ACC is ■■■■. Mirror cams are ■■■■. Lane departure buzzer is ■■■■ and autonomous braking is ■■■■ as false positives can ■■■■■ your load. Drive your own wagon.
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R420:
weeto:
R420:
It’s just a gimmick for the youngsters and steering wheel attendants that haven’t got a clue how to drive properly so need a computer to do it all for them. Proper drivers have good anticipation and know how to drive. No need for all these silly gimmicks. They’re more of a hindrance than a help.Up there with auto boxes, some are a god send for us old timers, after 32 driving all sorts I would never knock an auto, in fact I wouldn’t drive anything with a manual box, to many RSIs, left shoulder left hip, left knee, right foot to name a few, all down to driving “proper” trucks, wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
And anything that stops muppets from rear ending another truck on a straight motorway is also a good thing.Autos are fine on most trucks now, but how long did it take to get them to a point where they were pleasant to drive and actually made the job easier than doing it yourself with a stick? 20 years? The I-shfit became the benchmark when it was released, but still had its foibles and still does. Turning left or right out of a narrow junction with a heavy trailer and on a bit of an incline will quickly confuse it as it tries to block change up about 3 gears, just as your trailer wheels dig in on the turn and wash off the small amount of speed you’d built up, so you end up sat there in the middle of the road as it tries to find 2nd or 3rd to do it all again. You don’t have that problem in a 12 speed manual as you’d either hold it in gear until you were straightening up or just quickly split it up 1 gear instead of 3.
I’m not anti-technology but it has to work right, from the start, not some half-baked set-up that only works when it’s dry, sunny and no wind/rain/snow/leaves to confuse the sensors and dish out annoying false positives. Autos have come on a long way. The early ones were terrible with glacial change speeds (still bad on DAFs and Iveco) but our 450 XT Scanias are near instant and a pleasure to drive. They might even be dual clutch but just guessing here. Our older ones are still manual 4 over 4 with no splits and need working hard with 20,000 litres in the back with a 340 engine
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ACC has a lonnnnnnnnng way to go before it works properly. The numerous issues mentioned up thread are all good examples of its failings.
Your experience of iShift is radically different to mine it seems. The ones I drive are near faultless. Maybe it’s just my steering attendant style of driving. Though if you can’t tell if something is dual clutch or not I’m not the only steering attendant it seems 
Don’t think anyone could accuse you of being a steering wheel attendant Switch, you’ve more experience than most of the blokes on here, me included. Suppose ACC is like Marmite. Welcome back by the way. [emoji106]
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switchlogic:
I LOVE ACC! Such a great gadget. Use it as much as I can when fitted. Never known brakes to be cooked though, but then it’s hard to cook brakes in a modern lorry anyhow these days, not like days of yore! You can adjust minimum distance in ones I’ve driven but couldn’t tell you how to do it in a MB. A truck with at least 500bhp, a decent auto box and ACC is pretty much my dream lorry. Works brilliantly in heavy traffic that’s moving fast enough to stop it deactivating too
I sometimes do use ACC in traffic, but wouldn’t miss it, if it was taken away. But it does blindly follow the rest of the traffic in continually adjusting speed rather than working out a more steady constant speed, as a good driver might.
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Can only speak of my '65 plate DAF:
Set the max speed for a hill descent and the truck will use low gears correctly.
But if the ACC only is used the truck uses service brakes ONLY to slow, hence they will cook up.
I have atar6ed descending a hill following another truck and noticed I was still in top gear although only doing 60 or 70kph.
The service brakes were being applied all the time to stop gaining on proceeding vehicle. So I took control and stopped the Ferodo from frying.
I’m not a fan of the DAF gearbox (of this year, newer may well be better) and don’t think the other gizmos work as well as they could, indeed, as they should.
Likewise…
The small almost impreceptable drop in speed on ACC as you catch up to another motor is a pain in the 'arris. Whilst I’m not going to argue over 20p on or off my wage it is annoying to have to hoof it back up to ramming speed again. In traffic ACC leaves it, in my opinion, way too late for gently braking. It determines the last possible point and then nosedives the whole outfit when ever I’ve let it approach standing traffic on it’s own. I’ll stick with my cruise off, natural deceleration with the trucks own inertia, exhaust brake and then foot braking if needed. Look far enough ahead and you don’t need brakes.
