Goodonya mate for sticking with the old Open Class Manual Gearbox License!
I must be a bit older, because there was no such thing as “automatic Gearboxes” back in my day!
I was dumbfounded to learn that all modern Fleets and 99% of Truck Licences were all Automatic Gearbox focused, I just couldn’t get my head around Automatic trucks!
Wasn’t until talking to all my truck driving mates that they explained to me how they worked and what they were like to operate, but I’m still yet to drive one and I honestly still wouldn’t be comfortable driving an Automatic over a manual.
Maybe fine in City traffic and doing short run flat terrain lightweight stuff, but there’s no way I would feel comfortable relying on an Automatic Gearbox hauling heavy loads in Outback conditions up and down steep inclines and over rugged corrugated dirt roads.
Auto’s in garbage trucks for the towel heads, yeah fine.,…,but Auto’s in Bulk Carrier prime movers coming down Greenmount Hill on the descent into Perth with the same drivers has seen many innocent civilians killed over the few past years
A mate of mine described them like “just use the accelerator like an on/off switch”… probably the most accurate way of driving them. Even around town on flat terrain the thing would randomly go through all the gears rather than skip a few, or skip gears at inappropriate times like when loaded on an incline. Even worse the dangers of not dropping gears to effectively use the engine braking.
And the most annoying is occasionally they just have a moment when taking off and can’t decide on what gear to do it in; leaving you to completely miss that gap in the traffic. Again, not a fan! Gears are really something the driver should be operating!
The autos I’ve driven have manual override where you just click up and down through the gears same as has been on tractors for a few decades.
I asked how they work they still have the eaton/fuller road ranger box but has auto shift bolted on to it, computer controlled to match the revs and gear selection.
Should be able to hold gears downhill, I know a lot of weetbix drivers forget to engage manual when they hit the Heysen tunnels, even in the original road ranger if you are not down in your up hill gear before your decent you are fucked as the brakes will catch fire and fade and you will not be able to shift down.
Reason trucks avoid the arrestor beds is because the cost of doing so is enormous in the six figure range, but the end results can be much worse.
Simple rule, the gear you made it up that big ass long hill, make sure you are in it before you start your decent down, don’t up shift even if it is 10klm/hr. Cops patrol it and if you are on your brakes too long they will fine you. The left lane is dedicated to trucks only for crawl speed up and down.
Have heard many similar stories from my mates, stating various issues due to relying upon a computer to select gears in Auto mode…yet still have various glitches in the system even when the manual switching is selected.
There’s a LOT going on with various different load, speed, angle, yaw, brake etc. sensors that feed back to the computer, and it’s never a foolproof system or able to react as a human driver would operate.
Thats the problem with too much computer technology being fitting these days…it’s a hot, dirty, dusty, wet, muddy environment that gets hammered to pieces by different road surfaces.
Not a very good environment to be relying solely on electronics systems to keep the vehicle safe and operational, hence why many remote WA Trucking companies stick to the old Prime Movers and don’t use modern trucks for the best reliability, ease of servicing & repairs.
They still sell new prime movers with manual transmission. But most spec the AMT or automated manual trans so they can have more driver options.
Fkn stupid really, they should go the RR manual for training then you can do all. I ran in to that problem, had to do syncro manual only, no fkn road ranger available to do the license with
Hard to imagine a full synchro box, which is the difference between Open Class non-synchro and standard class synchro manual licences as far as I recall?
I laughed at doing my old “C” class Licence many years ago, where I was already driving 18 Speed RR’prime movers towing multiple trailers and tankers on farms and minesites for years, but had to get an “official” onroad Licence because of the job at the time requiring to drive Trucks in populated suburban regions.
They made me do my Assessment in an old Inter 6 Cylinder Diesel non synchro 4 speed!
This thing was so janky that it had an oil leak on the top of the old Chrysler 6 that caused it to catch fire halfway through my Driving Test!
Long story short, I got my Open C Class ticked off even though the Truck was left on the side of the road on fire with the local volunteer Firies trying to put it out!
The whole process was a joke anyrate, going from driving massive trucks with various 18 speed gearboxes with multiple trailers, to only having to do a couple of laps in a little 4 speed IH with nothing attached to formally get my road licence was an absolute joke.
Just recently learned that the SWAT game Ready of Not is now banned in Australia because it “outside generally-accepted community standards”
The most vague answer/non-reason ever given by a government agency. Getting fuckin’ nannied to death cos gov thinks adults can’t handle adult themes in the game… fuckin’ ACB.
Still in my steam games list.