i want to become a truck driver but not if it's manual

"SPRING RIDE??? Ya lousy wimp, ya don' need no SPRANGS under yo butt! Thems for weenies and wimmins! Don' need no cold air, neither; and while we're at it, who needs them pesky windshields! They jus' keep ya from gettin' a good meal for free! Power steering, too, get rid of it! If'n you ain't got da muscles to steer ya shouldn't be a trucker!!"

 

Ever driven one with Armstrong steering or torsion bar suspension?

 

Precisely my point: there will be a time where fleets won't want to fix torn - up manuals or have problems like runaways/blown engines or rollback accidents due to some wheelholder not knowing how to control the trans.

And, given the new manumatics out there that are actually manuals that take the guesswork out of the equations AND saves them from stupidity, the companies can't afford NOT to change. YOU may be fine with what you have now; but from a money standpoint, especially given the quality of drivers coming into the industry having never seen a manual, they can't afford to not change.

 

Of course not, since I'm less than a n00bs at this point (bus driver, remember??).

On the other hand, I've driven manual steering on a few vehicles, whether intentional or not--my first job (mailroom), they bought a new pickup for running errands, which oddly enough was an automatic with manual steering, go figure--so, I know the pain.

 

Thing is; The mega-fleets, as big as they are, still don't make up the majority. Oh, they're trying, but they still come up short ...on so many levels.
Oh, and the "manumatics"? They are more expensive to fix, not even counting the trans, which, in my case, is essentially a 10 speed. The week before I got my truck, they replaced the X/Y shifter, the TECU and the transmission wiring harness. $6000. Transmission was fine. In other words, had it not been an Ultrashift, there wouldn't have been a problem to fix. No, the megas aren't going to autos due to them being economically feasable, they are doing it because they have it in their minds that any idiot can drive one. And they try like hell to prove that daily by hiring more and more idiots.

 

I was a trucker. Guys like 23.

 

Floating gears is different for every truck but the general idea is hit throttle, take out of gear, let rpm drop and apply gentle pressure and it will slide in the next gear. That's for up shifting.
Down shifting is hit throttle, take out of gear, hit throttle to bump up rpms, apply gentle pressure to next lowest gear.

 

I found (or saw on this site) an excellent you tube video to give you a good example of floating and recovering gears -- will post it for you when i find it again.
But for what ever reason you want to drive an auto or float gears --you have to wait till you pass or train to drive a stick by double clutching --are you just concerned or feel worried about being able to do it ?
I was told (while in driving school) that people that never drove a manual shift anything would get "double clutching" before the ones that had driven a manual shift it turned out to be true.

 

Sorry -nix the video i was going to post --it was about recovering a lost gear --your not there yet and i dont want to mess you up.
But go on you tube and pick a couple of videos on double clutching or floating if you want (one with a good view) and check them out.