AutoShift Reliability

I am an old school driver, having driven for many years - in the military I spent a lot of time behind the wheel, my family in Europe own many trucks, that I would drive, on leave, and I owned a trucking company in the US from '97 to '07 when I officially retired - unofficial retirement was in 98, but that is another story.

Mine shifts far better than almost any driver.  I would say ANY driver, but nothing is absolute.  The only time I manually control the trans is on hills.  It shifts flawlessly every time.

Consider that you will only see problems posted here, no one is going to post that they have something that is working fine.

Can you get a bad one?  Of course.   And you can also have other problems with the truck.  Even the AC can go bad...are you going to buy a truck without it?  Simply to avoid a "potential" problem?  That is a personal decision, for me - if and when mine breaks I will simply fix it - like anything else on the truck.

But.... (Yah, here goes my opinion anyway) I think what a lot of folks are missing is the old old practice of "Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance."  While as stated, these are not complicated transmissions, just standards with several electronic sensors, the key word here is electronic.  And anything electronic is going to give you problems sooner or later without impeccable maintenance.  While my Volvo is not an auto shift, anything that even appears to be not working (electronic or otherwise) gets checked out/replaced immediately.  If there are (6?) sensors in these auto's, that means to me that there is a potential of six times the problems that can occur over a standard.  I retired as a maintenance manager (gee does it show) from a large Government Contactor that made among other things Hand Grenades for the Government, producing one complete unit every three seconds, 24/7, in a fully automated line, so I do know the strange things electronics can do.
Sorry about rambling on....not meant to recommend or not recommend autos, just really trying to make a point about these gentle giants we drive. Maintenance is everything, whether 250,000 miles or 1,250,000 miles.
Cheers,
Bob

After driving a few hours, and I shift out of gear, or say stop for a break, it takes a few minutes to shift out of "N" to any gear.

I have even tried to shift to the "H of L" position, but it takes time to go into gear.

Any ideas, or place where I can start solving this little problem.
Great Driving to all.

As far as the comparison between automatics in LDT's and HDT's, there is none, hydraulically actuated vs. electric/air over mechanical are not even close.

I've driven a few trucks with AutoShifts that had hiccups.  One even stranded me with less than 2000 miles on it.  It turned out just to be a connection that wasn't plugged all the way in and was fixed on the side of the road, but either way, a manual wouldn't have had that problem.

I've never had a manual trans leave me anywhere or not get me home. The closest I had was a truck that the range selector knob/switch on the front of the shifter broke off in my hand.  No biggie, you could still shift it but it was just a little harder to flip the switch.

I agree that the AutoShift can work really good and for a long time.  There is more room for failure without a doubt.  I enjoy shifting and really don't even notice it when driving.  It doesn't take long before you don't even think about.  Your arm just moves when it needs to.  I always figure that the less things to go wrong the better.  I figure the gains and extra potential for failure along with maintenance aren't worth it to me when it's so easy to drive the manual anyway.

Not that it's not a good trans., it's just not for me.