Why do alot of people dislike auto trucks please explain

In a nut shell, many of us still like to shift.

nuff said

 

They hate them because they have no exp. with them, and are basing their opinions on something that they read on a message board or heard at a truckstop diner 10 yrs ago, and haven't forgotten it.

And shockingly, there are tens of thousands of them running all those very same roads, everyday, without problem. My company at present has two Mack daycabs with the M-drive push auto, and a third one (sleeper, mine in about 3 days) waiting on the plates. The two daycabs currently have 80,000 and 75,000 miles respectively, both are on their second winter, neither driver has had a complaint about the trans, now, they do have a complaint about the brain dead idjit salesman from Mack that failed to listen to our boss, and didn't spec them with power dividers. So, they both got stuck last winter, Mack, upon realizing their screwup, had to eat the cost of two power dividers and the install a few months back.

Nope, wrong, they all have hill assist or hill start control of some sort that will not allow the truck to roll back. I got stuck behind one of our M-drive equipped daycabs on a steep grade a couple of months back. The computers sense the grade, when you release the brakes, the computer will keep them applied until you give it enough throttle to overcome the inertia, and if you try to ride the brake/throttle, you will overheat. In fact, they have less roll back than my auto shift equipped Mack.

Um, again, wrong, they all have a manual mode that allows the driver hold or select a gear as needed.

Aaaaannnnd spoken like someone who has never driven one. Odd, I drove one for 7 days, over 3,000 miles, a good portion of which was the mountains of Colorado, including backing into several loading docks, didn't exp. a single thing you complained about.

And I can search the "truck" section and find hundreds of complaints about clutches or other broken items, so what?

You have an autoshift, not an automatic. The Mack M-Drive is a push button auto.

My last Mack CH had 978K on it when we traded it off, Eaton Fuller 10 spd Auto shift. Other than a problem with the shift motors over a 3 yr period of time, which Eaton corrected, the trans was very reliable. Never rebuilt, the clutch was replaced at 650K when the clutch brake failed, boss had them do everything at the same time. Current '09 Mack CXU has 580k on it, clutch was replaced at around 450K due to premature failure caused by broken springs. Our fleet (14 trucks) is all autoshifts with 3 new M-drive push buttons, all are used on the flats, city, mountain and interstate driving, all have at a minimum (with the exception of the 3 M-drives) 400K miles on them. 85% of the loads we haul, we are between 78K lbs and 80K lbs.

I doubt you shift smoother than an auto, my auto shift shifts at the same rate, if not faster than you shift a manual, and the M-drives, in some conditions, you don't feel them shift at all.

Don, it's more a case of those who hate them have A. never driven them, B. are going on something they read on TTR from someone who refused to give it a chance, C. posting something that they heard for another driver at truckstop counter, D. posting something they think they read some place, but in reality they misread, E. are still trying to figure out why drivers seat in their current truck is fixed mount to the floor, why their tractor has air ride instead of spring ride, why they have power steering and A/C.

ALL AUTOMATICS AND AUTOSHIFTS HAVE MANUAL MODE, it allows you to select a gear and hold it, works wonder descending mountains.

Watched an O/O in a KW 900 slam a dock so hard last week that it rattled the building.

So, let me help all the naysayers who've never driven an automatic truck, attached is the review I did of an O/O spec'd Mack Pinnacle back in 2011, since that time I've test driven two more trucks spec'd more or less the same, but all equipped with a push button trans. The one in the review, I put almost 3,000 miles on it in 7 days, including running a 20' loaded container, @79,000 lbs on I-76 from Nebraska to Denver, local driving Denver and Colorado Springs, and a 3 day run over the mtns and passes of US 160, US 550, US 50 and I-70 in SW and W. Colorado, grossing around 50K. For the record, the truck featured in this write up, was sold to an O/O who runs dry van freight between Denver and KC, Denver and DFW, Denver and Seattle. I see him on the road all the time, and have talked to him several times, he claims Zero trans related issues, with almost 500K miles.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...elers-/157871-truck-review-12-mack-cxu-w.html

 

I like to grab gears still. But the money isn't about what transmission i have with the company I work for. So I took a sacrifice and now I drive an auto an actually I don't mind it all that much. The bigger check at the end of the week makes up for my right hand being lonely while driving. Lol.

 

Driven both....have no preference. Best thing to do before driving an auto is to read the manual. I would recommend reading the manual of any truck you drive.

 

Isn't that cheating?

Seriously, how many company trucks that have already been driven by somebody still have the manual with them? Of course they SHOULD. And truckers SHOULD make more money, too. . .

 

There's an app for that.

 

You think so? Then I will offer you the opportunity to put up. You post a TTR link to a manual trans problem and I will post a link to an auto problem. Wanna bet who runs out of links first?

I have proposed this before but for some reason nobody has ever taken the challenge. I expect this time will be no different.

 

with the improvements being made in automatic transmissions, expect manual to disappear within 20 years

 

I doubt it. There are still manual transmissions in cars

 

yeah, when you special order them. look at most car lots, you wont find more than a couple manual tranny's