First Time in a long time

[MikeJ]

Today I got to drive a 10 speed haven't driven one of those in 6 months.
Still can't down shift from high to low range great, but over all it wasn't a bad day big picture wise.

Well I wasn't the greatest shifter starting out and it was something I struggled with. However after the experience that I have built up, I actually did a lot better in it then I thought I would do. It wasn't that bad. Plus it's easier when you are by you're self and nobody is there in the passenger seat.

It's like riding a bike once you learn you never forget.
That being said it was not a flawless performance, but it was not a total rookie performance either it was better then that I felt. Made it out and back in one piece. Now that being said I am not Billy Big Rig I am not a master shifter or champion gear floater, I didn't float a single gear today. I know I know floating is cool and the way I do it is lame lame lame. Well I'm kind of lame so I guess it all fits ha-ha!

It was what it was a couple grinds here or there and a few klunks oh well the truck I had was no beauty let me tell you we have some very ugly road trucks where I work. Although I guess for some reason the company is getting some CNG road trucks and I guess there really really nice to nice for us.

I thought this new batch of M2s we had gotten in are nice and they are compared to the old M2s we had god those things were awful just underpowered. The new M2's I thought are great in fact if I had a little hauling business I would buy the exact same M2's that my company leases from Pensky. 300 Horse Power Cummins Turbo Diesel Motors and Allison 6 speed push button automatic transmissions. Not bad trucks especially for what we do at the beer company.

 

[johndeere4020]

Don't worry about it, I've been shifting over 17 years and sometimes I go all day and never grind a gear, other days I wonder how I ever got through enough gears to get out of the lot. I spend the majority of my time in an 18 speed which I love, then I have to jump in a 10 and I spend half the day missing 6th when I split to the high side. I hate to see the end of the manual transmission come, it just kinda seems like part of trucking and in my line of work I would really miss it. That being said when I worked for Sysco we had some Volvos with Allison automatics I did like them especially in traffic just ride and guide. Fedex had the 10 speed Eaton auto shifts (Sysco had a couple to) they weren't bad I just hated waiting on it to go through the lower gears and traffic light to traffic light if you kept catching them red was torture.

 

[MikeJ]

We have a couple full size super singles that are automatics ones a 2015 Cascadia I drove it and it wasn't bad it is a 12 speed automatic.
Then there is some International super single with an automatic transmission I never drove that truck and it seems to come and go a lot.

I do think that within the next 10-15 years manual transmissions will be phased out in big trucks. I know that may not be popular with people, but eventually I think it is going to happen. These manufacturers seem to be throwing a lot of weight behind developing automatic transmissions for heavy duty trucks. Any more that's all Alison transmission is.

It's kind of new technology, and it got off to a rocky start, but they are better then what they were. Like I said it isn't going to happen tomorrow or anything like that, but defiantly down the road it seems all these companies from LTL's all the way to Swift and Schneider are all beta testing automatics.

I don't know how these companies pick what equipment they buy like GFS uses all 10 speeds, but you have Sysco and US Foods that have everything. GFS though is interesting about there equipment there fleet is very uniform not like the other companies like Sysco and US Foods that have every trailer there is and single axle trucks and tandem axle trucks and stick shift trucks and automatic trucks and 10 wheel straight trucks and for Ford F-550 cut a way trucks and lift gates and all that stuff.

GFS I've noticed it's not like that the broad line trucks are all 28 foot trailers with swinging barn doors not roll doors like Sysco and US have. Also GFS's fleet it seems is Volvo 10 speeds and once in a while I'll see a Sterling with one of those goofy tag axles that drops down. For the most part though GFS's trucks seem to be just Volvo 10 speed tandem axle trucks.

That's another thing to how long until these hold outs go well let's beta test this our selves. Or maybe we tried them in the past didn't like them, but things have changed lets try this again.

Like US Xpress they were all autos in the early 2000s had trouble with them went back to 8 and 10 speeds and then older drivers at the company wanted to know if they could get the autos back so US Xpress has gone back to autos they still have some 10 speeds mixed in, but there new trucks are all automatics. I know someone who works there.

Like for Sysco the old stuff is standard shift, but it seems the new batches of trucks come in and they are the automatics. From what I read Sysco started buying autos a couple years ago and they haven't sent them back. My company has had automatics for a while, but I think for beverage distribution automatics have been around for sometime and nobody cares because the trucks don't travel far and the loads they haul are pretty consistent. Like Beverage Distributors here in Cleveland, they have an old fleet of Freightliner FLs and Sterling Actera's I thought for sure those old trucks would be sticks, but no there automatics. Budweiser is the same way there Kenworth T-300s are automatics as well. So they seem to be around in the beer business.

Except for RL Lipton there old 1994 Ford L9000's are sticks, but that's a different story ha-ha!