There seem to be a lot of problems for people who are unfamiliar with new-generation automatic gearboxes being posted just now, so I thought I’d start a thread so that those of us who drive them regularly and love them can pass on our secrets and thoughts on the subject.
As far as auto boxes go, I can’t speak for all of them, but I can tell you about Eurotronic, which is almost the same as DAF’s AS-Tronic - both are adaptations of ZF’s latest auto offering IIRC…even so, many of my pointers may well help with auto-box driving in general.
Bear in mind that this is coming from someone who hated autos with a vengence and swore the air every shade of blue when I had what is now my permanent truck for 3 days when I first started with Con’Ships…I was then subjected to 6 months in a Eurotech with the Eurotronic’s semi-auto predecessor, a gearbox which was universally acknowledged to be a resounding disaster.
Even though it was semi-auto, gear selection took around 10 years, and sustainable “creepability” was non-existent. You’d get asked to back up a bit and have to explain that it was two foot or nothing. Tyre wear soared as we all span the wheels on every bend, loaded or empty. The up-side was that I was forced to learn how to drive a modern clutch-less gearbox, and whilst I still tend to drive in semi, only using auto when I’m mapreading (or on the phone/rolling a ■■■ ), I can now pull away, change gear and manouever just as well as I could in a manual - but with a ■■■■ site less effort!
General Points
Just as a truck manual is not like a car manual, a truck auto is nothing like a car auto. If you’ve had an auto car, try and forget about it.
Driving an auto is a totally different skill and you have to learn it, just the same as you had to learn how to use a truck manual gearbox when you were a newbie. Don’t expect instant success, then blame the box when you don’t get it.
Most auto boxes are constant-mesh - you’ll hear the throttle “blipping” as you change down. Constant-mesh boxes (eg.twin splitter/ roadranger) take longer to change than syncho ones, until you learn the knack of them. The same is true of an auto. Once you get the knack, you’ll be flying through without a second thought.
For roundabouts, junctions, and anywhere else where you need a bit more control of the changes, use semi mode rather than auto, at least until you learn how to trick the box into changing how you want it to. I can make my box pick the gear I want, when I want in auto now, but I still prefer to choose semi through personal preference - not because I need to.
Whilst you can just put these gearboxes into drive and let them do what they like, the results will always be poor driven this way. The word “automatic” is something of a misnomer, as you do still have to “drive” the truck to achieve a decent ride and pull…perhaps if these gearboxes were re-named something like “pedal-efficient” or “action-reduced” then people might understand a little better what they are designed to do, and therefore be saved from the unrealistic expectations so many drivers start off with…and which is normally what puts them off when things simply don’t happen.
The Knack
All an auto box does, from the driver’s point of view, is amalgamate the controls. With a manual you have 4 - gearstick, clutch, brake and throttle. An auto has 2 - throttle and brake. You can accomplish all the same things by these 2 means, but you have to learn how.
In a manual, you achieve a quick getaway by getting and holding clutch bite before pressing the throttle. Same applies to an auto, it’s just that the clutch and throttle are on one pedal. When you learn to drive a manual car, they have you learn to find clutch bite by putting the handbrake on and lifting the clutch until the bonnet dips. To do the same thing in an auto truck, put the handbrake on and gently apply the throttle until the cab dips…this is where you need your foot to be when you are waiting to pull out. Hold the bite (just as in the car) and then press steadily (not hard, but firmly) on the throttle when it’s time to go. *Remember that, unlike a car auto, many truck autos will roll back in drive if you don’t have enough clutch bite to go forward. Therefore, you need to use either the handbrake or footbrake to hold your position, just as in a manual when you are riding the clutch ready to go on a hill.*
If you were to stop in a manual, and then try and floor the throttle at the same time as lifting the clutch, your right foot would go down before the more delicate handling needed with your left foot could catch up, and there would be a lot of revs going nowhere and then a bunny hop as the clutch bit and you tore forward. Try it in your car if you don’t believe me. THAT is why going from nought to floor in an auto doesn’t work.
