Double clutch in ATS: real or fake?

[Max]

right now its only sound in game. IRL it might cause actual damage based on specific situation.

[wanderingfido]

To be fair, I think nearly all truck gearboxes in europe have been synchronized for at least 25 years now by default (except Sisu which still had Eaton crashboxes when they still used Renault cabs).

Pretty much only americans were still using crashboxes as default manual transmission, and they are switching straight to automated these days

I hope at least current functionality is kept (polishing is fine, just don't remove all of it), manual still has a place and is still preferred among a lot of owner operators. Which to be fair, is what we are in the game. I like to mix it up with both. But I just float, which I think the majority does. I would never want to DC nonstop, IRL or here.

The only automated solutions that had any respect in the US up until almost these days seem to have been Allison (mostly for vocational dump-, quarry truck and local work type trucks like that, as they are slush boxes) and more importantly for us the Endurant based transmissions for OTR which is very different from addon TCM+ECA solutions like Ultrashift and Ultrashift PLUS. The Ultrashift name alone brings a bad taste among many just because of its rather bumpy history so drivers are slow to adapt (except mega newbies without any choice). PACCAR 12 speed however is getting very popular, it has the same components as Endurant with different programming and is supposably very smooth. Everything is certainly heading the auto direction but there should be room for classic trucks and classic ways of life.

If things stayed the way they are right now I'd be fine with it.

I wish I could google and find published studies regarding Manual versus Automatic versus rate of accidents. I'm having no luck. But imagine if there was real and empirical data that justified our manual transmission advocacy. Oh to dream.

[wanderingfido]

Why would you want to double clutch when, and if, you can shift by matching the RPMs. It's so much easier and there is less wear and tear on the clutch.

If you watch Dave's--from smart-trucking-dot-com--youtube videos, floating gears is not kind to real transmissions. He claims Eaton doesn't recommend gear-floating either. And the FSC Speedshop youtube channel recently replaced an 18 speed transmission. It was in a Peterbilt cabover from 1984. They named it 'Orwell'. The driver also swears by floating gears too. He does it all the time. But just a few months ago, he could no longer engage 8L-H.

[GT182]

I don't care Dave says. It's not floating the gears, it matching the RPMs. It's also saving wear and tear on the clutch. If you can't match the RPMs then don't do it as you'll trash a transmission. I was taught how to do it way back when I was learning to drive truck, a F Model Mack COE, and I had problems doing it at first. He'd slap me in the back of the head if I went to use the clutch. Then all of a sudden it all came together. And thank God it did. I drove from Portland Maine to Champlain, NY with no clutch in the Anchor carhauler I was driving.... my assigned truck. I'd been driving their trucks for over 10 years at the time. If it wasn't for my being able to match the RPM I wouldn't have made it back. Even on my first day and the road test all of us had to take, the. instructor said match the RPMs if you can and leave the clutch for starting out and stopping. He had over 20 years of driving trucks. As for a 13 or 18 speed tranny, I liked them and shifted the same way. I never in the 25+ years I drove ruined any manual truck transmission. My ex had a manual 78 Toyota sedan that I could shift without using the clutch, and she couldn't believe it. She tried and couldn't do it without grinding gears. And never learned to no matter what I told her. Some of can but way more can't.

As for an automatic, so be it. There are drivers out there that can't drive a rig with manual. And there are those of us that wouldn't drive an automatic. All I can say is drive and shift as you want and can do. Don't try and tell someone they have to use a clutch.... that's BS. And as for Eaton, Spicer, or any other; they'll all tell you the same thing.

BTW... Double clutching has no real bearing on ATS, as there is no breakage/maintenance of any parts on any truck in ATS.... or ETS2. It's just noise to simulate grinding gears.