[Evomalo]

Does anyone know if US Xpress will train you in an auto shift truck. Then after training give you a 10 speed truck. A recruiter told me it's the luck of the draw, but I was just wondering how often does this happen. Thank you for your help.

[flood]

all trainers trucks are 10 sp after you upgrade you MAY get a auto

[Evomalo]

Thank you for the reply. That is good to know. Autos are great for driving forward, but a pain to back up.

[Steve3662]

Evomalo may I ask how you come to the conclusion of how an auto is any different than backing a manual. Autos have the same manual transmission that the manual has. Only difference is a solo clutch and a computer tells it when to shift. Reverse still has a high and a low. I'm really not grasping the difference as I run 5 autos and 4 manuals. I can't tell the difference in the two. Just wondering how you came to this conclusion.

[Malaki86]

A 2-pedal truck is a *lot* different than a truck with a manual clutch pedal (auto-shift or not). A full auto (no clutch pedal) has a centrifugal clutch that engages when the rpms are high enough. If you're bobtail and trying to back under a trailer, it's quite the ride. How the 5th wheels and trailer kingpins hold up to is is beyond me.

[Steve3662]

Malaki I beg to differ. All we do is drop and hook and you can ease a tractor under a trailer just as smoothly with an auto shift as you can a manual. If you are using the clutch pedal to adjust your momentum in a manual you are damaging the clutch and are tearing up the equipment you are driving. Which is all the more reason I see auto shifts are an advantage. It takes drivers out of the equation from tearing it up. But your evaluation on backing under a trailer is flat wrong. You shouldn't have that much momentum if you are doing it properly anyways. You are supposed to back up to the front of the trailer then stop and check your fifth wheel height then you back under it. So if you are actually doing it the way it is suppose to be done you will not have enough momentum to slam the fifth wheel into the king pin. My drivers and I have no problem easing under trailers and most drop and hook twice a day on buttheads and five times a week on other runs.

The Eaton Fuller AutoShifts and the Volvo I-shift have a solo clutch that is maintenance free. It reduces friction and minimizes wear compared to a dual plate. Both these operate just like a manual transmission. Again the only difference is a computer and sensors tell it when to up and down shift not the driver and they run a solo clutch instead of a dual clutch.

[Evomalo]

I have very little experience driving a Mack truck that was an automatic. It has been six years but I think it took around 900 RPMs to get reverse to engage. By the time I had the truck going backwards I would hit the dock kind of hard.

[Steve3662]

Evo something was wrong with the truck or you weren't putting it in gear right if you were having to rev up the rpms on the truck to get it in reverse. They will go into any gear from a dead stop. You don't have to rev up anything just select the gear you want to be in and go. In the eaton fuller or the I-shift I can pick a gear to start out in whether it is R1, R2 or 1-18 depending on the terrain and the truck they usually start in 2-4 and reverse in R1. I would assume the truck you are talking about had a clutch problem. Solo clutches can't be adjusted they have to be replaced. I had to replace a clutch in one of ours because you would have to play with it to get it in gear. That was replaced at around 900,000 miles. Hadn't had an issue with the other ones and haven't had an issue with that one since.

[cdreid]

Steve i think youre wrong. You have a LOT more control with a manual clutch. I've driven one auto clutch and it was horrid. I can move my truck an inch at a time with a manual clutch. I can move it at .1 mph. I seriously doubt you can do that with any auto clutch. Ive also talked to drivers who actually loved having autos because it was so much less work but they all said it was great on the road but put a wheel in a mudpiddle or need to start off a seriously heavy load up hill and you were screwed. Now this was a little bit back when they first really started showing up so maybe theyre better.

[Steve3662]

Cdreid I beg to differ how can you possibly go a different speed in a gear if ones a auto-shift and the other is a true manual when they have the same gearing. I can't really grasp how you can go a different speed when the gears are the same. The only way I can figure it out is you are riding the clutch which is abusing it and not what it is intended for. Some AutoShifts have a clutch. I run two of them that have a clutch pedal the only auto to them is when shifting gears. The Volvo ishifts will prevent rollback on hills you can pick the gear to start out with on a hill with a heavy load. There is no difference in the two with exception of you don't have a clutch pedal and a computer tells it when to shift. This strengthens my comments on drivers abusing a transmission and a clutch. As of this week I run 4 trucks with the Volvo ishift and 2 trucks with eaton fuller auto shifts one a ten speed the other an 18 speed. I have zero issues out of any one of them with exception of I replaced a clutch in one that had 900,000 miles on it (didnt go out I had it replaced just in case). I also run 2 trucks with 13 speeds and 2 with 10 speed manuals. I have less maintenance costs with the autos vs manuals. I have better mpg in the autos. On one of the dedicated runs I switched tractors from a manual to an auto and that exact same run we get .7 mpg better in the auto vs the manual. The run is 5500 miles a week every week. So in a years time at $4 a gallon fuel I save around $20,000 a year between the two. That's just one truck out of ten fixing to be eleven. So all ten of them together save the company $200,000 a year. Which allows the company to do multiple things. It allows added bonuses to drivers, new tractor purchases, more options on new equipment and more profit for the company to put back for hard times (I get paid a salary so all extra profits go to the drivers and to the company).