In a manual, you need clutch bite then throttle. Same in an auto. Do as explained above, using the right pedal as a clutch, then you will be able to floor it for a quick getaway.
Same goes for manouevering. In a manual, you creep by getting clutch bite and then riding the clutch slightly whilst varying the throttle to prevent a stall. If you have bite and hold the throttle in place too long, your speed will steadily increase. Again, the same is true in an auto. Find clutch bite with the right pedal, and then very carefully ease your foot up and down to vary the speed just enough to prevent acceleration without losing drive by disengaging the clutch. You will then be able to creep just like a manual.
In auto mode, make the box change up and down by varying the amount of throttle. A quick burst of revs will force it to change up…and quick drop will make it change down. A bit of practice will teach you how long this takes to work so that you can time your throttle actions accordingly, and force the change without a noticeable change in speed.
A bit of patience will also teach you how to play with the revs to stop it changing when you don’t want it to.
In semi, or when forcing a change in auto, think about the constant-mesh bit again…in, say, a Roadranger, you have to allow time when changing on a hill to put the clutch in, blip the throttle, then let it out. Even in a synchro-ed box this is partially true. A semi/auto box will change far more quickly than a driver could change in a crash box, and on a hill you have the added advantage that if it fluffs it’s gear it’ll just go straight for a lower one - where the driver would have been stopped and blushing!
Bearing this in mind, start watching how much the revs climb in relation to when the change is, then work backwards. So if you find a semi-auto upchange happens 400 revs above the point at which you move the lever, and you want it to change at 1700 revs, move the lever as the needle hits 1300 revs then let it do it’s stuff. Same with auto eg. say the gear will change 400rpm above the point at which you blip the throttle, blip at 1300rpm to get a change up at 1700rpm. Same thing going down the box, too.
One of the most frustrating things can be waiting for the gearbox to drop down into starting gear so you can get clutch bite ready to pull away. Again, a sharp but not excessive blip of the throttle will speed this up, preferably done during the heavier stage of your braking, just before you actually stop - the same as forcing a change as above.
I’m sure I could add to this given a little more time…but I’ll let someone else take it from here.
Thanks Lucy, some excellent points put over very well, allows the reader to paint a helpful mental picture of how to behave and how the vehicle will react.
Never driven an auto and I am in no rush to do so, call me old fashioned but I see it as another example of de-skilling.
Thanks
I had a volvo auto for a few days last week, and what a eye opener it was too, quite handy especially as i was pulling pallets of un-shrink wrapped beer bottles from the factory in barnsley to the JS brewery in tadcaster.
Not 1 bottle did get broken, which is unusual, as there is a regular occurance of rollovers on that job.
I also had a similar 1 running out of chesterfield for a couple of days.
these autos don`t half make you lazy, ut as Lucy says, with a little encouragement they can be tricked into stepping up/down the box as needed
Never had a problem with i- shift , never had a problem with the stralis whatever it is box .
I dare anyone to come to my workplace and make a tga auto change bloody gear when it is appropriate to change bloody gear .
For instance accelerating towards a hill and just at basr of hill box changes to 12 carries on in 12 until its about to die then decides 11 might be a good idea , but bear in mind its also too slow for 11 so takes 10 . ( by now i,m screaming at it change " TO 9 YOU ■■■■■■■ THICK ■■■■■■■ " . try holding onto 11 before the hill … no chance will either drop to 10 so the revs go wild and then decides on 12 , or moves into 12 whilst your trying to hold 11 … The list is endless . I swear to god leave one of those in auto all night and you will be coming home on the train sick of the ■■■■ thing …
Lucy:
There seem to be a lot of problems for people who are unfamiliar with new-generation automatic gearboxes being posted just now, so I thought I’d start a thread so that those of us who drive them regularly and love them can pass on our secrets and thoughts on the subject.
