What I learned two days ago

Sorry Rank. I was in my second week of trucking school driving a manual and had to have both hips, both knees, and both ankles replaced. Luckily I did the surgery on a 3 day weekend, so I was back in training on Monday.

 

Someone should write a song about that

 

I'm not trying to get you to badmouth anything. autos are 100% customizable for every user. they have been running autos on big beds here for 20 years. they now have great programming available for off road and highway heavy haul through years of trial and error, many have gone to them. they eliminate the human factor in critical shifts, and save on hard parts. this is a fact in my industry.

 

talk to any old school gin pole or bed truck hand and they will tell you about their destroyed knees and backs from twisting to look out the back window while running a clutch on a lease. hydraulic winches and auto trans have transformed the rig moving industry.

 

What's that have to do with rest of us?

 

someone with exceptional driving skills and knowledge, but cursed with bad knees, can benefit from an automatic transmission. simple enough?

 

I'll take that bet. I've driven more trucks than I care to remember, never had a drivline failure. And yes I do carry a greez gun with me so I can juice any joint that needs it. In fact the only time I ever was towed off the highway was after telling the owner of said truck that the oil level was rising due to fuel in the oil. Boss man said keep on it, next thing you know the stick started vibrating,a little puff of white smoke out the breather tube and she no go no more.I actually felt bad, I liked that truck, till they brought me a better one.

 

just to be clear, I'm not talking about maintenance related failures, but from driver error. I once saw a guy twist off in a parking lot because he forgot to release his maxis before sticking it in gear and letting out the clutch to drive away. seen many many guys twist off trying to get out of a spot in soft ground, or blowing a shift climbing a hill with a heavy load and trying to lift it from a dead stop.

 

bad knees never came from clutching. An OTR driver uses the clutch what....10x a day maybe. Who do you think you’re talking to here? If a guy is a cripple with a pre existing condition that’s different and not 94% of the population and not what we’re talking about here.

 

because that's the only thing in a guy's life, driving OTR? I know lots of guys with bad knees from hockey, moto x, baseball, and other sports that drive truck. you think I'm trying to BS you or talk you into driving an auto? I really don't GAF what you drive, but don't sit there and tell me auto trans are the devil that will suddenly make a man start wearing makeup and high heels...