Reading the manual
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Does anyone still want a manual gearbox in their new truck? For DIY enthusiasts there remain plenty of self-stirrers out there... but the auto-invasion looks increasingly unstoppable
Words/Images: Brian Weatherley
Like the reported death of Mark Twain, the demise of the manual gearbox has been somewhat exaggerated. However, notwithstanding die-hard DIY drivers and the last-ditch stand currently being fought by middleweight truck buyers, the auto-vs-manual battle has already been won (or lost) depending on your point of view.
“It’s a no-brainer – autos are lighter, cheaper to maintain under an R&M contract and they offer higher residual values,” reports Sam Whittaker, Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ sales and marketing director. That no-nonsense evaluation is echoed by Renault Trucks’ commercial director Nigel Butler: “All the demand now is for autos.” To further underpin those remarks, Scania technical manager Clive Burnet asks: “In three to ive years, will anybody be looking to buy a manual gearbox in a heavy truck?” While Iveco product affairs manager Nick Santon says: “The automated box is smoother, faster, never gets tired and never chooses a gear that could damage it.” So you could be forgiven for thinking we’re wasting our time writing about manual transmissions. Yet, should you still want a manual box in a heavy truck, one manufacturer – DAF – is more than happy to oblige, and with a new one too. Having deliberately not followed rivals MAN and Iveco down the ‘auto is standard’ route, the Dutch truck maker has adopted ZF’s latest 12-speed EcoSplit manual as the ‘starting-point spec’ in all XF105, CF85 and 360hp CF75 models itted with a single-reduction back axle.
Product marketing manager Phil Moon explains: “It’s not within the DAF strategy to give up choice. There are still some customers in forestry and waste transport, as well as many ‘mature’ drivers, who are more comfortable with a manual.” The 12-speed synchro will be offered in three different torque capacities between 2,100Nm and 2,800Nm, making it highly compatible with DAF’s 9.2-litre PR and 13-litre MX heavy-truck diesels, including the top-of-the-range 510hp MX with its maximum torque of 2,500Nm.
Improvements
Manual DAF drivers will certainly notice a difference between the old 16-speed and new 12-speed EcoSplit, especially when it comes to changing gear. Whereas the 16-speed has a conventional ‘four-over-four/double-H’ layout, the new 12-speed has a three-position lever with a ‘Y’ pattern (see right). And while it has the same external dimensions of the 16-speed, with more room inside the casing, the 12-speed’s main gears have been beefed-up (see box). Moon sees a 12-speed as being the logical choice with today’s high torque engines. It’s worth noting that the equivalent ZF AS-Tronic auto, offered by DAF as an option, has the same number of cogs.
“It’s more appropriate with their torque backup,” he says. “You don’t need the extra steps in a 16-speed where you tended to block-shift more and start off in second. The 12-speed is more progressive, you can use all the main gears as necessary, it feels more logical.” DAF hasn’t completely kicked the 16-speed into touch – it’s retained as the standard manual box for all off-road/double-drive chassis where its over-drive top ratio is more appropriate. The 16-speed also remains an option to the 12-speed on DAF’s single-reduction axle chassis.
Meanwhile, although DAF’s own sales igures show that more and more of its heavy truck customers are willing to pay the extra for a two-pedal transmission, a signiicant majority of its middleweight (7.5to 18-tonne) buyers remain wedded to manuals.
Manual boxes are equally popular among Volvo’s middleweight buyers, says UK and Ireland product manager John Comer. “They’re happy to work a sixor a nine-speed box,” he says, “though the traditional problem with all six-speed boxes is that they’re a huge compromise in terms of trying to get the best balance between driveline capability around town and balancing fuel consumption at high engine revs.” Where once it used to it a direct top six-speed in its FL, today there’s an overdrive cog to suit higher torque engines. “But then you’ve got to gear it with a 5.4:1 axle,” says Comer, who cautions: “You’ve got to think about clutch life and durability during the town cycle too. The biggest mistake people make with distribution trucks is that they gear them for 56mph, which is ine for a long-distance truck on the motorway for 80-90% – but people tend to forget a distribution truck is going to be working a lot more often down in the lower part of the box.” The key to getting the most from a manual box, advises Comer, is to think further down the driveline, speccing the right rear-axle behind it or considering whether a nine-speed box wouldn’t be better for those trucks with an extended motorway mission.
Correct spec
It’s a point endorsed by DAF’s Moon. “By their very nature, six-speeds can’t give you both ends of the operating spectrum so we’d encourage people to talk to the salesmen. Look at rear-axle ratios closely if you don’t need to spec a truck for 56mph. That said, six-speed manuals are itted in 87% of all the 18-tonners we sell – so don’t dismiss them.” It’s also important to spec the right reverse gear ratio. “People forget that at their peril,” warns Comer.
“You want greater control when reversing, the operating environ ment is a lot tighter and also you’ve got trucks that do a lot of reversing!” The good news for Volvo buyers is that the six-speed ZF box itted in the FL is effectively the same base box as Volvo’s ‘I-Sync’ two-pedal auto – the hydraulically-operated, automated gear change system being ‘bolted onto’ the top of the ZF six-speeder.