Auto boxes, love 'em. I’ve done all that Fuller Spicer Eaton David Brown two speed cobblers and I’d never go back to it.
Auto wipers, yeh they need perfecting.
Lane departure can go ■■■■ itself as far as I’m concerned.
Mirror cam, not driven with it yet but I’m keen to try it.
Auto braking, I’m 70/30 against until the systems improve on false alarms.
If anyone knows about the latest systems here it’ll be Switchy. Never seen him in anything less than the latest top of the range model heading off to Italy or the Chinese border.
Oh yeh, don’t use cruise in crappy conditions.
Franglais:
but if you rely on ACC a DAF will cook up your brakes if you let it.
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Edit. Using the hill descent, should use engine and gears rather than brakes.
In my experience the DAFs use engine and gears, not brakes when slowing on ACC. We got the first ones to have it in 2014, the 19 plates we have do the same.
R420:
It’s just a gimmick for the youngsters and steering wheel attendants that haven’t got a clue how to drive properly so need a computer to do it all for them. Proper drivers have good anticipation and know how to drive. No need for all these silly gimmicks. They’re more of a hindrance than a help.
The people who spout that ■■■■■■■■ tend to be the drivers at the lower end of the skillset without the mental capacity to be able to adapt and learn new technologies. That’s what it comes down to. They get in a truck with all this stuff and the reason they don’t like it is because they lack the mental capacity to figure out how to press a few buttons and navigate through a simple menu to turn it off, assuming that it isn’t just a button on the dash you press. They’re so stupid that they don’t even realised they are literally advertising that they want to drive crap below minimum spec trucks in order to work harder for their money than they have to do.
I’ve got over quarter of a century in, can rope and sheet, I can do a dolly knot, I’ve used palm couplings, other than concrete mixers and car transporters there’s very little I’ve not driven, I can drive a Merc EPS gearbox, an Eaton Twin Split, a constant mesh gearbox and double clutch with my eyes closed and not only can I change a tyre I can dismantle the whole truck, split it down into individual components, even taking the engine and gearbox down to empty casings and put it back together again. So does that make me a proper driver?
And I for one welcome automatic gearboxes, cruise control, hill descent speed control and adaptive cruise control. Who the hell would want to work harder than they have to?
As for “proper drivers have good anticipation and know how to drive” in the quarter of a century I’ve had just two accidents, both not at fault, the last one I had being 24 years ago. I can count the number of times I’ve done damage to a vehicle off the road, things like catching something when manouvering in a tight yard etc on the fingers of one hand. Same for the number of times I’ve had anything go over in the back of my lorry and there’s just 2 times I’ve damaged a load (although to be honest I did do a proper job when I did). Hows about you?
These “gimmicks” as you call them aid the driver, not that you’re clever enough to work out they do, by removing another thing they need to worry about so they can concentrate MORE on what those around them are doing. For example if hill descent speed control is maintaining my vehicle speed as I drop off a hill I can spend more time observing what those around me are doing than having to constantly check my speedo taking my eyes off the road to make sure my speed isn’t getting too high.
Conor:
Franglais:
but if you rely on ACC a DAF will cook up your brakes if you let it.
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Edit. Using the hill descent, should use engine and gears rather than brakes.In my experience the DAFs use engine and gears, not brakes when slowing on ACC. We got the first ones to have it in 2014, the 19 plates we have do the same.
I can only say what my 65 plate does.
I was told by the DAF demo driver ours were different to earlier models, and later ones are certainly different.
It certainly does overly rely on service brakes when on ACC.
Most of the time, on most roads, it copes ok. Anything out the ordinary and it is useless. We had the ‘revert to auto’ taken off, so when we select manual, it stays there until the driver reselects auto.
