GRABBING GEARS VS AUTOMATICS

I've been a gear grabber since driving CMV. I'm now in a transitioning point-switching over to a automatic. I've heard positive/ negative views on them. Guess my biggest question is: when going up/down hills, do you stay in the AUTOMATIC POSITION, w/Jake's or do you switch to MANUAL w/Jake's to control speed down hill??

I've been a gear grabber since driving CMV. I'm now in a transitioning point-switching over to a automatic. I've heard positive/ negative views on them. Guess my biggest question is: when going up/down hills, do you stay in the AUTOMATIC POSITION, w/Jake's or do you switch to MANUAL w/Jake's to control speed down hill??

Calvin, my company disabled manual mode on their trucks, so I obviously never use it and never even think about it. ****il now)

When I got qualified for auto at Schneider, I asked the instructor about manual mode. This is what he told me: “Don’t worry about it, you will never use it.”

That being said, other drivers use it to control descents, creeping around yards and distribution centers, etc. But I don’t have it, so I don’t use it.

You can keep it in auto and still force it to up/downshift without actually putting it into manual. I actually do that quite a bit.

I also had to use the lever when needed, since manual was also turned off lol.....If I wanted to hold say, 9th or 10th pulling a hill, or passing, I'd push it down into that gear, and hold it down. Besides CRST, really de-tuned the engines, and max cruise/pedal @ 67, got used to it kinda.

Legends, same thing for the 2022 new truck I got, manual turned off, but they set my cruise/pedal to 72 mph,lot better. I could pass just about every mega truck out there hahaha....See a Prime truck ahead, pfffft, easist of all hahaha

Always thought, damnnnn why not have a "passing gear" kick in like our cars do, but cars have a vaccum system that does that.......

I've been a gear grabber since driving CMV. I'm now in a transitioning point-switching over to a automatic. I've heard positive/ negative views on them. Guess my biggest question is: when going up/down hills, do you stay in the AUTOMATIC POSITION, w/Jake's or do you switch to MANUAL w/Jake's to control speed down hill??

Howdy, Calvin!

Do you HAVE an AMT, or full auto transmission?!?!? They are, indeed, different.

My hubby, the same; driving for 20 plus years. He still prefers 13 to 18 to right hand grab, and 3 pedals so he doesn't get his left foot lonely, but many fleets are changing. The Mack Pinnacle he's usually in, has an AMT. He'll still wager for the ole' gal, fully manual, as he can. LoL !

Many folks don't realize that an AMT transmission (in a rig, or otherwise) is quite different from an automatic, straight away.

There's a few links I've added below; we actually have a Mitsubishi Eclipse that's an 'excuse' of an AMT, when they tried them in cars. It's a flying BLAST, but shouldn't have been our daughter's 1st car. (Now she's onto motorcycles, 8 years wiser!!)

Read this, and PLEASE G'Town (especially!) and correct my errors in speaking/posting; Tom's not home yet. Winging it.

AMT vs. Full Automatic Transmissions

Another one, from SNI, when they switched: Schneider's switch from manual to AMT, and the explanlation of differences vs. full auto trans.

Back to your original post; I'll let the professionals answer that, but there are advantages, with each variation of gearbox.

Best wishes!

~ Anne ~