Alrite, Finally got my CDL-A last week with the help of my dad and my uncle(dad's brother). Both(D & A) long OTR drivers with experiances' varrying from 25-30years. Dad likes manual transmission and have driven the same forever just for an occasion drove an Freightliner-Columbia-Autoshift CAT but used it manually.(lol) My uncle on the other hand swichted to Autoshift/Ultrashift past 4years and don't wanna move back to changing gears with the big lever and left leg(clutch).
During my training session I drove with my dad on his Freightliner-Cat-435-8spd in April hauling 30-40klbs on West Coast-I-15 from Seattle to Sacramento. Hate to tell you the truth but changing gears was a nightmare until my uncle took me with him for a trip to Detroit via-I-90 begining of May. He's got Freightliner-Columbia-Mercedes-450-Autoshift and everything felt natural thereafter. I would never want to go back shifting gears with palm instead of index finger.
They both are still company drivers and we are now looking forward to own a truck or two and open up our company. I'm not instresting in investing a dime over $50,000/-(50k) and I'm ready to compromise on miles on the truck. I wanna stick to freightliner with CAT or MERCEDES. My dad every passing second recommends manual and insists on sticking with the big lever. Whereas having experianced the easyness and comfort of driving an Autoshift through bizi Seattle-Minneapolis-Chicago-Detroit downtown buying a manual gear box doesn't make sense to me.(Not to forget this was my first time ever driving anything bigger than my Mustang.)
My confussion is should I buy an auto-transm or manual one keeping the fact handy about re-sale. On the one side I've experiance of my dad's 30years and on the other 25years of my uncle's who preffers automatic all the way. Remembering the fact I'm only 26years old and have to give respect to both of the elders likings. What should I start of with? Auto or Manual?
Any recommendation from fellow drivers would highly appriacted.
God bless ya ALL.