I am an retire automotive instructor. During vacation time over my career, I have either turned wrenches and/or drove semi over the road to make extra $'s for toys and vacations. Just like riding motorcycle, I still like playing in traffic once in a while with the big rig for the hell of it.
Yesterday, I had a load of frieght to run 2 hours south to Miami near the airport. I had a 2005 International with 660,000 miles, which had a automatic 10 speed trans.(manual shifted by computer) including a clutch for lst and reverse. In Miami at 7 am rush hour, traffic slowed to 15-20 mph, then started to pickup. The engine lugged badly and the shift indicated showed 9th!!!! It wouldn't shift down, locked in 9th!!!!!!! WTF!!!!! Blood pressure going up!!!! I turned on my directional and had trouble getting traffic to let me over(what new!!!) so I could park in a narrow area with a cement wall on the right. I tried shifting the trans on manual instead of automatic with the soft keypad, but wouldn't work. I shut the engine off for a while. Started the engine back up. Went into 2nd instead of 9th, but it would upshift. The parking area was so tight with rush hour traffic going by, I wasn't about to try putting out the emergency triangles.
I called the shop. Bob had me turn the key on and off twice to pull codes(old Chrylers corp cars before 1995 were like this-3 times 5 secs.). Red light on the soft keypad area(no shift lever) flashed twice, then 5 times. That told him there wasn't a code. He then had me turn the key on and off 6 times to reset the computer. Back in business!!!!! Bob indicated that they are starting to have issues with the some of the high mileage tractors. Brought a backload home from Mia and it worked fine??? At least I will know what to do if this happens again.
Maybe the AE drivers need a plan to reset the trans if something like this happens?
Our company has about 200 tractors. Most tractors are run for 4 years with around 800,000 and then traded in. Around year 2000, they started purchasing 5-6 automatics every fall, with and without clutches to experiment with. Now they purchase all automatics with clutches. First off, they can put ***** newby drivers on that can't shift a regular trans and they don't have bad drivers tearing up transmissions and clutches. The automatics get better fuel mileage and longer tire wear on the 8 drive tires. The automatics without a clutch are difficult to pace backing under the trailer for hookup and for soft dock landing when backing up. All automatics are slow to react when trying to make a quick move in traffic, otherwise they are fine.
Yesterday, I had a load of frieght to run 2 hours south to Miami near the airport. I had a 2005 International with 660,000 miles, which had a automatic 10 speed trans.(manual shifted by computer) including a clutch for lst and reverse. In Miami at 7 am rush hour, traffic slowed to 15-20 mph, then started to pickup. The engine lugged badly and the shift indicated showed 9th!!!! It wouldn't shift down, locked in 9th!!!!!!! WTF!!!!! Blood pressure going up!!!! I turned on my directional and had trouble getting traffic to let me over(what new!!!) so I could park in a narrow area with a cement wall on the right. I tried shifting the trans on manual instead of automatic with the soft keypad, but wouldn't work. I shut the engine off for a while. Started the engine back up. Went into 2nd instead of 9th, but it would upshift. The parking area was so tight with rush hour traffic going by, I wasn't about to try putting out the emergency triangles.
I called the shop. Bob had me turn the key on and off twice to pull codes(old Chrylers corp cars before 1995 were like this-3 times 5 secs.). Red light on the soft keypad area(no shift lever) flashed twice, then 5 times. That told him there wasn't a code. He then had me turn the key on and off 6 times to reset the computer. Back in business!!!!! Bob indicated that they are starting to have issues with the some of the high mileage tractors. Brought a backload home from Mia and it worked fine??? At least I will know what to do if this happens again.
Maybe the AE drivers need a plan to reset the trans if something like this happens?
Our company has about 200 tractors. Most tractors are run for 4 years with around 800,000 and then traded in. Around year 2000, they started purchasing 5-6 automatics every fall, with and without clutches to experiment with. Now they purchase all automatics with clutches. First off, they can put ***** newby drivers on that can't shift a regular trans and they don't have bad drivers tearing up transmissions and clutches. The automatics get better fuel mileage and longer tire wear on the 8 drive tires. The automatics without a clutch are difficult to pace backing under the trailer for hookup and for soft dock landing when backing up. All automatics are slow to react when trying to make a quick move in traffic, otherwise they are fine.
