Fuel Mileage - Automatic vs. Manual

My buddy just spent 25,000CAD at the local dealership. No gold involved, only an I-sift

 

I would show up just for the trip down memory lane. '62 KW cabover, 280 cummins, 5x4, and get this, "center point steering". No AC, Basically no windshield defroster. How many remember "shutters" in front of their radiator? Air ride suspension was only in the dreamers eyes that wrote the brochures for new trucks.

AMTs or whatever you want to call'm, are what's new. Just like power steering. Just like AC. Just like air ride suspension and a cab quiet enough to hear the stereo was when they hit the market in mass.

How many of you anti-AMT people want to go back to no power steering, no AC, or run spring suspension? Anyone? Every one of those options and more had their own difficulties at first. Back in those days, when the AC compressor clicked on, you had to drop a gear when pulling a hill. How bout anti-lock brakes? Any one want to drive in today's traffic without it?

Manual trans drivers are a dying breed, and as such leave behind a dying market. They're your kids (bastar-ds that they may be) that are leaving the manuals lay in the bone yards. They're the same kids that you better hope use modern technology to take care of you when you're dying of lung cancer from following that 1693 with garden hose injectors.

 

You made quite some effort in your rant to get your point. I do not question the future of the ATM. Maybe even the present already. What I am saying, I would be happy to buy a pre-emission truck in 2014 and indeed it would save lot of headache and money for me. I just hope in a couple years when I will spec my new truck, the manual still will be an option. And after slowly I will extinct with my manual transmission.
I realize the trucks and the business model is changing. They build the trucks what should be thrown away in 7-9 years and I am too old to switch. I buy new and keep for 15 years. In my model manual make more sense. Beside I hate to drive the ATM.

 

Old thread here with not too many real answers

 

I am really curious about some real word examples.

I get 7.5 on a good day with my 10 spd paccar in my 660.
Easy driving and usually cruise at 1300 or so rpm at about 62.

I rented a dt12 and drove it like a rental truck setting the cruise through Pennsylvania 66-70 and got well over 8

I hate the autos a lot and have a healthy concern about longevity and gremlins, but that's a big difference.

 

With a truck/trailer it’s hard to be 100 % accurate as someone else mentioned but overall I have gotten better MPG with a manual doing the same run months on end with two different trucks. Hauling the same basic load the same route day in and day out. Both trucks were the same year, engine with different trans.

I have also never had anyone match my MPG average driving the same Personal car or truck as mine unless they drove for hyper mileage and were basically in everyone’s way on the road.

 

My last experience with an auto transmission was 5 years ago, so this may have changed since then, but...

I worked fora LTL company running linehaul from Minneapolis to a meet point near Mauston Wi. One winter night, every single one of our automatics had to be towed off the ready line because of ice in the yard (it was a slight uphill angle and they were back up to a fence so you couldnt back up to get a running start). None of the manuals had to be. The autos couldnt move from a dead stop on ice. Get to the meet point that night, and it took me 45 minutes to swap out the trailers because I couldnt get under it. Had to go buy a bag of salt to get under it. Meet man had a manual, no problem at all.

Frankly, I dont care if that is no longer a problem or not. I dont care what kind of mileage they get. I will NEVER have one in a truck again. I dont trust them enough to ever give them another try.

 

My mechanic said I need 550 horses and 18 gears to have full control of 50,000lb and 94,000lb down a narrow windy road that is often wet with a gradient of 16%.

Well my 8.3lt with an Alison 6 speed auto does it no problems. This auto drives like a car.
The 12.5lt has a paccar 12 speed automated manual, it does it also without issue. Push of a button and I jump from auto to manual to lock it in gear. Flick of a lever down and it changes down gear providing engine revs, gear box speed, and road speed all align weather I'm in manual or auto mode. Flick it up or do it twice and it changes up a gear or two regardless of auto of manual mode. Almost 300,000 miles on it and no issue at all.

It's 2013 technology and I will admit it can confuse itself on a hill start with a load, but its so easy to override the auto and choose a gear it doesn't even rate as a downside.

The mechanics staff member told me he has replaced 100s of road ranger gear boxes, if not a 1000. But not 1 auto yet. That said something to me.

Think fuel economy has so many variables its hard to say, but I doubt an auto is more. Like someone said earlier they change perfectly every time, never crunch, and always in the economical rev range. It may sometimes be the wrong gear for a climb because it doesn't have eyes, but that is where the driver plays their role.

I would not buy a manual, clutch or not you still have to thrash that stick around the place. Rather hold a cup of coffee.

 

We used to have a old antique Hyster lift truck that had a manual shuttle shift or whatever they call it, on the steering wheel column. You had to clutch, then push the lever forward to go forward, then clutch to pull the lever back to go backward. We had to use it to keep up with a crew of nursery stock planters. After about 6 hours of non stop clutching, one really starts to appreciate what an automatic has to offer.

Manual transmissions in a semi, are culture. Kinda like Harley Davidson motorcycles are to MCs.