Automatic vs. Standard

I had an Eaton 10speed autoshift with clutch petal on my Freightliner FL112, with CAT 430 hp.. It was fantastic. After bout 2 miles of either bobtailing or pulling, the tranny adjusted to meet the necessary shift points. I will admit, I have never driven a shifting truck, and never will due to my disability(one arm). Only issue i am having is finding a GOOD company to drive for with enough autoshift just incase slipseating is necessary. Hope I find some soon.

 

So you don't lose power when your trying to pull a heavy load up and down hills?

 

I have a automatic "smart shift" & i wouldn't go back to a standard. I have been in this racket for 39 yrs. At first when they gave me my new truck with the automatic i was a little reluctant but now i love it & i run the mountains with no problems .I will admit when backing up to a dock you always have to keep pressure on the throttle, other than that it's great.

 

Our toterhome has an Eaton 10 speed autohsift but it starts in 2nd ALL the time, which is just ridiculous for something like... 8 tons at the max. What's the deal with that?

 

On my Eaton 10 speed, yes it also started in 2nd, except when i had it in Low Manual. I was pulling an 48 foot 18GWN gooseneck trailer and never ever felt a loss of pulling power.

 

I personally am very pleased with the one we just added on. Fuller 10 spd auto shift.
It took a little getting used to, but so far so good, already seeing a big improvement in mpg.

I feel that is way to go. Especially with traffic volumes increasing, the such, It frees up the other hand, and I am noticing that I am not as wore out at the end of the day. All pluses in my opinion.

 

For Control Panal style Eaton Fuller Tranny's:
On your shifter control panal, you should have some arrows pointing up and down. Us the arrows and see if it will let you shift into other gears. It all depends on how the manufacture per-programmed the thing. I had some that would allow you to start in 5th gear, others that would allow you to start in 3rd gear, others in 2nd, and 1st. If you want, you can go to your local dealer, and have them adjust that perameter on your tranny to allow you to start in higher gears.

For T-Bar style Eaton Fuller Tranny's:
Same as above, but on the side of the T-Bar should be 2 buttons. One for up, the other for down. Try those and see if it will allow you start in another gear. It should...

Most Eaton Auto/Ultra trannys were setup as a baseline for 2nd gear (1st for ultra) and then you could select from there based on your load.

 

lapurr-have both, rig is standard,yard dump is auto. Maybe you could help. Dump is IH 2574 10 speed auto from eaton. tee bar handle. monitor is on dash. First,after shifting in H mode I have to press the clutch as hard as I can just to get in gear.I don't use auto because with a load of sand on any kind of grade she will not go to the next gear. I have start in 2 again and try to move. Sometimes she will go into error and the chime will not stop till it resets. only 92k on truck. if I go from reverse back to 3 the arrows will not go away till press the clutch almost out the floor. it is the only tran I ever had to really learn to drive. can you help Mike-Z

 

As far as pushing the clutch thru the floor, it could be 2 things. The clutch brakes on Auto's seem to wear faster. This is mainly because the computer wont accept anything but a dead stop, and as a clutch brake gets some wear on it, even minor wear, it can sometimes take longer, if ever, to actually get the clutch to stop. The other possibility is that the sensor (cant remember where it is off the top of my head) that reads the input shaft, and output shaft, speed is not getting a good signal off the magnetic (exciter ring) as to what the actual speed of these 2 items are.

Also, not knowing what year your IH is (seeing they quit that model line in 2003 I think), I am making a guess with the next. Eaton had some really big communication issues early on with the Auto-Shift, and RJ1939 data link connections. If yours is built before 1998, it could just need some updating to the internal firmware, or other such items.

Another thing that I really hated the Eaton models for.. Computers have their own language, just like you and me.. With dialects, and accents. Well Eaton and Detroits speak the some language, and I always seemed to have fewer problems with a Eaton and Detroit mated up. Now Cummins and Eaton speak 2 completely different languages. And the breakdown of communication has been known to happen with these. Not sure about Cat, International, or Volvo engines. Never got to spend much time with them.

 

that RJ link is still an issue on some Mack's and Volvo's. Every so often mine ('09 model) will throw the code related. I agree, autoshifts are hard on clutch brakes, seems every year we have to adjust my clutch cable to get it working right again. Although, I did get 650K out of my last autoshifts clutch brake before it failed completely. The other issue, the manufacturers seem to not be able to tighten bolts worth a ####. Mine was 4 months old when the bolts backed out and the clutch brake came loose. Two of our other trucks have had the same thing happen.