What are you doing? I rubbed my eye. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. It itched. I'm sorry. Welcome to the 18 Wheel Talk Podcast Show. Welcome to Patrick's Hijinx. I mean the 18 Wheel Talk Podcast Show. Whatever, chicken pants. You said it first. Cheater, cheater. Chicken pants. Alright, explain, explain chicken pants to people now.

Okay, so we went and got our vehicles inspected and licensed and blah, blah, blah today. Blah, blah, blah. And we were talking on the phone. With our headsets on, of course. Of course. And I went to call Patrick. No, you went to call somebody that was in front of you. Yeah, I went to call someone in front of me chicken shit or...

Scaredy Pants, cause they were just like driving like crap. And instead, instead of saying Chicken Shit, Scaredy Pants, it came out Chicken Pants. So, Chicken Pants is the new, um, insult for the day. You heard it here first. Chicken Pants! So if Janet calls you Chicken Pants, well you know you done fucked up.

Yeah, it's, it's not just Chicken Shit or Scaredy Pants, it's Chicken Pants! Chicken Pants, bock bock, bock bock, Chicken Pants, bock bock. Chicken Pants. Oh, brother. And as soon as it came out, I was about to die laughing. I was like, what did I just say? I'm like, what? The stuff that... Who am I talking to? You knew who you were talking to.

So, anyways... Chicken Pants. Welcome to the Chicken Pants 18 Wheel Talk Podcast Show.

Yes. Uh, if this is your first time... Congratulations! If this is your first time listening to our show, welcome. What took you so long and, uh, and if you're listening to us in your ears, please, if you can get, you know, leave us a rate and a review, good, bad, ugly, doesn't matter. I don't care. As long as you get a review.

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Get in it, cause you gotta be in it to win it, and if you're not in it, you can't win it. So. That's right, chicken pants. Or you just go to 18WheelTalk. com and click on the little banner that's floating around there that says get in on the giveaway, however you want to do it. That works too. You know, and you can join our fan club.

That'd be awesome. 18wheeltalk. com slash fan club Yes, and then you can get in on any and you can get you can enter the giveaway zone So whatever giveaway we got going it's it'll be right there Click on the button. We going on all the time. Stuff. So get on in it So you can win it. In it to win it. Oh By the way, I'm Patrick over yonder there Ms. Janet Hello Patrick.

How are you today? I'm doing fan. Fucking fantastic already. Oh yeah. What are we like 90 dropped a, I dropped, I dropped the F bomb a minute ago already. Where you been? You were chicken pants in me . I was chicken pants in. Yeah. . So, so Ms. Janet, what are we talking about today? Why do so many semi-truck drivers prefer manual transmissions to automatic transmissions?

I know why. I prefer manual over automatic. Okay. Telling me my preference, and this is just my preference, is I feel I have more control over the vehicle. Okay. You know, uh, uh, being able to upshift, downshifts, you know, I, I can control the speed. Um, I just, I, I feel more in control. Okay. That's just my theory.

That's a good theory. That's why I became a professional driver so I can be in control. 'cause I had control issues,

But that that's that's just that's not why I became a truck driver. Oh, no, that's that's just my my preference I had power issues. I you had chicken pants. No, they're white Anyways that that is the reason I I prefer a manual is because I like to be in control I want to be in control of the 80, 000 pounds rolling down the road I don't want no computer saying you got to stop and you're gonna stop now

That, and, and when, when Automatics first came out, they weren't, they sucked. So, so that's the other reason. I mean, they sucked. Okay. Anyways. So, the answer is not quite as simple as... What, what about you? I prefer a manual, um, but I do know that when I had a manual truck and a manual car... Okay. And rode a motorcycle. Okay. My left leg was really feeling it. Well, yeah. You know? Uh, yeah. I get it.

I can't deny that. Now, I've gotten out of my manual truck and into my automatic vehicle and stomped the floorboard looking for a clutch. Oh, yeah. And shifted. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, uh, after ten hours of driving, whoops. But like, when I was over the road in New York and driving a manual car. And I'd come home, drive my manual car, and then say go up north to visit Steve and Lily.

Okay. Drive my manual car a couple hundred miles up and back, and then go for a motorcycle ride. And by, I, usually on the weekend you get a break from the manual. Right. When I'd go back to work, I'd be like. No, not you. Not me, man. My knee'd be feeling it after a few weeks of that. You'd be wearing the brace and they'd be like, would you do?

All summer long, man. It's like, my knee'd be like, okay, give it a break. Would you do? I'd be like, yeah, I'm trying to break my knee, apparently. Yeah. Apparently. Apparently. So it's not quite as apparent as that. Okay. It's not quite that simple, though. Okay. There's advantages and disadvantages to both types of transmissions.

I agree. And different drivers have different preferences, you know, like different strokes for different folks. This is true. Different strokes for different folks. What you talking about, Willis? I don't remember the whole song, but you know what I mean. So there's possible reasons why drivers favor manual transmissions.

