Manual trucks?

Manuals have the lowest cost IF your driver doesn't crash that gear stick around like an ape in a rowboat with one oar in a hurricane. Essential skills are being lost and it actually a #### shame. I just went through "training" with a self proclaimed "manual transmission shifting expert". I have no words to accurately describe how this kid managed to get checked off in a manual.

 

Any dewfuss can destroy a perfectly good truck…….regardless of the transmission type.

 

That is a fact!

 

My company has nothing but manuals a few 13s the rest are 18. But you have to live in Las Vegas and be willing to pull rock loads in double transfers.

 

I drove buses for 20 years and only once came across a bus with a manual transmission. And it was an elderly bus.

The US Army stopped putting manual transmissions in tanks decades ago.

Don’t get me wrong, I drive an International LT with a 10-speed Eaton manual transmission, and I like it a lot, but my company is about to replace it with a Kenworth T680 with an automatic, and I’m kinda looking forward to it.

Standard transmissions are like cabovers. They disappeared because there’s much less demand for them.

 

Not only are manual transmissions an order item, they are also considered an upgrade. So, you want to order a fleet of trucks for your company and then you find out that it will take longer to take delivery and that each truck is going to cost more...most companies just go with the automatic.

 

You get a heavy load out in the hills say like I68 out east, or the Hilly part of the PA turnpike-you'll notice that a manual climbs faster than an automatic. At least that's what it seemed like to me .

 

Manual? You mean these new trucks don't even come with owners manuals? What will you read if you have to take a dump then? LoL

 

You can, but they cost extra.

 

HA! I saw that too and technically correct. I bet it took some college egghead 6 months to come up with that term, "gets 'em both, pa",,,and while it is true, a manual has always been more economical , a lot of good it does if nobody can operate it. Running a less economical automatic is just another cost of doing business today.
And for the record, I read, over 90% of all new KWs are automatic today. Peterbilt seems to be the lone holdout on manuals, but no numbers available.