R420:
Autos are fine on most trucks now, but how long did it take to get them to a point where they were pleasant to drive and actually made the job easier than doing it yourself with a stick? 20 years? The I-shfit became the benchmark when it was released, but still had its foibles and still does. Turning left or right out of a narrow junction with a heavy trailer and on a bit of an incline will quickly confuse it as it tries to block change up about 3 gears, just as your trailer wheels dig in on the turn and wash off the small amount of speed you’d built up, so you end up sat there in the middle of the road as it tries to find 2nd or 3rd to do it all again.
First automatic I ever drove was a Renault Premium roughly somewhere around 2005. I recall being impressed at how it changed gear, changing as I would have done with a manual.
What you posted about turning out of a junction etc I’ve never ever experienced and being agency I’ve driven every single automatic gearboxed truck there is often getting the high mileage dogs in quite poor states of repair as it was the agency wagon. One can only assume it’s your driving causing it. The only issue I’ve ever come across in a decade and a half of driving autos is with some 2015/16 Mercs we had on rental where one or two would ocassionally go into neutral in slow moving traffic. I’m assuming there is probably a software update to fix the issue that they never got because Ryder won’t ever send trucks into a dealership to get them done.
Just as an aside one of the reasons automatics came into being is because of the sheer number of drivers who despite what they thought actually couldn’t drive a manual gearbox truck properly. They’d still be there in the 21st Century revving the engine well towards the redline before changing gear like it was an old Seddon Atkinson from half a century before instead of sticking in the green doing nothing other than turning diesel to smoke and accelerating slower than if they’d changed up and used the torque. And that’s even before we get to the amount of clutches that drivers killed.
Silver_Surfer:
autonomous braking is [zb] as false positives can ■■■■■ your load.
That’s your fault for not loading and securing it properly. If you had done then it shouldn’t be an issue. And as I’ve spent the last 6 years driving DAFs I’ve plenty experience of false positives. Never spunked a load though and we have probably some of the worst types of load as other than the chipboard almost every pallet is of a different size, they can be stacked 4/5 high and depending on what drop is getting what some of the higher pallets can have nothing in front of them. Funny how when you secure a load properly even then they don’t shift.
Conor:
Silver_Surfer:
autonomous braking is [zb] as false positives can ■■■■■ your load.That’s your fault for not loading and securing it properly. If you had done then it shouldn’t be an issue. And as I’ve spent the last 6 years driving DAFs I’ve plenty experience of false positives. Never spunked a load though and we have probably some of the worst types of load as other than the chipboard almost every pallet is of a different size, they can be stacked 4/5 high and depending on what drop is getting what some of the higher pallets can have nothing in front of them. Funny how when you secure a load properly even then they don’t shift.
As a generalisation you’re correct. A properly secured load won’t move.
However a sharp bit of braking with an unbaffled tanker might not ruin the load, but will make for a 'lively time"!
Well just found this YouTube vid of some one using acc in an actros in stop start traffic https://youtu.be/_Mm08K8InD8 with feet off the pedals, I suppose if your driving the same truck day in day out you can get the confidence to leave the truck to do what it does with out to much concern as pointed out by SwitchLogic in an earlier post, at the end of the day the modern truck technology is designed to not let the truck crash if the technology is being used.
switchlogic:
Your experience of iShift is radically different to mine it seems. The ones I drive are near faultless. Maybe it’s just my steering attendant style of driving. Though if you can’t tell if something is dual clutch or not I’m not the only steering attendant it seems
The missus’ VW is dual clutch. I know what it is. The last time I drove a Scania auto it was glacially slow to change gear. The new ones (20 plate) are near instant - a near identical experience to driving the VW, hence why I wondered if they were dual clutch. I don’t know and I don’t particularly care either.
As for steering wheel attendant top trumps, it’s unlikely that I’ll knock you from holding the top spot there as I don’t have a tendency to put my truck on its side in a ditch when driving along dead straight and level roads. I must try harder.