As far as auto boxes go, I can’t speak for all of them, but I can tell you about Eurotronic, which is almost the same as DAF’s AS-Tronic - both are adaptations of ZF’s latest auto offering IIRC…even so, many of my pointers may well help with auto-box driving in general.
Bear in mind that this is coming from someone who hated autos with a vengence and swore the air every shade of blue when I had what is now my permanent truck for 3 days when I first started with Con’Ships…I was then subjected to 6 months in a Eurotech with the Eurotronic’s semi-auto predecessor, a gearbox which was universally acknowledged to be a resounding disaster.
Even though it was semi-auto, gear selection took around 10 years, and sustainable “creepability” was non-existent. You’d get asked to back up a bit and have to explain that it was two foot or nothing. Tyre wear soared as we all span the wheels on every bend, loaded or empty. The up-side was that I was forced to learn how to drive a modern clutch-less gearbox, and whilst I still tend to drive in semi, only using auto when I’m mapreading (or on the phone/rolling a ■■■ ), I can now pull away, change gear and manouever just as well as I could in a manual - but with a ■■■■ site less effort!
General Points
Just as a truck manual is not like a car manual, a truck auto is nothing like a car auto. If you’ve had an auto car, try and forget about it.
Driving an auto is a totally different skill and you have to learn it, just the same as you had to learn how to use a truck manual gearbox when you were a newbie. Don’t expect instant success, then blame the box when you don’t get it.
Most auto boxes are constant-mesh - you’ll hear the throttle “blipping” as you change down. Constant-mesh boxes (eg.twin splitter/ roadranger) take longer to change than syncho ones, until you learn the knack of them. The same is true of an auto. Once you get the knack, you’ll be flying through without a second thought.
For roundabouts, junctions, and anywhere else where you need a bit more control of the changes, use semi mode rather than auto, at least until you learn how to trick the box into changing how you want it to. I can make my box pick the gear I want, when I want in auto now, but I still prefer to choose semi through personal preference - not because I need to.
Whilst you can just put these gearboxes into drive and let them do what they like, the results will always be poor driven this way. The word “automatic” is something of a misnomer, as you do still have to “drive” the truck to achieve a decent ride and pull…perhaps if these gearboxes were re-named something like “pedal-efficient” or “action-reduced” then people might understand a little better what they are designed to do, and therefore be saved from the unrealistic expectations so many drivers start off with…and which is normally what puts them off when things simply don’t happen.
The Knack
All an auto box does, from the driver’s point of view, is amalgamate the controls. With a manual you have 4 - gearstick, clutch, brake and throttle. An auto has 2 - throttle and brake. You can accomplish all the same things by these 2 means, but you have to learn how.
In a manual, you achieve a quick getaway by getting and holding clutch bite before pressing the throttle. Same applies to an auto, it’s just that the clutch and throttle are on one pedal. When you learn to drive a manual car, they have you learn to find clutch bite by putting the handbrake on and lifting the clutch until the bonnet dips. To do the same thing in an auto truck, put the handbrake on and gently apply the throttle until the cab dips…this is where you need your foot to be when you are waiting to pull out. Hold the bite (just as in the car) and then press steadily (not hard, but firmly) on the throttle when it’s time to go. *Remember that, unlike a car auto, many truck autos will roll back in drive if you don’t have enough clutch bite to go forward. Therefore, you need to use either the handbrake or footbrake to hold your position, just as in a manual when you are riding the clutch ready to go on a hill.*
If you were to stop in a manual, and then try and floor the throttle at the same time as lifting the clutch, your right foot would go down before the more delicate handling needed with your left foot could catch up, and there would be a lot of revs going nowhere and then a bunny hop as the clutch bit and you tore forward. Try it in your car if you don’t believe me. THAT is why going from nought to floor in an auto doesn’t work.
In a manual, you need clutch bite then throttle. Same in an auto. Do as explained above, using the right pedal as a clutch, then you will be able to floor it for a quick getaway.
