I think Im gonna enjoy my new job

Now if I can only get used to driving a manual transmission on that fucked up security truck. And once again I dont even get a flashlight or a whistle. I wanted to be just like Day Day in the Friday movie

What the hell kind of dainty little princess can't drive a stick shift?

What kind of a dainty little princess doesn't understand that there are some trucks that are hard to drive?

*hint: He's not talking about a gay CJ Series.

Neither am I, fuckstain.

And for the record, I've driven stick in everything from compact cars up through those giant-ass U-Haul trucks. I imagine only Elwood and maybe Evenflow have me beat. Never driven anything that required a CDL.

I've driven the Army's duece and a half - which require double clutching, 10 ton trucks, HMMTTs - and the Marine version LVS.

Standard transmissions are easy once you get used to them.

A woman driving a duece?

I'll be in my bunk.

What's the big deal about deuces?

I drop them all the time.

Sorry UA - if I had known, I would have taken pics of some sweeeeeet +
petite babes driving 2-1/2 ton sticks back when that's about all the Army had (early nineties).

Now get a tissue....they had rifles in their laps while driving!

The stick in older UPS trucks was tricky. But after a day or two its nothing to it.

Some trucks are hard to drive.

If its got 4 wheels and a stick only a rookie would have problems.

...Speaking of which, I wonder how 14thDoctor's efforts to pass a driver's test are coming along.

yall missed the point. Point was NOT that it is a stick, but that its gonna get somebody killed the way it cuts out

Five Ton was pretty much just like driving a big car.

For whatever reason (can't remember now), I missed class the day my class took the test for HMMTT, so I had to make it up another day. It was just me and the instructor told me to "go crazy". I looked at him with a raised an eyebrow and just nodded. We tore up that field.

Tractors and Dozers.

driving a dozer would be cool, too.

Never driven a tracked vehicle.

You have no idea how let down I was upon learning that not only were Strykers not driven by control sticks, but weren't even fucking Standard.

That has an automatic transmission?

I don't know much about the mechanics of engines or transmissions and even less about tracked vehicles, but ... can an automatic transmission be powerful enough to move a tank through mud and ... other ... stuff - where ever tanks go?

Nothing has a manual transmission these days. Not the 7.5 tons, not the hummvees. It's all auto now.

(I'm not a motor-t guy, so I could be mistaken, but most of the stuff you'll see is automatic.)

I can't see them putting a automatic transmission in a ten-ton semi.

There are no trucks that are hard to drive, only people that don't know how to drive, or a vehicle that needs repair.

How about a 40-ton semi? I forget the name off-hand, but there's a huge national trucking company based in Chattanooga, TN that uses Freightliners with 10-speed automatic transmissions. You've seen them on the highway, you just didn't know the driver wasn't cogging gears.

No kidding?

I didn't realize automatic transmissions could pull (push?) that kind of weight.

It's just the same thing the US public went through 40 years ago. Manual transmissions were just more fuel efficient than their automatic counterparts. As for trucking companies, when you're buying 2,000,000 gallons of diesel every 24 hours (I'm not exaggerating in the least), fuel efficiency is king. So, drivers still cog gears.

But, with all of today's computer automation and how smart and fast computers have become, they can now shift as efficiently and smoothly as a human operator. So, you're starting to see the transition in the heavy equipment market.

Most all drag cars are automatic in some fashion, they can take it but there is a corresponding loss in efficiency.

I think I read somewhere that trucks with heavy-duty automatic transmissions actually get a higher payload/tow weight rating because the viscous coupling in an auto is less jarring to the driveline than shifting a manual.

Well, all Class 8 vehicles are built to a CGVWR minimum of 80,000lbs, which is the maximum legal rating without some very, very expensive permits and escorts.

Unless you are hauling coal in west "by God" virginia or Kentucky, then you can haul 120,000lbs.