ODFL | Automatic trucks.

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Anyone else hear we're going to get automatic trucks? Management at my terminal is saying we're getting auto's starting in 22.
 
Oh god no.

You will be waiting on the damn things to find a gear every time you want to go from stop.

And docking etc will tear em up. The Management cannot be that stupid.
 
Thats the other part of one reasons I am a dinosaur. I require 300 plus gallons every other day. If they cannot or will not pony up that fuel, there is no real trucking being done. Now I see modern trucks made today with little 100 gallon tanks. How are you supposed to put in a 700 mile workday on that little bitty bit?

I have always pushed back against the company bean counters who wish to save a dime by not letting me spend a dollar to make 10 for them. Sheesh.
 
The auto we had as a team, would be a 515 Detriot on a Meritor Rockwell paddle from about 2000 model year. Drives were 46000 rockwells.

We generally went through 300 gallons every 26 to 30 hours. Which would be around 7 miles to gallon. Generally. If we did not stop. Occasionally depending on wind and terrain conditions (Think eastern Colorado Line, Western Kansas I-70 eastbound) we would get into the 15's close to 20's and stay there for a few hours in summer storms provided the wind was blowing faster than 60 from our 7 o clock to our 1 o clock using the trailer as a sail loaded. Governed at 63.

And there was the problem. FFE governed the trucks at 63, had the computers show it at 65 and it never matched the stop watch mile marker or Laptop GPS which revealed 63 as max speed throwing off tight JIT to the minute delivery times.

I took it to the safety and shop boss. And what they do? Tell me its a great big company secret and keep my big mouth shut. It was worth a great deal of money to them then vs Insurance to govern at 63.

I will never ever again allow such a slow tractor trailer anywhere in the USA. I dont mind a little legal 75 or even 80 making time. Dont need to be much faster anyway. But 63 would be life threatening in those places.

I started off in old macks, U's D's and especially the R models. Little 50 something gallon tank under there. And with that were expected to do a full days work. Running out of fuel was common back then. The company could buy bigger tanks and saved themselves the constant panic calls into rescuing trucks all the time. But no, they intend to be stupid until it hurts.
 
The auto we had as a team, would be a 515 Detriot on a Meritor Rockwell paddle from about 2000 model year. Drives were 46000 rockwells.

We generally went through 300 gallons every 26 to 30 hours. Which would be around 7 miles to gallon. Generally. If we did not stop. Occasionally depending on wind and terrain conditions (Think eastern Colorado Line, Western Kansas I-70 eastbound) we would get into the 15's close to 20's and stay there for a few hours in summer storms provided the wind was blowing faster than 60 from our 7 o clock to our 1 o clock using the trailer as a sail loaded. Governed at 63.

And there was the problem. FFE governed the trucks at 63, had the computers show it at 65 and it never matched the stop watch mile marker or Laptop GPS which revealed 63 as max speed throwing off tight JIT to the minute delivery times.

I took it to the safety and shop boss. And what they do? Tell me its a great big company secret and keep my big mouth shut. It was worth a great deal of money to them then vs Insurance to govern at 63.

I will never ever again allow such a slow tractor trailer anywhere in the USA. I dont mind a little legal 75 or even 80 making time. Dont need to be much faster anyway. But 63 would be life threatening in those places.

I started off in old macks, U's D's and especially the R models. Little 50 something gallon tank under there. And with that were expected to do a full days work. Running out of fuel was common back then. The company could buy bigger tanks and saved themselves the constant panic calls into rescuing trucks all the time. But no, they intend to be stupid until it hurts.
Let me make a little correction on your post there Sidewinder, old Macks are not U, Ds, nor R models.
They are L, A, and B models, just bringing you back in time.
You need to ask Tri about the chain drive models.
 
You think autos are bad? I've been shuttling trucks to GBO for PM service at least once per night and the night time shop manager said GBO is getting a few Internationals sometime this year. Those trucks SUCK...along with the older Volvos we have.
 
Im sure they will b fun in the snow
Quit crying, the first hydramatics we had in 1955, you could be driving 35 or 40 mph
it would drop all the way down to first gear and actually slide the drive wheels.
Tell me that won't make your pucker string draw up?
I had that happen in downtown Spencer N C before I 85 was open.
 
