I am someone who tries to live by the rule, "If I am wrong, I try to promptly admit it", so far it has served me well.......I am not who has a problem with it........That being said, as one who is really not comfortable with change...........it seems I owe many on this board an apology........I willingly admit, I was WRONG and am happy I was wrong...........oh baby.

You see, I WAS one of those who had never driven, nor could I imagine driving a T/T with an "automatic" or "auto-shift" transmission............so, being ignorant of the facts behind them, I sort of condemned them or tried my best to say they weren't the wave of the future...............I am proud to say, "DAMN, I WAS 100% WRONG" and that I wish I had been driving a vehicle years ago with one. ..............I absolutely LOVE them.

MY company just bought a new "International T/T" for local and is going to purchase two more for OTR.........all have "auto", in them.............I couldn't tell you if they are "auto-shift" or the other, all I know is it has a D, with a circle around it and 4, 2, 1.........NO 3, that's sort of strange, I guess.

As a truck driver who was sort of set-in-his-ways, and has always driven a 10, 13 and/or 18-speed transmission, all I can say..........once again....I WAS WRONG......THEY ARE AWESOME.....I LOVE THEM.....in my opinion, the best innovation in trucking since the automatic adjusting side-mirror................also, sure nice sitting in 5:00 PM traffic, actually makes me look forward to 5:00 PM traffic.....NOT! :lol: :lol:

As someone who has quite a few miles behind me.......here's a suggestion.....if you are a Newbie, I suggest....."learn to drive a 10-13 speed standard transmission, but, if the opportunity avails, take an "Auto" any day of the week if possible."..............makes life a lot easier in my opinion.....of course, that is, if they are mechanically sound and proven, I have no idea and can't give an opinion in that department.


See, that wasn't hard.

 

The auto shifts have been around for more than 10 years now. In the beggining they were problem riddled to the extreme, but most of the bugs have been worked out.

For those who do not know, the tranny is the same as on a manual. It uses servos to operate the gears (and now the clutch on some models). The tranny is just as reliable as any other.

The problem they had with them, and it still sometimes comes up, is the computer program used to run the tranny will sometimes crash and not allow the truck to shift. In the early days if this happened it often could only be fixed by wiping the program and reinstalling it. Now if it occurs the fix is usually to shut the truck off and in a minute or two start it back up.

 

Hey one question about the clutchless autos when you start sliding does the tranny sense that and automatically take the power away from the drives kinda like when you push in the clutch pedal automatically? if it doesnt i dont see how the two pedals are very good

 

I can't answer that one........so far, I've only had experience in dry weather, plus, I am proud to say, I'm really not what one would call "mechanically inclined" when it comes to big trucks.....I HATE getting greasy around trucks, I can look at a truck and get grease on me, so I stay my distance from them...........

 

*looks for a pukey face smiley*

Wait till it gets a little older.

 

we have auto shifts in some of our trucks and I hate them. They do occasionally have the problem with freezing up and not shifting, so you have to shut it down and wait a minute or two. Not real fun in traffic when you are holding everyone up. Also if you get stuck in the snow it is much harder to get out of it. You cant rock it back and forth. The worst is backing them up. If you dont give enough fuel, it will just stop, escpecially if jacking the trailer in. It doesnt allow you to creep back into tight spaces. You have to be moving pretty good or it will stop.

 

they CAN be. Not only do these trucks have ABS, they can be set up with ATC (automatic traction control) which removes power and or applies brakes to axles that are spinning to keep the truck going straight. We played with one of these trucks on a skidpad in Appleton one year. You could barely walk on the pad, but the truck sure could drive well on it. ATC is exactly the opposite as ABS as the wheel starts to break loose compared to the other wheels, it slows that wheel down.

 

this is why I love the south

 

There is the Auto shift and a true automatic transmission.

A Friend of mines father, a Mr. Braun, still holds 10 patents (posthumously) for the automatic transmission in a 10 ton or more application. The problem is the tremendous torque that just is not there with a car transmission. The solution has been to just auto-shift the manual transmission using electronics but new advances in manufacturing has made the true automatic transmission feasible in a trucking application.

 

I'm failing to see the reason why. :lol:
Although I have always figured they'd work better down there.

teamster pretty much outlined all the same problems we had with ours.