EATON Auto trans, issued one with no manual

I’m in my first auto (Freightliner) going on about 14 months now. It has a Manual mode but not once have I ever used it or felt like I needed to use it. It easily allows for 1 gear up or down, on the fly while in auto. Not sure how Paccar (or whoever) does it

 

A manual mode button that does not allow you to up shift or down shift?

A Bounce House tractor trying to back up on a automatic?

IF the transmission is doing whatever it pleases rejecting your efforts at playing trucker on Manual, I bet the company has it configured software wise to refuse your efforts to hold a gear somewhere upgrade.

 

Sounds to me like you need to visit the dealership to have some options changed. Creep mode and the alarm are both options that can be turned on or off.

 

The link to Eaton’s driver manuals


Literature Center

 

Beeping is usually related to RPM being to low or high for the gear you’re trying to get to.

The lack of holding a gear on a climb, is directly related to the settings. Yours is most likely set to economy mode. Frustrating as hell, I know. Gain 5 mph, upshift too soon, falls on its face, downshifts, loses that 5. Rinse and repeat.

 

A Freightliner I was in had a menu option for Economy Mode or Power Mode. I would sometimes pick Power Mode when getting through hills. I didn't feel like I needed to mess with Manual shifting.

 

My Freightliner, I think it has an Eaton tranny, has a button to switch between auto and manual, but it's disabled in the computer. I pull tanker and the surge and the auto conspire to keep the truckbetween gears and searching for the right gear. I found a trick I use to prolong keepign it in the gear I want. My truck has a paddle shifter. Even though it's an auto I can force it into a lower or higher gear my moving the paddle shifter. Normally, you would force a shift by a quick pull-up or push-down on the paddle. My trick has me pulling it up or psuhing it down and constantly holding it in that position.

For example, I'm fully loaded at 78,000 lbs and starting to pull a smaller hill. While the truck is a 12 speed, I know from experience 11th gear is the gear I want. Just before I start uphill I force and hold the paddle shifter down to get into 11th and hold it there throughout the climb. The tranny will override my effort if the RPMs get too low or too high. My trick prolongs the time I get in the gears I want. The tranny seems to be setup to maximize fuel economy. I would prefer my last truck with identical tranny and engine but the manual/auto switch was active. But you do what you have to do with what you have.