Same goes for manouevering. In a manual, you creep by getting clutch bite and then riding the clutch slightly whilst varying the throttle to prevent a stall. If you have bite and hold the throttle in place too long, your speed will steadily increase. Again, the same is true in an auto. Find clutch bite with the right pedal, and then very carefully ease your foot up and down to vary the speed just enough to prevent acceleration without losing drive by disengaging the clutch. You will then be able to creep just like a manual.
In auto mode, make the box change up and down by varying the amount of throttle. A quick burst of revs will force it to change up…and quick drop will make it change down. A bit of practice will teach you how long this takes to work so that you can time your throttle actions accordingly, and force the change without a noticeable change in speed.
A bit of patience will also teach you how to play with the revs to stop it changing when you don’t want it to.
In semi, or when forcing a change in auto, think about the constant-mesh bit again…in, say, a Roadranger, you have to allow time when changing on a hill to put the clutch in, blip the throttle, then let it out. Even in a synchro-ed box this is partially true. A semi/auto box will change far more quickly than a driver could change in a crash box, and on a hill you have the added advantage that if it fluffs it’s gear it’ll just go straight for a lower one - where the driver would have been stopped and blushing!
Bearing this in mind, start watching how much the revs climb in relation to when the change is, then work backwards. So if you find a semi-auto upchange happens 400 revs above the point at which you move the lever, and you want it to change at 1700 revs, move the lever as the needle hits 1300 revs then let it do it’s stuff. Same with auto eg. say the gear will change 400rpm above the point at which you blip the throttle, blip at 1300rpm to get a change up at 1700rpm. Same thing going down the box, too.
One of the most frustrating things can be waiting for the gearbox to drop down into starting gear so you can get clutch bite ready to pull away. Again, a sharp but not excessive blip of the throttle will speed this up, preferably done during the heavier stage of your braking, just before you actually stop - the same as forcing a change as above.
I’m sure I could add to this given a little more time…but I’ll let someone else take it from here.
Do you know, you can be really (annoyingly) patronising sometimes …
I still say you should drive a tga auto to prove you wrong …
My heart sinks when i get one of those , i just know within 10 minutes i,m going to shout at it …
It has to be worse backing onto a fully loaded trailer to couple up …
You get about half way under and the blasted thing stops … you apply more revs … nothing … more revs … nothing … more revs … has a twitch then all of a sudden thinks , bugger the driver wants me to go backwards , lurches backwards and slams into the pin thus sending the cab content s including driver all over the place … Terrible state of affairs …
You can hear people in the tga’s coupling up from the other side of burton …
BANG … ■■■■■■■ HELL
I think the best one yet is two stories from drivers of the tga auto’s going up birdlip hill fully freighted …
Truck changing down and gets to 5 and thinks bugger this i aint changing down anymore … so does’'nt both drivers ended up in the stop posistion on birdlip hill fully freighted with a stroppy auto box that wont select crawler and having to manually overide it … MAN have a lot to answer for over that box …and the plasticky breaking cab … but thats another whole thread
Went through a selection of Hill Hire SHEDS after x-mas, swapping between Iveco autos, Mercs manual & auto and MAN & DAF manuals on a daily basis. Until they finally got some brand new I-shift Volvo’s from BRS.
The Volvo was the best of the lot (probably because they hadn’t been abused on general hire). But really got to like automatics, especially when trying to get through busy town centres.
Had one motor that had a tendency to leave you in neutrel if you weren’t fully awake first thing in the morning(the Iveco I think), the Merc semi-auto had the slowest change in the world and the most annoying clicking noise, you had to wait until it clicked before you could release the clutch, if you were to quick, it gave out a loud warning (irritating) noise.
Back on the old Daf 75’s with manual boxes at present, oh the joys of large fleet driving
), I can now pull away, change gear and manouever just as well as I could in a manual - but with a ■■■■ site less effort! 
after x-mas, swapping between Iveco autos, Mercs manual & auto and MAN & DAF manuals on a daily basis. Until they finally got some brand new I-shift Volvo’s from BRS.