I drive a new big E Freightliner with a X15 Cummins and an Eaton 12 speed automatic and it’s a pretty lousy shifting transmission. There’s no way this thing burns less fuel than if I did it myself. I had a Volvo the last several years with the Volvo engine and the I-Shift 12 speed auto transmission and that was a far superior transmission to the Eaton. I always prefer a manual though but they’ve made it clear they’re not buying anymore. For me it took a lot of the fun out of the job, now it’s essentially just holding a steering wheel, there’s nothing to do. If they wanted to keep guys off the phone and from doing other foolish things a manual would definitely help. I do understand a lot of these guys out here now never had a dad or an older male figure in their life to show them how to use a manual transmission and that’s unfortunate, luckily I did.
ODFL | Rumor mill....OD dumping 10 spd for auto starting 2023
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1984Sideways
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Nothing to do.
Thats what took the fun out of it for me as well.
My last great truck was a Mack Superliner with the 15 manual and a V8 format engine. It used to be a road tractor but was converted to dump for blacktop work. Lugs all the way down to 970 RPM if needed and is slow enough to get around no matter what you put into the box. The torque would stop the planet if you dug in at times.
She actually did some rock climbing at times, hill running at other times and bounced around off road in mud yea high. No trouble. Drifted on wet roads though but a touch of counter steering took care of that. No fuss. Wonderful truck. One of the best. Probably never saw 60 even though she was unrestricted forwards and backwards. There was no need.
I did not take her into snow in winter. Thank god. She would be such a slippery little bitch on a inch of snow and make me a dummy who cannot drive. What I require is two feet of snow on ice so I can stride across the land and be arrogant about being able to get from A to B while the sniveling cowards stayed home. Such is the mighty are brought low and humbled by a little inch of snow. HA. Serves me right.
Wonderful little thing. Plenty of gauges on the dash, if one of them were out of sorts you knew exactly what the problem was pending and got ahead of it. Axles kept getting hotter and we finally trace it to bad bearings on all four drives. One fine afternoon the two of us hauled the duals, hubs, axles and bearings off her under a shade tree on blocks and a minimum of tools. 4 hours later she had new bearings. I actually used my auto shop training packing those bearings from Timken with red grease of the old style. (Since banned) but we had barrels on the farm, I bet you we can find some even today.
Not doing that again. But shade tree was what it was back then.
Fast forward to computer trucks. They give you three gauges. Fuel, Speed and tach. Maybe. Everything else was deleted and idiot proofed dumbed down. If she broke it usually either a emissions, computer or transmission computer problem.
Dispatch "WHATS MATTA!?"
Me: Trucks broke again.
Dispatch: WTF!? What is wrong with that damn truck?! You break it?
Me: hell no. Its computer crap I know nothing about get me a tow man to find a shop and fix this pile of :
:.
Dispatch: We have a corporate policy not to use demeaning terms and so on etc etc etc etc...
Spare me.
Thats what took the fun out of it for me as well.
My last great truck was a Mack Superliner with the 15 manual and a V8 format engine. It used to be a road tractor but was converted to dump for blacktop work. Lugs all the way down to 970 RPM if needed and is slow enough to get around no matter what you put into the box. The torque would stop the planet if you dug in at times.
She actually did some rock climbing at times, hill running at other times and bounced around off road in mud yea high. No trouble. Drifted on wet roads though but a touch of counter steering took care of that. No fuss. Wonderful truck. One of the best. Probably never saw 60 even though she was unrestricted forwards and backwards. There was no need.
I did not take her into snow in winter. Thank god. She would be such a slippery little bitch on a inch of snow and make me a dummy who cannot drive. What I require is two feet of snow on ice so I can stride across the land and be arrogant about being able to get from A to B while the sniveling cowards stayed home. Such is the mighty are brought low and humbled by a little inch of snow. HA. Serves me right.
Wonderful little thing. Plenty of gauges on the dash, if one of them were out of sorts you knew exactly what the problem was pending and got ahead of it. Axles kept getting hotter and we finally trace it to bad bearings on all four drives. One fine afternoon the two of us hauled the duals, hubs, axles and bearings off her under a shade tree on blocks and a minimum of tools. 4 hours later she had new bearings. I actually used my auto shop training packing those bearings from Timken with red grease of the old style. (Since banned) but we had barrels on the farm, I bet you we can find some even today.
Not doing that again. But shade tree was what it was back then.
Fast forward to computer trucks. They give you three gauges. Fuel, Speed and tach. Maybe. Everything else was deleted and idiot proofed dumbed down. If she broke it usually either a emissions, computer or transmission computer problem.
Dispatch "WHATS MATTA!?"
Me: Trucks broke again.
Dispatch: WTF!? What is wrong with that damn truck?! You break it?
Me: hell no. Its computer crap I know nothing about get me a tow man to find a shop and fix this pile of :
:.Dispatch: We have a corporate policy not to use demeaning terms and so on etc etc etc etc...
Spare me.
longhaullounger
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The Freightliner transmission to have is the Detroit DT12. Combined with the Detroit DD15 engine, it's a really good powertrain.
I did learn from the generation before me. My Dad.
I learned work ethics ,pride in my job ,treating people like I would like to be treated, and be honest.
My 3 kids, all in their 30's, were raised the same way.
They can make change without using a calculator, can read a road map, have their own homes, none ask me for money, and 2 0f them can drive a pickup with a manuel.
The biggest concern I see with many young truck drivers today is, making sure their jet pilot phone head set is properly mounted on their head, so they can make sure they don't miss a call.
1984Sideways
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And a computer truck to do the driving for them so their flip flops dont give them hot foot.
Well good on you for being a good dad, I wished we had more that actually put effort into their children. There are a lot of people your kids age that didn’t have good dads or dads present in the home at all or any positive male figure in their lives and it’s a tragedy but it’s not their fault per se they didn’t learn certain things. For what it’s worth I see many older drivers at the job with their headsets seemingly surgically attached to their ears and a phone in their hands on a regular basis.
Everything you said, I agree and am enjoying. I'm the luckiest guy you'll ever talk to. But I have given this some thought and my life wasn't very different from my dad's life as compared to the difference between mine and my boys and girl. It's the warp speed advances in technology for sure.
Double Nickle
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We have e concrete mixers with automatics. Each is roughly15 years old. Only had one with a problem. 2 guys from Allison showed up one day. Plugged their computer into the tranny, replaced a sensor and left. Truck worked flawlessly until 6 months ago. Driver rolled it. They were gonna let the insurance company take it. I told them to keep it for parts. They decided to replace the drum and a few outer parts. It's back running concrete again.
Double Nickle
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1984Sideways
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The last good Concrete mixer we drove was a old Autocar. There is no point in pinning down the year. You are looking at anywhere from 1960 through 1980's somewhere. It was a real mutt. But oh such a sweetie when you loaded it down with 12 yards. She does get a touch tippy.
One someone finally rolled the damn thing mashing the cab all the way down. Never did find out what happened to him. A chonker like that gets a swaying you have to give her room...
I agree, technology has played a big part in how things are done today,how people act, how people look at everything. But could you imagine today if say the whole internet went down for even a day? Many would not be able to function, or have any sense of how to perform much of anything.
1984Sideways
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I can fix that over a game of monopoly in a few hours. Turn all of them into something like this...
