I'm going to buy a used Schneider Truck

I have very mixed feeling about automatic transmission since I've owned two auto shift trucks with clutch in the past. Also driven clutchless automatics too.

When the transmission works properly, everything is great. You get much better fuel mileage with an Auto. But the maintenence is a real headache since many shops don't have experience working on them. Even the big dealers have a hard time working on them. I have put close to 1 million miles on my autoshifts and the biggest issues i had were wireharness, and sensors. The automatic transmission have never gone out on me, its the wire harness and sensors that causes the truck to not go into gear and they are a nightmare to troubleshoot.

If I ever plan to hire a driver again, the truck will have to be an automatic. But personally, I will always drive a manual because there will be less breakdown with a manual.

 

Update on my used Ex-Schneider truck

So I lasted 2 weeks doing Dryvan before giving up on It. For those of you who does DryVan and self-dispatch, you have my deepest respect. It takes a lot of hard work calling brokers and negotiating for a decent rate. I simply cannot drive and keep using hours upon hours of time calling brokers. So, I turned in my 2016 Dryvan trailer to my carrier and rented a 2015 All Aluminium Manac flatbed trailer from TNT out of Saint Louis, MO.

I'm so much happier now that I'm doing flatbed again. There are so many good paying flatbed loads that I usually spend less then 15-30 minutes to book a load.

So far, my truck have been running great after my last shop visit in changing out the NOX sensors.

My main problem now is that I'm getting poor fuel mileage. Bobtail got me 8.5-9mpg. Pulling an empty flatbed trailer going 62mph got me 7.25mpg. My current flatbed load of 4' tall tarp load weighing 42k got me 5mpg from MO to PA.

I just deadhead empty from Denver to Kansas City with the wind blowing and pushing me from behind and only got 7.5mpg going 65mph. This really sucks. Loaded towards Denver with a 25k load got me 4.5mpg at 62mph. Something is definitely wrong here

I already ran 9k miles on truck since I purchase the truck so I'll do another PM and change all fuel filters again.

I can't decide whether to Clean my DPF filters first or do an Overhead Adjustment tuneup on my next shop visit.

On my last Cascadia, empty with a flatbed at 70mph got me 8+mpg and bobtail got me 12mpg+. Something is up with my current truck. Currently running smoothly, no power loss on 6% grades on full load, no check engine lights. Just poor fuel mileage.

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Here is my Dilemma,

Taking truck to shop takes down time and What if the shops tells me more bad news about major $$$ repairs. Currently, the truck is running smoothly, and climbs hills with plenty of power and have no check engine lights. I'm afraid that even by cleaning the DPF filters may trigger other sensors since it has to be remove from the system.

Running as is will generate money but I'm losing out on fuel. I'm paying an extra 15-20% extra for fuel due to poor fuel mileage. I think I'll run it another month and will put my truck in the shop to troubleshoot this issue around the upcomming DOT Blitz in June.

Any suggestions if I should try to fix it now or wait it out since the truck seems to be running fine ? I dont want to make the problem worse by not fixing immediately.

The last time I took a truck to a major Dealer (Detroit) to troubledhoot poor fuel mileage, they blame it on the Air Charge Cooler claiming it had a leak. Bill came out to over $1800 and still have poor fuel mileage. Then they told me that because I have high miles on the motor, I needed a rebuild. $15k.