Stupid auto shift or stupid driver.

Chewy352 · Jun 8, 2016

Truck is a 2016 prostar with an Eaton fuller ultrashift plus.

I was heading north on the west Virginia toll road today just south of the first toll booth. I was in a steep climb 3 lanes of traffic and I was in the far right lane and there really is no shoulder to speak of in this area. It drops off pretty quick.

I've tried auto and manual and auto seems to do better climbing until 6th gear then manual works better. Once it hits a good climbing gear I switch it to manual to lock it in gear.

So I was in 8th and about 35 mph and dropping. When it reached approximately 1200 rpms I started thinking what the heck I would have shifted already so I switched to manual and down shifted and I get a beep f you from the truck and it stays in 8th. I tried again and same thing. No shift. I switched it back to auto and still no downshifts. Eventually I lost all momentum and came to a halt with nowhere to go.

Once stopped I tried to get going again in auto, manual, and low and got nothing. I happened to see several near misses in my mirror as I and other drivers were hollering warnings over the cb to the 1 percent of drivers that still use them.

Then I tried shutting the truck off and restarting it and that did the trick and got me going. The rest of the trip everything worked fine. I drove 68 in Maryland the other day and I didn't have any issues.

What thoughts do you have? What might have happened?

This my first week in this auto and I'm not impressed. It likes to go up to 1900 rpms on some shifts and down to 1000 on others.

I'm thinking I didn't wait long enough for it to shift but I'm not ruling out driver error at all.

MACK E-6 · Jun 8, 2016

Not sure how this is possible. Automatics are supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Your story is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Chewy352 · Jun 8, 2016

I'm not convinced I didn't scew up. At least with a manual I can keep selecting lower and lower gears.

I don't have all my data yet but I think I'm still averaging about 6.5 mpg with this fancy auto.

flood · Jun 8, 2016

sounds like a hiccup..... some times if you switch from auto to manual to auto to manual to close together it will get stupid and forget what mode it's in.

most auto's will in "AUTO" mode under a pull (rpm's going down) at around 1,350 will take a downshift, no need to go to manual just hit the downshift, same is true if the rpm's are over 1,550 you can upshift without going to manual mode

lester · Jun 8, 2016

My truck was born with an auto but its a distant nightmare now, swapped in manual.

Darn thing will mess up at the worst possible times. There were a few times I swore the tranny would have fallen out it banged into gear so hard.
If you run it in manual don't forget to shift down up hills. Maybe you lugged it to hard and it couldn't get out of gear?!?

rcelmo · Jun 8, 2016

Chewy352 said: ↑

Truck is a 2016 prostar with an Eaton fuller ultrashift plus.

I was heading north on the west Virginia toll road today just south of the first toll booth. I was in a steep climb 3 lanes of traffic and I was in the far right lane and there really is no shoulder to speak of in this area. It drops off pretty quick.

I've tried auto and manual and auto seems to do better climbing until 6th gear then manual works better. Once it hits a good climbing gear I switch it to manual to lock it in gear.

So I was in 8th and about 35 mph and dropping. When it reached approximately 1200 rpms I started thinking what the heck I would have shifted already so I switched to manual and down shifted and I get a beep f you from the truck and it stays in 8th. I tried again and same thing. No shift. I switched it back to auto and still no downshifts. Eventually I lost all momentum and came to a halt with nowhere to go.

Once stopped I tried to get going again in auto, manual, and low and got nothing. I happened to see several near misses in my mirror as I and other drivers were hollering warnings over the cb to the 1 percent of drivers that still use them.

Then I tried shutting the truck off and restarting it and that did the trick and got me going. The rest of the trip everything worked fine. I drove 68 in Maryland the other day and I didn't have any issues.

What thoughts do you have? What might have happened?

This my first week in this auto and I'm not impressed. It likes to go up to 1900 rpms on some shifts and down to 1000 on others.

I'm thinking I didn't wait long enough for it to shift but I'm not ruling out driver error at all.
Click to expand...

I am driving a KW with that transmission. i don't have any ideas on your
specific problem. I am in this truck for 4 months and I absolutely hate
this transmission. I do a lot of off road work and this thing is horrible.
It wont shift when it is supposed to, when you need it to stay in one
gear it shifts. Sometimes it just plain wont shift at all. Say I take off
going downgrade, it wont shift at all. It wont skip gears either.

We recently leased a Penske Freightliner. I like that transmission
much better, not sure exactly which one it is. Has the shift buttons
on the right side of the steering column on a plastic lever. Pull
the lever up or down to shift manually.

The boss says they have a manual coming that I will have
a chance at getting into. I used to think KW was a good truck
but after driving this disaster of a transmission I am not so
sure. I shifted my own gears for ten years and I am ready
to start doing it again.

Chewy352 · Jun 8, 2016

lester said: ↑

My truck was born with an auto but its a distant nightmare now, swapped in manual.

Darn thing will mess up at the worst possible times. There were a few times I swore the tranny would have fallen out it banged into gear so hard.
If you run it in manual don't forget to shift down up hills. Maybe you lugged it to hard and it couldn't get out of gear?!?
Click to expand...

I think that's what eventually happened. I don't know why it waits so long to shift. Next time I'm mountain driving I'll try to set up a camera so I can get video of the gauges.

Diggler · Jun 8, 2016

Switching between manual and auto that quickly can hiccup the sensors. When mine starts doing that I stop and flip the master power and it resets the brain. It is annoying but if you stayed manual always, or auto always It lessens the chance of those hiccups.

Starboyjim · Jun 8, 2016

MACK E-6 said: ↑

Not sure how this is possible. Automatics are supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Your story is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Click to expand...

Just a bad moment, Mack. His experience doesn't condemn the entire automatic technological world. Of course, he'd never have had this issue with an Eaton-Fuller - unless it froze up in a gear, of course.

Yves kanevil · Jun 8, 2016

This is why a manual is still ahead of an auto. I'd rather select a gear than have a computer do it for me

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