Winnipeg-based Paul’s Hauling is primarily a fuel hauler using B-train tankers. In contrast, many other Canadian B-train fleets claim they are doing just fine with automated manuals. “Those automated transmissions are a pleasure to drive, I’ll admit that, but when they break down they leave you with no options but to call a tow truck.”
“I do not see the value in spending an additional $8,000 for a less-reliable transmission,” he says.
MANUAL VS AUTOMATIC SEMI TRUCK PLUS
He has a few UltraShift Plus automated 18’s and few automated transmissions in his straight-truck tanker fleet. Most of his 18-speeds are manuals, by the way. When you get to the top of that first hill, you’re looking into the eyes of God.” “You need all the gears and the close ratios on those roads. “That’s no place for an under-spec’d truck, let me tell you,” Aubin says. They’re all operating in northern Quebec and on that province’s notorious Cote du Nord, between Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré and Sept-Isles. Between the three companies, he runs more than 100 B-trains and four-axle flatbeds with payloads of 41,000 and 38,000 kg, respectively. For those engines, you’ll need something from Eaton.įor years Pierre Aubin, owner of L’Express du Midi, Delson Transport, and Transport Audet of Ste-Catharine, Que., has been spec’ing Eaton 18-speeds behind his 600-hp Cummins engines. But of you want a high-horsepower engine, you’ll need to go with either Detroit’s DD16 or the Cummins X15 performance variant. In Canada, the preferred multi-speed transmission for heavy haulers seems to the Eaton 18 speed. Rather than downshifting through two or three gears when climbing a grade to stay at or close to peak torque, we now need only one or two gears. Today’s torque curves are more like plateaus - flat and broad, often extending through a range of 400 or 500 rpm and sitting way down low in the rpm range. Gradually those curves flattened out and torque output increased so trucks could stay in certain gears longer. To allow the engine to operate at peak output, we needed lots of gears to keep the engine speed at or close to peak output. Prior to 2000, most engines had distinct peaks to their torque curves, which limited peak torque to a pretty narrow range, sometimes less than 100 rpm. We can get by with fewer gears today thanks to the way engines have evolved, specifically when it comes to changes in their torque curves. The result is a transmission with fewer ratios overall - with more even steps between the gears - but much easier to operate.
MANUAL VS AUTOMATIC SEMI TRUCK MANUAL
The modern 18-speed transmission, manual or automated, offers closer steps between the gears as well as high and low range shifts and a direct and overdrive split in each gear. The main gearbox had large steps between the gears, and the auxiliary transmission provided the incremental steps between the main gears. These were necessary before we had 2,050 lb-ft engines and 18-speed high/low splitter transmissions. In bygone days, this was the realm of the 5×4 and 6×4 duplex transmission. When you start pulling 7, 8 and 9% grades with more than 62,500 kg in tow, you simply need more gears. In applications where the grades aren’t too severe, 10- and 12-speed transmissions can work even with the heaviest legal loads.
Startability and gradeability are the two key factors in powertrain spec’ing, which means getting the power to the wheels safely - without wrecking the driveline - and having several ratios to keep the truck moving while climbing. All the power in the world won’t get you anywhere if your transmission can’t manage it properly. By Jim Park DecemCanadian truckers - especially those that haul B-trains, quads and other multi-axle loads - like their 18-speeds.
0 kommentar(er)
