I drove one of the first semi trucks with an automatic transmission, and that thing was dangerous. It would pop me out of gear going down hill, thank fuck the brakes held out. The reverse gear could either roll the rig back at 10 inches per hour, or 10mph, and not much in-between.
Was nice being able to sip a coffee through traffic tho
No, much later. Transmissions in trucks work differently and have to withstand so much more stress. Wasn’t till the early 00’s that anyone got serious about them.
They’ve been around since the 50’s, but only became widespread in 2010ish. I think Volvo started offering the first production model auto trucks in 06.
I drove one of the first semi trucks with an automatic transmission, and that thing was dangerous. It would pop me out of gear going down hill, thank fuck the brakes held out. The reverse gear could either roll the rig back at 10 inches per hour, or 10mph, and not much in-between.
Was nice being able to sip a coffee through traffic tho
That must have been a while ago, I assume trucks got auto transmissions before consumer cars ?
No, much later. Transmissions in trucks work differently and have to withstand so much more stress. Wasn’t till the early 00’s that anyone got serious about them.
They’ve been around since the 50’s, but only became widespread in 2010ish. I think Volvo started offering the first production model auto trucks in 06.
Wow ! more ancient than I thought
Automatic transmissions have been around since the 60’s or 50’s, IIRC.