The logic could limit power, but it isn't needed.

I wasn't in any of the product planning meetings, but I believe the only reason there isn't a manual trans in the Superduty is that not enough of them were sold to make it profitable to continue with the manual.

 

Mark, I believe you and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. I've been looking at u joint specs from Dana and if I read it right, it should take a 1810 series joint (almost 2 inch caps and 7.5 inch width) to hold almost 7000 lb ft even in short duration. I can't seem to find what a new superduty is using for u joints but I bet they're not that big.

Guess I'll add it to the list of numbers from auto makers that make no sense to me... like how today's superduty frames are 24 times stiffer than last year, or how an F150 can be had with 50% more payload than an F250.

 

Would you want to run all three levers for 11 hours a day? The first tandem dump truck I ran had a 5 and 4 combination.

Even the old guys who've been driving for 40 to 50 years are going to automatics in trucks. Saves on things like knees.

A 13 speed would be okay fine. Use the clutch to start out float the rest of the way through the gears. Great! Split the top two gears, now it isn't bad.

 

I am 1 of those 40/50 year experience OTR drivers and I still much prefer a manual. I started out with a 4X5 and a Mack Triplex and got along with them just fine. I have driven an Eaton Ultrashift, or as some of use look at then, the automatic manual as they are still a manual that the computer controls the clutch and shifting on, I used it in combined city delivery and over the road use. In the city it was hard to back into a dock smoothly as you could not really feather the clutch and if you were backing up hill it was terrible, you banged a lot of docks. On the road it was ok, but slow in accelerating and I saw no advantage over a 10 or 13 speed, my personal favorite. I retired last spring and now drive OTR short haul part time and am very happy my tractor has the correct 3 pedals on the floor and a stick in the middle. My personal truck is a F350 with a 6.0 and an auto and I love it so I do think automatics do have their place, or maybe I'm just getting lazy after 5 million miles, but I do know that the new generation of drivers can't/won't drive a stick and the few that do can't seem to understand that the clutch pedal is for starting and stopping, not shifting gears.

 

The art of shifting gears with a manual is lost art.


Good news is you could probably leave it unlocked and keys in it and it would not be stolen.

 

Mark, do you remember in the last couple years of the 7.3 PSD pickup, they would raise the horsepower/torque on the Manual transmission versions, before the 4R100 versions got the improved tune?

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With the incessant push for better performance, and the EPA monitoring emissions and reporting fuel economy, an automatic transmission with many gears, torque converter lockup, and good sensor feedback, can keep the engine in the most appropriate rpm for the power needed at the moment.

 

Yes, I remember that.

 

its all about the "Numbers"..

and YES there have been news reports of car thief's TRYING to drive a manual and getting arrested.

I am 65, but Love manuals... was looking for a Super Duty with a manual.. no luck. almost every one of my cars and truck had a manual.
my 04 Dodge Ram was a manual.. ordered it that way.

I also still ride motorcycles.. 370,000 miles on them.. Love shifting and control.
but then I have been to superbike school. a long time ago.

 

Just a story on can't drive a manual trans..... As I've said before, I was a police officer in So. Cal. for 33 years and a training officer for much of that. One night my new 22 yr. old rookie and I went to assist our motor cops on a multi car wreck in a big intersection with LOTS of traffic trying to get through.

In order to clear a couple of lanes I told the rook to go move a little compact car over to the curb and I went about directing traffic. A couple minutes later I looked over and the "kid" was just sitting in this car, I flashed my light at him and said....what are you doing? He gave me this oh chit look and said....it's a stick sir, I've never driven one before. I moved the car and gave him a homework assignment to find a buddy who has a "stick" and learn how to drive one.

 

When I traded my Chevrolet in on my current ride the Chevrolet has a manual transmission. The sales girl goes to drive my old pickup. She couldn't.

I taught my wife wife how to drive a manual. Also on how to back a trailer. Not sure if there's a correlation.

 

My old Mack has 1710 u joints in it(ya, they are pretty big). I know that pickups don't use anything that big.


When I sold my '00 PSD 6spd CC DRW in 2002, I couldn't give it away locally. No one wanted a stick. I sold it on Ebay to a guy in Oklahoma. He flew in and drove it home.

I don't actually use all three sticks in my ol Mack on a regular basis. The third stick is basically for when I want slow moving(lo/lo) and if I need an extra OD to run away from traffic on the highway. Beyond that, the splits are the same basic ratio as the compound in the main box.

It does scare the hell out of most when they look in the cab.

I remember a comment that was made once about it: Make it so hard to drive even a Farmer won't want to borrow it". LOL!!

 

So how are the Clutches in Semis different from those in pickups?

 

They are larger.

 

that there is today's understatement award ...

Have a fine day.

 

...and STRONGER!