Further up the weight range, Volvo’s I-Shift has become the de facto ‘standard’ box on FH and FM heavyweights – the one exception being for top-end STGO work, where I-Shift is rated up to only 130 tonnes. Above that GCW, operators get the VT02814 16-speed overdrive manual.
So do STGO operators prefer a manual box in their trucks? “Rather than just liking it for being a stick-shift,” responds Comer, “you’ve got to remember that the VT box is a 14-speed [with two deep crawlers] and I-Shift is a 12-speed. So with the manual box you’ve got something like 16.68:1 to pull away with, whereas I-Shift starts at around 12:1. You’ll not be worried about clutch damage with those deep crawlers. The other thing is that the drivers who drive them tend to know what they’re doing.” So, if you do have a requirement for a deep crawler “you need to be looking at a manual,” reckons Comer.
In the past, next-door-neighbour Scania has been criticised for not having its own ‘dedicated’ auto, rather than itting the Opticruise automated system to its existing synchro manual boxes. While publicly acknowledging it’s “aware of the trend in the industry”, Scania’s bolt-on auto policy provides ‘win-win’ lexibility in terms of global sales, as UK technical manager Clive Burnet explains. “We don’t need to support or invest in two separate transmission product lines – i.e. manual and auto. Rather, with Opticruise, we can automate an existing heavy truck transmission for those mature markets [i.e. Western Europe] that want a two-pedal box – while still being able to offer the base manual in developing markets where automation would be inappropriate.” Moreover, Scania heavy truck buyers also get the same two deep crawlers on their 14-speed box (as above) regardless of whether it’s a manual or automatic. “It’s very much a happy medium for us,” adds Burnet.
Pushing automatic
With the odd exception, MAN and Iveco both it a ZF auto as standard across their respective product ranges – and any gaps that are left open are closing rapidly. For example, MAN Truck & Bus UK product marketing manager Les Bishop reports that the German truck maker has been busy converting tipper operators over to a two-pedal transmission, from the standard 16-speed EcoSplit manual. “We’ve done a lot of work in taking the automatic proposition out to the market. We’ve sent out our drivertrainers to operators interested in purchasing an auto. Along with AS-Tronic [marketed as ‘Tipmatic’ by MAN], Volvo’s I-Shift has also had a similar impact on operators working in the construction industry,” says Bishop.
Tipmatic has certainly proved particularly popular thanks to the number of ratios it offers top-weight hauliers. “There were those operators who didn’t want a 16-speed manual and we were offering a 12-speed in an automatic. This seems to suit the UK, particularly in the tractor market,” says Bishop. “However, we still have the 16-speed EcoSplit for anyone who wants one.” Moreover, the German truck maker continues to offer its ‘Comfort Shift’ option on EcoSplit, whereby a button on top of the gear lever operates the clutch for shifts on the move (for start-up and stopping you still need to use the clutch pedal).
“It’s a customer option for those that still want a manual box,” Bishop says. And while heavy duty synchro-boxes haven’t always had the lightest of shift loads, with the advent of ZF’s own ServoShift, these have improved too. Further down the weight range, if you want a manual in an MAN rigid it’s a nineor six-speed on TGM/TGL models depending on whether they have a fouror six-cylinder engine.
Like MAN, Iveco nailed its colours to the auto mast a while back. “All Iveco product comes with an auto as standard,” conirms product affairs manager Nick Santon, although, if you insist, the ubiquitous 16-speed EcoSplit is an option. “But very few people want a manual these days,” he says. “We have had some – those people tend to have very special operations, such as waste haulage, where they are using a tractor on a landill site. Although I should say that that’s not a problem with EuroTronic [Iveco’s brand name for ZF’s AS-Tronic], as they just wanted a clutch pedal on their truck. We do have one customer who runs a national leet of trucks and one of the branch engineers wanted a 12-tonner with a manual box, so he got a ZF manual... but AS-Tronic has been proven across the brands, including ourselves, and I’m sure that MAN and DAF would also agree that clutch life has improved with autos, as has overall average fuel consumption too.”
It’s a similar story for Renault, where an auto is standard fare on all Premium Route, Kerax, Lander and Magnum models and optional on the 340hp Premium Distribution and all Midlum models, which retain either a sixor nine-speed manual as standard. However, at 26-tonnes and below, auto/manual itment for Renault is currently running at 50:50. “We get the occasional request for a manual on heavies,” reports commercial director Nigel Butler. “But the way we set up Optidrive allays all those driver concerns. The only real speciic demand for a manual box is usually due to technical issues, in particular on ‘constant-drive’ vehicles like road sweepers and vacuum tankers, where there is heavy PT-O usage or a transfer box. In those circumstances, we’d it a manual. We recently promoted the six-speed Optitronic [the middleweight chassis auto option] on 7.5-tonne Midlums whereby you got an auto box for an extra £1. The take-up was 100%. All the manufacturers’ forecasts suggest that in ive years’ time autos will sell better than a manual... people just won’t want to buy manuals.” ■