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Old 07-06-2006, 05:32 AM   #6
Warpath
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: N.E. Ohio
Posts: 768
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Your not going to see to many Allison's in class 8 trucks, just not enough gears. But it is used pretty heavily in tour buses. It's a bullet proof trans no issues.

The Eaton Auto Shift has also been out for a while and I have seen very little issue with it on some of the trucker forums I have visited.

Meritor is still pretty new, so not to sure how many have gotten into commercial applications. I haven't heard to much from the conversion crowd about it being unreliable.

The argument that the manual is less to go wrong pretty much doesn't wash anymore. Every diesel motor is controlled electronically, it will shut itself down before something major happens and costs a owner even more money, same goes with a tranny. Would you rather fix a issue before it becomes a complete lose?

The real issue is that your taking away the last real skill a trucker must have to do the job. It use to take a special breed to want to endure long days in a hot, rough riding hard to handle truck. Now a days with 10 hour limits, trucks that ride like a Cadillac, no thinking involved with electronic everything and big sleepers, the pool of drivers just increased bigtime.
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2012 Showhauler 28'6" Motorhome on a Columbia w/ 450 Mercedes.
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