Supposedly OD ordered 2500 Freightliners and freightliner knocked it down to 1500 so OD will get more KW's and Internationals to make up the difference. I had heard OD quit buying International because they would not set up the truck they way OD wanted it
 
Oh god no.

You will be waiting on the damn things to find a gear every time you want to go from stop.

And docking etc will tear em up. The Management cannot be that stupid.
You haven’t driven one with a 12 speed Endurant, coupled with a Cummins. Easiest truck I’ve ever driven, even in reverse- drives like a car. The 10speed auto shifts were horrible, but the 12s are great! 7.8 mpg over my last 352,000 miles on a 2020 LT. Snow, ice, hills, flatland. You can switch it to manual and lock it in (except the beeper from locking it drives me crazy!)

I thought I’d hate it, but I don’t.
 
Im sure they will b fun in the snow
They are fun in the snow. Been there done that with ours on ice too.

Its all we did with our auto that first year. Even broke out of a few jackknifes on ice with it. That was the saving grace of the auto when she broke loose in a tractor jacknife and wife was driving west of knoxville upgrade. Told wife to freeze her hammer right so and do not move. I handled her steering wheel a smidge to get the tractor tires to bite again and keep grinding out of there.

Most of our little 8 truck convoy spilled into the canyon median, two or three were total losses. But it did good that day when it needed to. Wife was a rookie then. Thats why we had the auto. It was for her. Idiot proof.

It did have a manual mode paddle so I can stay in one gear on jake all night in the mountains or grind across wyoming on ice in 3rd all day.

The only trouble with that pos auto is were a team truck, NEVER shut off. Factory manual demands that it needs to be off every 8th day for a minimum of one hour. Otherwise it bricks completely and fails the software requiring a tow back to a shop big enough to format the transmission computers and reload factory software over three days. We had that happen twice. Those loads under JIT were totally ruined. One factory suffered a shut down that costs way too much.

I'll die with a manual in my hands. The last time I touched a auto was back in 2010 and what they had evolved to by that year was disgusting to me. Nope. Never again.
 
You haven’t driven one with a 12 speed Endurant, coupled with a Cummins. Easiest truck I’ve ever driven, even in reverse- drives like a car. The 10speed auto shifts were horrible, but the 12s are great! 7.8 mpg over my last 352,000 miles on a 2020 LT. Snow, ice, hills, flatland. You can switch it to manual and lock it in (except the beeper from locking it drives me crazy!)

I thought I’d hate it, but I don’t.
Thats similar to what we had. It was a rockwell meritor 2000 version. Had a manual paddle to stay in any gear you please including reverse.

That was the thing reversing to back into a dock. Once you got her moving, clutch is out you needed to put that trailer straight into the hole in ONE MOVE without stopping at all. And that became my trade mark skill. In she goes.

If I stopped while backing? She would start hopping like a kids bounce house and then refuse to engage power.

The traffic lights are a another issue. Go into say... chicago and get a green? Everyone is gone. You are sitting there in everyones way in a horrible pause waiting for her to get a gear and move out.

The last time she did that pause I thought were going to get shot for it.
 
You haven’t driven one with a 12 speed Endurant, coupled with a Cummins. Easiest truck I’ve ever driven, even in reverse- drives like a car. The 10speed auto shifts were horrible, but the 12s are great! 7.8 mpg over my last 352,000 miles on a 2020 LT. Snow, ice, hills, flatland. You can switch it to manual and lock it in (except the beeper from locking it drives me crazy!)

I thought I’d hate it, but I don’t.
See jimmy, you can thank me for working the bugs outta them things back in 55.
 
You haven’t driven one with a 12 speed Endurant, coupled with a Cummins. Easiest truck I’ve ever driven, even in reverse- drives like a car. The 10speed auto shifts were horrible, but the 12s are great! 7.8 mpg over my last 352,000 miles on a 2020 LT. Snow, ice, hills, flatland. You can switch it to manual and lock it in (except the beeper from locking it drives me crazy!)

I thought I’d hate it, but I don’t.
In all fairness, I know guys getting 8-9 mpg driving manual 10 speeds. A lot has to do with keeping your RPM’s in the right range.
 
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