and tear up equipment" but I frankly don't care. I'm done listening to those who have no experience with this technology telling me it doesn't work. They can live in the past if they want. Nothing wrong with sticks and clutches and lack of technology, but there's mostly nothing wrong with current technology either. If you invest in poor technology or don't know how to use it, that's on you.