Nope it not worse with an automatic, down shift it and let it roll. I
might tap the brake every once in a while or on steep downgrades, put
it down lower but no different than how I would drive a stick. With the
new automatics, they actually will downshift on the fly on down hills.
The mechanical engineers have come a long way in the last 10 years.
There are more sensors on those new trucks than you can count on both
hands and feet of an entire football team. Much of the technology that
was to expensive 10 years ago is now available to the automative
engineers producing engines and transmissions for these trucks.
It is technology that allows the small diesel engines to produce the
output they do. It is also this technology that has allowed the
building of this generation of automatic transmissions. Granted I do
perfer a stick, but with the automatics that both GM and Ford are using
in their 2004 trucks, there is little advantage of a stick and a lot of
disadvantages if you have to drive through places Atlanta - even
occasionally.
I expect in 5 years the automatic transmission technology will have
pretty much overtaken the manuals in both performance and reliability.
Today it is almost impossible to find a stick shift in a car. I expect
in 5 to 10 years the same will be true of pickup trucks.
I sure wouldn't trust my powerstorke towing on some of the downhills in
CO without selective tapping of the brakes. A diesel in a "runaway" mode
is not a pleasent sight - that's why the tuckers have runaway ramps.
If I lived out West and drove a diesel, I'd sure have a "Jake brake."
It's not a matter of automatic vs. manual - once the engine is being
driven by gravity - it doesn't care what is behind it.
Oh, no argument about that--but the point is, no need to wear out your
brakes as long as the truck IS staying steady on the speed where you put
it with your manual tranny.
I suspect this situation would be even worse with an automatic, though.
Heidi
-- We imitate our masters only because we are not yet masters
ourselves,
and only
We
imitate our masters
only because we are not yet masters ourselves, and only
because
in doing so we
learn the truth about what cannot be imitated.
