Bad news for manual lovers

Betcha a dollar that's an automatic...

 

Automakers will routinely "loan" vehicles to various places for testing purposes, so they can shake out problems, or learn something about situations they need to learn (see Volvo, above, loaning out trucks).

 

Troll harder.

 

I don't think I would like an auto. Shifting gears is part of driving a big truck. It's fun and I imagine it is easier to get the job done being able to control the truck and feel your way though whatever situation you find yourself engaged in. I haven't been on the road in some time, but I remember everyone who had an auto complained about it and several took them back for manuals. I had one tell me it almost caused him to wreck in inclement weather. I don't know about them now, but I would rather have a manual.

 

I don't have any inherent bias to an over the road automatic class 8 truck, at least I don't think I do. However, I have been using the Allison automatic on all wheel drive ex military trucks for off road applications since they started to come out in surplus a few years back. Frankly, nobody can stand them, and prefer the older rigs with the 5 speed tranny and the 2 speed transfer case. The main reasons are the lack of power taking off, and the reality that they are jerky at the stop, no matter how you drive it. Not very impressive. Here in the north, new trucks are not getting speced with autos, so it's going to be a long time before drivers need to forget how to drive a manual.

Another impression I have on this topic is that the last figures I saw for first year turnover rate at the big carriers was still over 90%. About a year ago there was a month where it topped 100%. So all those drivers who move on and don't exit the industry after being used by, say SWift, in a nice new truck with an automatic transmission go where? How are you going to get a job or even make an accurate claim to being a professional driver if you can't drive, haven't driven, a manual transmission? If you go to a training company with autos don't you still get a restriction on your CDL? So new drivers, if you start with automatics are you going to stay with them? Or, if you start with automatics, are you ready to start over when you want to move on to a better job with a clutch? I think we will see many more advances in transmission durability, and then in the # of rigs with the autos. Maybe someday they will be everywhere. But that's not now, not yet. So my argument would be that a professional driver needs to know how to operate a manual transmission, or be limited in employment opportunities.

 

That's bad news for the ppl who train through swift since most companies will make you be retrained in a manual and some states even put a restriction on your licence if you take your test in an automatic in the state of Missouri you cannot drive a manual until you retake the test in one

 

Yes, in Vermont as well, if you test on an auto, you have a restriction on your CDL.

 

If I absolutely have to drive a manual I prefer a 13. But I love my auto and really don't want to give it up anytime soon.

 

Turnandburn.... huge difference between the autoshifts and those Allison transmissions on the M923 series, HETs, etc. If the autoshifts shifted like the Allison autos (either the mechanical or the electronic ones.. they both shift rough as ####), I doubt we'd have anyone here saying they love their autoshifts.
I'm not a fan of the Allison, either... my dealings with them in the military were a bit uncommon... I got licensed on the 923 series (and the M35A3 when in the Guard), but rarely ever had to drive them (not my MOS).
What made me realize the electronic six speeds weren't any better...


Yeah, because rough shifting like that on a slick road is such a fantastic idea. The upside was that, manipulating a plow while going around a turn or corner was easier (as I didn't have to downshift on top of everything else), but I was still happier than a pig in #### when they took me out of that one and put me in a truck with a 13 speed.