Could not imagine ever driving a automatic. But that is what they are going to. I heard 75% of all new trucks are automatic.
The new autos are a wonder. Nothing like from a few years ago. Anyone claiming experience in an Auto with those has no relevant experience.
I now work for a firm that is almost 100% automatics. At twenty years, I’m a long ways from being the old hand. It’s never a subject. (Sure, if we owned our own, a $40,000 Auto trans would not be preferred).
In my first 90,000 miles with one since Xmas (Detroit 12L & 12-Auto) I think I reached for the shifter twice. Had just come out of hauling a smoothbore tanker in a brand-new Kenworth with an 18. Job with an Auto was the same description.
Today’s is a 579 Peterblt (Cadillac spec) with a PACCAR MX13 and a 10-Auto. Twelve would be my preference to limit rpm drop. Then again, double-digit fuel economy is no small matter. The man who specs the trucks had over 30-years with CAT. I’m rarely under 8.5-mpg loaded to maximum. Running 67/68-mph.
No one misses having to downshift for some podunk town and then the series of upshifts leaving it.
Triple axle discs, VERY smart programming, and non-linear choices about engine braking make it far easier to be smooth. You wouldn’t believe the integration between engine brake operation and downshift programming until you experienced it. (Sooner or later, John Henry can’t keep up with the steam hammer).
And as said, the fuel economy is more than impressive. I see double digits whenever empty or light.
One educates ones right foot. That’s the learning hump (besides that they’re slower off the line). Finesse.
I’d take a job where the trans was a 13 or 18. But nothing else. A ten Auto beats a ten Manual every day and in every situation.
I’d agree it’s a good thing to learn how to move a big truck with a manual. Mainly about stopping distances. But I’d no more accept a job where the tractor had drum brakes either. (Pray hard, apply.) Or trailers without ABS.
It’s less fatiguing, there are fewer potential screwups, and one KEEPS one attention on what matters: steering & braking.
With the historically greatest invasion of a sovereign nation by foreigners underway (67-million do NOT speak English at home) todays traffic is nothing like 1973. IQ in general is far lower. And inability to make deductions from information in mirrors changes almost everything else. Visuo-spatial skills aren’t there. Once a safe assumption. Now one MUST notice patterns. Can’t assume based on ones self any longer.
Besides, ha, now it’s easier to fiddle with the radio. Your big toe does the work that used to take two feet. The advice was always: learn to give the truck what it wants. That’s now a more direct relationship.
It’s different. But it’s also “better” (as definitions have changed with new conditions; engines have FAR more power today. Drivetrains are stronger. Etc).
.f
My prizes are my 303 British Enfield and my German Mauser both puchased @ Woolworths for $49.95 each and I sporterized them . If I new what they would be worth now in original condition I never would have touch them ! Just a dumb kid in my 20's back then .