Conor:
R420:
It’s just a gimmick for the youngsters and steering wheel attendants that haven’t got a clue how to drive properly so need a computer to do it all for them. Proper drivers have good anticipation and know how to drive. No need for all these silly gimmicks. They’re more of a hindrance than a help.The people who spout that ■■■■■■■■ tend to be the drivers at the lower end of the skillset without the mental capacity to be able to adapt and learn new technologies. That’s what it comes down to. They get in a truck with all this stuff and the reason they don’t like it is because they lack the mental capacity to figure out how to press a few buttons and navigate through a simple menu to turn it off, assuming that it isn’t just a button on the dash you press. They’re so stupid that they don’t even realised they are literally advertising that they want to drive crap below minimum spec trucks in order to work harder for their money than they have to do.
I’ve got over quarter of a century in, can rope and sheet, I can do a dolly knot, I’ve used palm couplings, other than concrete mixers and car transporters there’s very little I’ve not driven, I can drive a Merc EPS gearbox, an Eaton Twin Split, a constant mesh gearbox and double clutch with my eyes closed and not only can I change a tyre I can dismantle the whole truck, split it down into individual components, even taking the engine and gearbox down to empty casings and put it back together again. So does that make me a proper driver?
And I for one welcome automatic gearboxes, cruise control, hill descent speed control and adaptive cruise control. Who the hell would want to work harder than they have to?
As for “proper drivers have good anticipation and know how to drive” in the quarter of a century I’ve had just two accidents, both not at fault, the last one I had being 24 years ago. I can count the number of times I’ve done damage to a vehicle off the road, things like catching something when manouvering in a tight yard etc on the fingers of one hand. Same for the number of times I’ve had anything go over in the back of my lorry and there’s just 2 times I’ve damaged a load (although to be honest I did do a proper job when I did). Hows about you?
These “gimmicks” as you call them aid the driver, not that you’re clever enough to work out they do, by removing another thing they need to worry about so they can concentrate MORE on what those around them are doing. For example if hill descent speed control is maintaining my vehicle speed as I drop off a hill I can spend more time observing what those around me are doing than having to constantly check my speedo taking my eyes off the road to make sure my speed isn’t getting too high.
PMSFL ! U mad? Poor quality rant, 2/10 at best. No mention of “I’ve done more miles in reverse” or “when I used to do the continent”.
The sum of your driving experience is dragging Howdens kitchen units across the A66 every night whilst angrily ranting at other truckers having the temerity to drive at 56mph on the single bits.
R420:
As for steering wheel attendant top trumps, it’s unlikely that I’ll knock you from holding the top spot there as I don’t have a tendency to put my truck on its side in a ditch when driving along dead straight and level roads. I must try harder.
Ooooooo bitchy, get you Though in my defense I do know how to drive an iShift 
But then I am also recovering from a car accident which left me dying on the side of the road with catastrophic injuries so to be fair I’m not much of a steering wheel attendant since I don’t seem to have much success attending the steering wheel
Conor:
Silver_Surfer:
autonomous braking is [zb] as false positives can ■■■■■ your load.That’s your fault for not loading and securing it properly. If you had done then it shouldn’t be an issue. And as I’ve spent the last 6 years driving DAFs I’ve plenty experience of false positives. Never spunked a load though and we have probably some of the worst types of load as other than the chipboard almost every pallet is of a different size, they can be stacked 4/5 high and depending on what drop is getting what some of the higher pallets can have nothing in front of them. Funny how when you secure a load properly even then they don’t shift.
Get yourself down to DHL Molson Coors and tell them to stop their whole pallet operation then Conor.
I know we’re not supposed to get in to it & I usually don’t reply to your posts to me as you’re the sort of person I wouldn’t engage with in the real with a holier than though know it all attitude who thinks he’s a better driver than anyone else on here. I’ve said my piece. I’ll go back to ignoring you now.
Edited to add that I’ve never spunked a load due to autonomous braking but I know lads that have. If you ■■■■ pulling them cans of carling out of burton, you have a panic attack. [emoji23]
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Silver_Surfer:
Conor:
Silver_Surfer:
autonomous braking is [zb] as false positives can ■■■■■ your load.That’s your fault for not loading and securing it properly. If you had done then it shouldn’t be an issue. And as I’ve spent the last 6 years driving DAFs I’ve plenty experience of false positives. Never spunked a load though and we have probably some of the worst types of load as other than the chipboard almost every pallet is of a different size, they can be stacked 4/5 high and depending on what drop is getting what some of the higher pallets can have nothing in front of them. Funny how when you secure a load properly even then they don’t shift.
