Welcome LeeLee I’ll agree with you regarding the MAN autos off road, the DX setting is good although a lot drivers say their hopeless in the mud. Johnny Fastpants in his Foden 400 obviously can’t drive one off road (I can ) and Daf autos were very poor, hoping they’ve improved as we’ve just got a CF Construction auto on demo.
Another good off roader I found was the Merc Axor (apologies for saying the words Axor and good in the same sentance).
I don’t use the DX setting,all it seems to do is hold the gear longer at high revs,setting the gear manually,say at the bottom of a steep slope,has the same effect,and as for the manoeuvre settings…forget them,you look worse than a first day learner driver. True what you say about spreading stone,by the time you’ve disengaged the pto,selected drive and given it 3 seconds to engage,the load is on the floor! Got to admit it has been a steep learning curve as the vehicle was purchased used and arrived with no manual so it’s been a lot of trial and error.
Just had my first full day on a Daf demonstrator (CF Construction) and I loved the auto 'box. It was completely different to the last Daf auto tipper I drove and infinitly better than a MAN. Amazing to think MAN and Daf use the same auto boxes, as I only needed to manually change about three times all day. Nice relaxed drive, no trouble getting out onto roundabouts, even the reverse worked flawlessly. Got 90% braking efficiency and 80% anticipation (not bad considering many junctions around here are overgrown or part obscured by bloody signs promoting fetes etc). MPG equalled my regular Daf (been on the same run). My only complaint is why can’t you drive forwards with the tipping gear operating? The PTO disengages even by letting off the handbrake, which means instead of a smooth tip, you do it in stages.
Muckaway:
Can you raise the tipper and drive forward with yours Liberty Guy? I couldn’t with the MAN, made you look a bit amateurish when spreading out stone as you had to each thing separately.
Send the ram up and try to put it in auto to ease forwards and the ram stops. Only way I found that works, is put the handbrake on, in neutral to send the ram up, then take the handbrake off as the load starts to spill out and let the weight of the load ease it forward, controlling its movement with the footbrake, then send the ram all the way up. More of a pain, but it works ok.
Muckaway:
Just had my first full day on a Daf demonstrator (CF Construction) and I loved the auto 'box. It was completely different to the last Daf auto tipper I drove and infinitly better than a MAN. Amazing to think MAN and Daf use the same auto boxes, as I only needed to manually change about three times all day. Nice relaxed drive, no trouble getting out onto roundabouts, even the reverse worked flawlessly. Got 90% braking efficiency and 80% anticipation (not bad considering many junctions around here are overgrown or part obscured by bloody signs promoting fetes etc). MPG equalled my regular Daf (been on the same run). My only complaint is why can’t you drive forwards with the tipping gear operating? The PTO disengages even by letting off the handbrake, which means instead of a smooth tip, you do it in stages.
Possibly due to it being a demo the ecu is set up to disengage the pto when the handbrake is released ,they probably don’t want to risk someone driving with the pto engaged on the roads and blowing the pto …It is easily switched off with DAVIE
Am with another tipper firm all of next week, so be back to regular manual range change boxes again for next week at least. Think most of their fleet are Mercs and MAN’s, but definitely no Volvo’s. I did enjoy that stint with the auto boxes though and would certainly be happy to drive one again.
Only way I found that works, is put the handbrake on, in neutral to send the ram up, then take the handbrake off as the load starts to spill out and let the weight of the load ease it forward, controlling its movement with the footbrake, then send the ram all the way up. More of a pain, but it works ok. 
