Equipment

By Jim Park

Paccar is the latest North American truck manufacturer to bring a proprietary automated transmission to market. HDT's Jim Park got a sneak preview of the new 12-speed Paccar Automated Transmission ahead of its official launch. Here are his driving impressions.

Tags: Kenworth, Paccar, Transmissions, Test Drive, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Jack Roberts

Automated manual transmissions surpassed even the most optimistic predictions for adoption. How will the next generation of smarter, faster, and better connected AMTs boost safety, efficiency and, fuel economy?

Tags: Eaton, Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Jack Roberts

Automated manual transmissions rule the roost at U.S. Xpress today. Out of some 7,000 U.S. Xpress trucks running today, the fleet is down to just 16 “legacy” models still equipped with manual transmissions.

Tags: Transmissions, U.S. Xpress, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Deborah Lockridge

You may think of Eaton as primarily a transmission company, but at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Hannover, Germany, this fall, they showed a range of future technologies both near and far, from transmissions for electric vehicles to autonomous vehicle technology to waste heat recovery.

Tags: Eaton, IAA, Transmissions, Autonomous Vehicles

By Jim Park

Volvo Trucks has put a new spin on an old powertrain management strategy. By locking out top gear on its I-Shift overdrive transmission, drivers can pull loads efficiently in 11th gear (direct drive) and still get the performance they want.

Tags: Volvo, Transmissions, Liquid Tank Trailers

By Tom Berg

Fuel economy and ease of driving push customers into buying automatic or automated products.

Tags: Eaton, Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Tom Berg

For years Eaton has been improving its UltraShift Plus series to make the heavy-duty automated manual transmissions do more things and do them better. Blended Pedal, Urge to Move features make Eaton automated gearboxes more useful.

Tags: Transmissions, Vocational Trucks, UltraShift Plus, Eaton, Test Drive, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Jim Park

After 20 years on the fringes of the heavy-duty transmission world, the switch from sticks to semiconductors may be reaching the tipping point.

Tags: Fuel Economy, Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Sven-Erik Lindstrand

Volvo Truck claims to be first in the world to launch a dual-clutch automated mechanical transmission in heavy trucks. HDT European Editor Sven-Erik Lindstrand takes it for a spin.

Tags: Volvo Trucks, Transmissions, Global, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Jim Park

Eaton’s Procision dual-clutch medium-duty automated transmission promises automatic-like driver feel with manual performance attributes.

Tags: Dual-Clutch, Eaton, Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions, Quick Spin

By Tom Berg

Bulk hauling rigs that consistently go out loaded and return home empty constitute the best application for the new feature.

Tags: Volvo, Volvo Trucks, Fuel Economy, Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Tom Berg

This 10-speed brings continuous power to a crowded field of smooth self-shifters.

Tags: Allison Transmission, Test Drive, Navistar, Transmissions

By Eaton

The long-running debate over which type of transmission — direct drive or overdrive — provides the greatest efficiency is one that’s not easily settled and not likely to go away.

Tags: Eaton, Spec'ing, Fuel Economy, Transmissions

By Jim Park

Cummins and Eaton may have finally nailed it with their SmartAdvantage Powertrain combo, reports Equipment Editor Jim Park in July's Test Drive. The SmartAdvantage powertrain offers fuel and weight saving, as well as a very, very good driving experience.

Tags: Cummins, Eaton, Test Drive, Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Rolf Lockwood, Executive Contributing Editor

Every year for the last two or three centuries (or so it seems), March has meant a trip to Louisville, Ky., and the Mid-America Trucking Show. And every year the show produces a dominant theme, albeit unwritten, in the collection of new products introduced there.

Tags: Kenworth, Cummins, Paccar, Eaton, MATS, Transmissions, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Tom Berg

The swing continues toward heavy automated products, but manuals still dominate. Light and medium trucks are almost all ‘shiftless.’

Tags: Volvo, Cummins, Eaton, Mack Trucks, Transmissions, Allison Transmission, Daimler Trucks North America, Automated Manual Transmissions

By Rolf Lockwood, Executive Contributing Editor

If there was an unspoken theme to this year's Mid-America Trucking Show, it was probably the focus on integrated drivetrains. And Martin Daum, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, had some interesting things to say about automated transmissions in general.

Tags: Volvo, Cummins, Paccar, Eaton, Fuel Economy, Transmissions, Mid-America Trucking Show, Daimler Trucks North America, Automated Manual Transmissions, Detroit DT12, ZF

By Tom Berg

“Proprietary” is a magic word among truck builders. It describes components of the company’s own manufacture or design that are installed on the company’s own trucks. For truck users, this can be a good thing, because they’re designed to work specifically with a company’s other components.

Tags: Detroit Diesel, Mack Trucks, Freightliner Cascadia, Test Drive, Daimler Trucks North America, Transmissions, Engines, Automated Manual Transmissions, Detroit DT12

By Jim Park

Traditional thinking on automated manual transmissions has it that AMTs are the great equalizers – bridgers of skill gaps between the best and the worst drivers in the fleet. While that’s still true, AMTs now bring even more to the fuel-economy table, offering fuel savings in their own right beyond what even the most professionally driven manual transmission could accomplish.

Tags: Fuel Savings, Cummins, DTNA, Eaton, Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks, Transmissions, Allison Transmission