Did freightliner intentionally set out to make a crappy automatic transmission?

I drive a 2016 Freightliner Cascadia with the DT12.
Shifts pretty good.

My only real complaint is. Anything below 40f it does not shift right when cold. At all. And this is the second '16 that I've had and they both do it.
By the way they (our shop) disabled the Performance Mode on my other truck and it still didn't drive the way you're describing.



I bet the Shift points and some other settings are not setup right on yours.

 

I believe they did indeed set out to engineer a transmission/engine combo that will self destruct right about 800,000 miles.

Eco-mode drops RPMs to about 500 and oil pressure from 50psi to 5 psi. The first issue is sending back pure unadulterated soot into your DPF. The second is that the oil pressure is no longer spinning in the oil filter so the dirty oil just comes into the filter and right back out to the cylinders and pistons scarring them all up. 50,000 mile oil changes are a farce.

Often times in bunny hill terrain you'll see it drop to E coast mode dropping pressure and rpms the next moment it is downshifting 3 gears and revving up to 2200 rpms. This is bad for the Turbo.

Meanwhile slamming around from Ecoast to 2200 rpms and back and forth sends a ton of torque through the driveline and eats up your Ujoints prematurely.

My recommendation?-- Keep it in manual mode most of the time and lock it in the proper gear for downhills and engine brakes limiting rpms to no more than 1700.

Keep it out of Ecoast whenever possible and keep your oil pressure up so the oil filter is properly getting its centrifugal force to capture dirt in the filter media.

Another design flaw they engineered in was to bolt an aluminum water manifold to a cast iron engine with a gasket in between. What happens is the properties of the two metals dictate they will expand and contract to heat in different ways.

Do no expect these truck to get past 500,000-800,000 miles before spending big bucks on them. Sure they are fuel sippers but I sure hope you save enough fuel money to spend it back in engine repairs running the truck the Detroit way.

 

Im sorry to hear that. And am further sorry to learn some things today.

Can someone clarify this performance mode thing for me? I feel very stupid asking about that because in my day, whatever the engine gave you in terms of power is what you got, all of it. Divided by the transmission etc etc etc.

Now it's smells to me like there is some kind of a secret mode only handed to the chosen ones inside a company. Come on You need a tractor that has good power and everything to do the job correctly in any terrain in any weather anywhere in the USA. These options such as performance modes that are being kept secret bothers me. It's almost as if truckers are being treated as a 4 year old who is not old enough to drive the family car.

 

i guess i could chime in on this. i have driven an automatic T680, a mack 12 speed auto, and now im in a 10 speed cascadia DAYCAB (i had to mention it i LOVE my day cab im not sleeping in it). anways as far as automatics go the mack auto in the pinnacle shifted far better then the auto in the KW. i hated that auto in the KW, not so much on the road but in parking lots doing drop and hooks and backing it sucked. take you foot off of the brake and it lurches, no easy, smooth slow speed operation. i really actually hated the way it did that. the mack was nice and smooth almost car like. backing up to a trailer SLOWLY was no problem for it.

i prefer the 10 speed i drive now, the company i drive for now also has straight trucks (b class), they haul dry fertilizer with them. the truck was an old international i think a 1991. it had a 9 speed and it threw me off at first. 5th is where 6th is on a 10, 6th is where 7th, ect ect. there is no split gear in the 10th position, its only 9th gear. ever gear is taller so you are going to shift at different rpms. they let me drive it a few times and i was finally getting better at it.

 

This sounds like an under-powered motor, not a transmission problem.

 

WOW.

Based on your reply and more recent folks with experience with auto transmissions, especially @scottied67 talking about the idiocy of dropping oil pressure and getting rpm's so far below optimal, I am glad I have never had to drive an automatic and will stay well clear of them.

As a flatbedder pulling a spread axle I feel your pain. Trying to shift coming from a stop while making a turn at an intersection is a challenge, because of the drag of the trailer axles being so far apart.

Bottom line, I think for your own sanity and being able to be overjoyed to get up and work tomorrow:

Find a better company or get your current company to put you in a truck with a real transmission.

Even if the engine is underpowered, with a manual you can compensate for it. In my line of work, challenged by sometimes extreme off-road situations, an automatic could be deadly.

 

If your truck is shifting at 2k RPMs in eco mode, it's broken. Even at 79-80k my truck won't rev that high before shifting and when that heavy it will go through each gear.

Basically...your truck is broken.

 

My truck is locked in eco mode and I have never seen it rev up to 2k before shifting. It will skip shift when light, but with a heavy load it will go through the gears. It's a 2016 Cascadia with a 455hp DD15.