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I know my brother had 5 semi trucks and trailers he hauled steel in Detroit and he had all manual. Automatics are more expensive and require more maitenace. He hauled doubles and his loads were all heavy sometimes beyond legal limit. Because in the steel hauling business you get paid by the weight the more weight of the load the more money.
You're talking about B-trains. True that they haven't gained popularity for those applications, although it'll be interesting to see if the Allison TC10 takes off... like the Eaton, it's an automated manual gearbox, but uses a torque converter instead of an automated clutch. I could definitely see it creeping into those applications, if it lives up to the hype.
Being over legal limit gets real expensive, real fast!
The DOT cops aren't passing out $100 tickets
My brother did most of his overweight loads at night while the weigh master was not out. And most of his overweight loads were just from the yard to the Chrysler corp. stamping plant in town.
You're talking about B-trains. True that they haven't gained popularity for those applications, although it'll be interesting to see if the Allison TC10 takes off... like the Eaton, it's an automated manual gearbox, but uses a torque converter instead of an automated clutch. I could definitely see it creeping into those applications, if it lives up to the hype.
We will see but most truckers and companies still pefere manual because of cost and old time truckers still like manual shifting. Other things how often would you have to drain trans fluid and how much to get it changed. Also my brother had brand new side kicks coverd wagon trailers. Very expensive.
But the bit about them being higher maintenance is in reference to the old Autoshifts with the clutch pedal... they've improved a lot since then, and transmissions such as the I-shift have actually shown to be lower in maintenance costs in the long run, especially for these big box carriers. USXpress did go back to ten speeds because of problems they had with the older Eaton Autoshifts, but they're going back to them. Maverick used to run 10 directs, now they're all automatic.
The old time truckers... thing of it is, they're pretty much being pushed out. They want to bring in these new kids off the street who'll nod their heads and smile when you tell them they need EOBRS and they need to be limited to 62 MPH... old timers don't have the patience for that, and those who've tried to adapt to these carrier policies typically don't find themselves on the good end of it.
And, ultimately, what they like is going to take a distant second to the bottom line of the company owner. Basically, most of the problems you have with these trucks are caused by the loose nut behind the wheel. The ATA keeps saying there's a driver shortage, which is only partially true - the shortage is of good drivers, and that'll continue as long as they continue to cheapen the industry. So, what do you? You take the driver out of the equation in every way possible. Rev limiters to force the drivers to keep RPMs down and prevent skip shifting, and automatic transmissions to keep drivers from tearing them up (whether by playing, "can't find it? grind it", skip shifting, taking off in too high of a gear, riding their clutch, or any of the number of things drivers commonly do which often tears up transmissions and clutches). I don't see manuals going away for specialized carriers, heavy haulers, oilfields, construction, etc. anytime soon, but I do think the beginning of the end for them in strictly highway applications is in its opening phases.
You're talking about B-trains. True that they haven't gained popularity for those applications, although it'll be interesting to see if the Allison TC10 takes off... like the Eaton, it's an automated manual gearbox, but uses a torque converter instead of an automated clutch. I could definitely see it creeping into those applications, if it lives up to the hype.
Yeah, those are B-trains. A-trains are like what you see UPS, FedEx, YRC, ABS, Estes, etc. running, where they'll have a congear attached to the lead trailer with a pintle and clevice. B-trains/B-doubles have the fifth wheel on the lead trailer (thus, you could technically consider a heavy haul trailer with a jeep could be considered a b-train), and C-trains are similar to A-trains, but they typically use two drawbars, and they're also much more stable than the a-dollies... those doubles and triples you see... there's a reason we call them "wiggle wagons".
A lot of people tend to get confused, because classifications of certain things are expected to coincide with license classes, but the classification is separate... a lot of people think a Class A wrecker would be a heavy duty wrecker, but it's actually the opposite - a heavy duty wrecker is a Class C wrecker.
Yeah, those are B-trains. A-trains are like what you see UPS, FedEx, YRC, ABS, Estes, etc. running, where they'll have a congear attached to the lead trailer with a pintle and clevice. B-trains/B-doubles have the fifth wheel on the lead trailer (thus, you could technically consider a heavy haul trailer with a jeep could be considered a b-train), and C-trains are similar to A-trains, but they typically use two drawbars, and they're also much more stable than the a-dollies... those doubles and triples you see... there's a reason we call them "wiggle wagons".
A lot of people tend to get confused, because classifications of certain things are expected to coincide with license classes, but the classification is separate... a lot of people think a Class A wrecker would be a heavy duty wrecker, but it's actually the opposite - a heavy duty wrecker is a Class C wrecker.
I take that back I just spoke to my brother it was a A train with the pintle and clevice. Michigan has the highest weight law in the country so he said he would load his coils suscide with the eye of the coil pointing twords the side of the trailer, that way he could get unloaded faster. But if a chain broke or came loose the coil could roll right into his cab and kill him. I have seen a tractor were the coil just crushed the cab and killed the driver. He only did suscide a couple times because of that. After that he had the steel coils loaded with the eye twords the ass end of the trailer. Like you say weight means money. One night he ran to heavy and had 5 trailer blowouts under the COBO Hall underpass in Detroit this was at 1am.
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