Yes the Ultrashift’s are way behind the competition. A while back I was looking after a bunch of 26000lb gvw International rigid flatbeds. All were x Penske rental box vans, the boxes we sold on mostly for storage. All except one we ran had Allison automatic transmissions, the odd one being an Eaton auotmated gearbox. The changes were clunky at best and quite often changed down two gears at a time over revving the engine. Sent that to Atlanta first opportunity I had.
Its a pity Eaton got their knickers in a twist and prevented ZF from entering the U.S. market. Iirc there was a time limit to that court order!
I thought once Paccar started manufacturing the MX13 here they would of pushed to mate it with the then Astronic, and now TraXon the latest version of the 12 and 16 speed automated gearboxes.
Don’t hear much negative talk about them from Daf or Iveco, not that I have driven one lately.
The only complaint I have with my latest I-Shift is I can not shift up or down manually. Using the engine brake yes, it will drop down but only to decelerate. I miss the opportunity to make it get up and go, and keep the momentum up when necessary.
Probably should read the manual to see if the software will allow it to be operated through the one of the stalks!
Paul