Get yourself down to DHL Molson Coors and tell them to stop their whole pallet operation then Conor.
I know we’re not supposed to get in to it & I usually don’t reply to your posts to me as you’re the sort of person I wouldn’t engage with in the real with a holier than though know it all attitude who thinks he’s a better driver than anyone else on here. I’ve said my piece. I’ll go back to ignoring you now.
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It’s hardly surprising that his load doesn’t shift when every bend on the A66 can be taken at 50+, perhaps with the exception of the one after the tank training place. He seems to think he’s a god of driving because he can get a load of chipboard from Howden to Lockerbie without it coming through the curtain. But I’m willing to bet he went all the way up to Middlesborough on the 19 when the A1 was shut at Leeming instead of going via Bedale and Richmond on the back roads. These “done it all” types are usually all mouth and no trousers in reality.
Hello weeto to adjust the distance on your acc,first press the button on the right hand side of the wheel that looks like a cog. On the dashboard it will come up distance/lane control, then use the scroll in the centre of the buttons to close the gap which will be very close, or scroll back to open the gap. On my merc the start position means at 56 its about 200 feet from the truck in front. I hope this helps you post back if you need further help. I did video all this but can’t work out how to upload it.
R420:
Silver_Surfer:
Conor:
Silver_Surfer:
autonomous braking is [zb] as false positives can ■■■■■ your load.That’s your fault for not loading and securing it properly. If you had done then it shouldn’t be an issue. And as I’ve spent the last 6 years driving DAFs I’ve plenty experience of false positives. Never spunked a load though and we have probably some of the worst types of load as other than the chipboard almost every pallet is of a different size, they can be stacked 4/5 high and depending on what drop is getting what some of the higher pallets can have nothing in front of them. Funny how when you secure a load properly even then they don’t shift.
Get yourself down to DHL Molson Coors and tell them to stop their whole pallet operation then Conor.
I know we’re not supposed to get in to it & I usually don’t reply to your posts to me as you’re the sort of person I wouldn’t engage with in the real with a holier than though know it all attitude who thinks he’s a better driver than anyone else on here. I’ve said my piece. I’ll go back to ignoring you now.
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It’s hardly surprising that his load doesn’t shift when every bend on the A66 can be taken at 50+, perhaps with the exception of the one after the tank training place. He seems to think he’s a god of driving because he can get a load of chipboard from Howden to Lockerbie without it coming through the curtain.
I didn’t intend to be mean to him, I was tired when I wrote the above but there’s probably blokes on here who he replies to picking them apart and they just don’t bother posting anymore.
I’ve driven artics for about 20 years. Bought a brand new V8 R500 with all the bells and whistles from Jake Fallon, the now retired silver fox at Keltruck West Brom in 2006 for 80 grand at the age of 30 & 7 brand new double deck box trailers from Montracon, (£25k each) along with 3 or 4 hired ones from Cartwright trailers to do Tesco distribution trunking first for Exel Logistics at NDC Coventry then T direct when they took it in house and also Wincanton for T at Daventry.
All paid for after 5 years when the job went pear shaped as Eddie Stobart banged the Scotch on Thomas the tank engine and then took the whole job nationwide. I struggled on for a while on various other jobs before throwing the towel in.
I had a tear in my eye when I eventually sold my V8 for £20K as it rolled out the gate for the last time.
There ain’t too many on here who know more about the job than me.
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But these are driving ‘aids’ not must use things. From some of what has been put it would be better for the driver to anticipate and knock it off rather than let it do its stuff and balls it up then complain.
Fully agree the I shift is about the best box out there, but it does have its faults, most of which can be quickly over come by knocking it into manual to hold the gear. Never driven an ACC yet, but I sure as hell won’t be expecting it to bring me to a stop behind stationary traffic when I do. If these ‘aids’ were as good as some expect them to be then we’d be out of a job as the truck would be driving itself.