I doubt we'll see the same 10 speed that is debuting in the F150 behind the powerstroke. I imagine it's engineered to operate efficiently in the F150 package. A tranny thats beefy enough to withstand the torque of the PSD wouldn't be as efficient in an F150. However, it wouldn't surprise me to see an 8 or 10 spd behind the PSD in a few years.

 

I don't think the 10-speed is coming to any Super Super, gas or diesel. I don't believe it was ever designed for the HD trucks. I could be wrong, but this is essentially a light-duty, light-truck transmission. Yes, I know it is going to debut in the Raptor which may have 450hp and 500lb-ft of torque...but keep in mind, the original Raptor had 411hp and 434lb-ft and it was mated to the 6R80. Not to mention, the Raptor and Super Duty are supposed to debut at basically the same time, so the transmission is "ready."

In my driveway right now, we have a 2011 5.0L F-150 with the 6R80 and a 2016 F-350 6.7L with the 6R140. I can assure you the 6R140 is significantly larger and heavier. Twice the size? No, but it definitely looks the part of an HD transmission.

Personally, I would think it would be pretty annoying having my transmission shuffle through 10 gears every time it gets up to speed. Ever been behind a loaded semi truck needing to shuffle through all the gears to get moving? It is painfully slow. I'm sure an auto is better and quicker, but still...come on.

 

Skip gears.

 

Of course...but if you are skipping them, why do you need them?

I'm sure there is an advantage, but my preference is no more than 8 gears. I feel this is a bit of one-upmanship or for marketing purposes.

 

Ever since towing with my 2005 F150 with the 4 speed trans, I've always thought more gears are better. That truck was happy climbing hills at about 85 km/h, or 120 km/h. Since we have a lot of highways though the rocky mountains here. For you Americans, that's either 50 mph, or 75 mph. Clearly 75 was too fast, although the truck would do it fine, and the 50 was far too slow for the lineup of cars that accumulated behind me. It was 100% a gearing issue.

Having towed with the 6r80 in my 2012 F150, I really appreciated the extra gears.

I do agree, it's diminishing returns, both from a fuel economy and driver experience standpoint. However, with how quick and smooth these new transmissions shift, I wouldn't be frightened away from a 60-speed transmission.

 

Why don't you keep the wheels locked in 4WD or why do you have a choice in turning off tow/haul mode? Hell why do we even have 6 speeds now when 3 or 4 got the job done in the past.

You won't need 10 gears all the time so why shift through them all, all of the time. You have to build a truck that can commute during the week and tow 25k on the weekend.

 

Bit of a stretch! I think 6 speeds is optimal, that is all.

 

Fiats engineers who do it for a living found that 9 speed was the limit on returns for their little jeeps. I'm sure a truck rated for 30k could benefit from another gear.

 

Nah, that's not a Fiat unit - its a ZF, for sale on the open market, and from what I hear, a complete piece of junk, unlike their highly-rated 8-speed.

So the Jeep has a 9-speed, but is virtually impossible to get it to ever actually shift into 9th, and the thing is hunting for gears all the time. That's what I mean about not needing the extra gears.

There would be no reason for a truck towing 30k to need the extra gears, because they are already towing that much with the 6-speed. What I mean is that an F-450 pulls away smoothly with the current 6-speed and 30k in tow. It gets up to speed just fine. Extra gears are typically overdrives, which are pointless with that much weight. An 18-wheeler may have 16 speeds, but they are in place to get 80k moving. If our trucks are already moving the load without issue, why do we need more gears?

Plus, more gears = more weight = less fuel economy.

 

When the 10 speeds comes out, order a gear vendors over drive for it and you get 20 speeds.

 

Maybe two of them and get 40 . . .

 

Heavy trucks skip-shift routinely even when loaded to maximum. There's a big difference in gearing needs when pulling away from a stop and when climbing or descending grades.

 

The 10R80 will be in the F150

The 10R140 will be in SD, probably with the rumored new 5.8 gas and 6.7 in 2018

 

"10R80?" "10R140?" What makes you so sure these are the names of the new transmission? You are aware the 6R80 and 6R140 are not remotely the same unit? Not based upon the same architecture at all. Also, the number denotes maximum torque at the input shaft of the transmission. With gas and diesel power both moving north, why would they keep the max torque rating the same?

Perhaps the 10 speed might be attached to a gas 5.8L F-250, much in the way we have the TorqShift-G (beefed up 6R80) today.

 

To me it would be nice to have 5-6 gears usable during normal driving and another set allocated to tow/haul mode. You could even have a super low set of gears that could make a 2 speed transfer case obsolete.