Okay? Okay, yeah. I know that if I'm an owner operator, if I... Although back... I don't know how true in theory this still is. Back in the day when... When I was driving everything manuals were cheaper. They still are. Cheaper to build, cheaper to maintain. So I don't like I said, I don't I don't know if that's changed over the years.

I know cost of building vehicles, that's why more and more are coming out automatic. I guess it's easier to maintain. The automatic or the manual? The automatic. I think it's considered like if you're an owner operator it's less expensive for you to Uh, they have fewer parts, makes them more durable, and it's, like, if you're especially a heavy load operator, like my dad was, everything he hauled was oversized, pretty much.

Right. You know, heavy loads, oversized loads. So you're talking automatic or manual? Manual. Okay. Um, it was cheaper for him to maintain and keep it in running gear and everything. Okay. easier to work on. I mean, you could, like I said, I'm not sure if things have shifted over the years, not according to my research, according to my research, which is as late as yesterday, yesterday in 2023.

Yeah. In 2023, October, 2023, this being October. Okay. Breast cancer awareness month, as recent as October of 23. My research. Yes. Okay. It's still, Especially for an owner operator, and I'll explain that in a minute. Okay. It's cheaper and, uh, for an owner operator to maintain his manual transmission. Okay.

Especially once it's out of warranty. Okay. Because a lot of owner operators know how to work on their own trucks like my dad did. Yep, most of them. Okay. Um, and the reason I say for an owner operator compared to a fleet, because fleets have typically big shops of their own and say if they have transmission problems, they just pull it in and we'll just pop a new transmission in it.

Yep. Or a rebuild. Right. You know, my dad didn't keep a spare transmission. Yeah, I know. I... I wasn't an owner operator, but yeah, you know, I drove, I drove a, a fleet slip seat. Yeah. So that's always fun. Yeah. I didn't drive slip sheet, slip brand new tongue I just got it today.

Anyway, when I was over the road, I had my own truck. You did not drive slip seat. Except when I was local driving gas and oil. Now to explain slip seat really quick off, off topic, that's where you drive it. From sun up, you know, say 6 a. m. to 10 hours later. And you come back you do your post trip and then by the time you close the door and lock it Somebody's unlocked you have grabbing the keys from you unlocking the door and getting into an air pre trip and hit hitting a road Yeah, and they darn well better keep it cleaner.

I'm gonna knock them upside the head I've been known to do that once or twice, but I know I know that our trucks ran so often our tractors That there was never a time for it to go into the shop to have stuff done. Yeah, that's what drove me crazy. It's like we had an extra one and then they got rid of it.

Isn't that the way it always works? Especially? Oh, no, we don't use that. Get rid of it. Yeah. Well, it's there for a reason so you can properly maintain your equipment. And then when it Then as soon as they get rid of it One of the tractors breaks. And then they go lease one. Then they rent one by the day.

Which costs three times as much. Okay, so back to subject. Back on topic, my mistake. No, you're fine. But as you said, manual transmissions give the drivers more control over shifting the gears. You can't, that I know of, you cannot override gear shifting on a automatic. Not that I know of. The ones that I've seen, you can't.

You used to be able to. They used to have a clutch in them, a clutch, they used to, no let me finish, they used to have a clutch pedal and you used to be able to override the gear shifting by one or two gears. Okay. They took that out. The clutch pedal is no longer there and they took out the override. Now there's two different ones that I've, I've driven.

Okay. Automatic. One of them was like an actual shifter. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Um, where you could actually shift it like a car, like a car on the, on the floor. And then we had push buttons. Uh, the push button one wasn't as reliable, I would say, as the one that you could actually, you know, manually shift it if you needed to.

And they took that out. Now I think they're all push button that are coming off the... 90 percent of trucks come... Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, back to manual. Um, when you're driving manual, you can choose the best gear ratio for your situation, such as starting... Like, if you're coming out of a toll booth, and you're heavy loaded, you want to start in a really low gear.

If you're loaded light... Like, if I was empty, I could start in second or third gear no problem. Yeah, we could start... We could start our trucks... And fourth gear. Yeah. And we had 10 speeds. I had an 18. So yeah, it just depended. We had 10 speeds. So yeah, we could start in fourth. Oh, I've started in as high a gear as fourth.

I should say. Yeah. You know, even, even fully loaded. Yeah. I, cause we didn't, I mean, we always filled our trailer up at night, but it didn't weigh a lot. You would think it would, but I, if we, if we were over 10, 000 pounds, 15, 000 pounds, that's a lot. Yeah. But. With me being over the road, I had a couple things.

A, I, I drove for a small fleet with not a lot of, they didn't have extra trucks. Right. Um, and being cross country, um, I had my, my, my dad who made sure that like if he, if he knew I slip shifted, he would be like really... On me about it. He was very big about don't slip shift, make sure you go through your gears, use your clutch, you know, etc.

God forbid I mention that I slip shifted. Uh huh. Don't do that, I taught you better than that. Who do you think taught me that, too? Yeah, right? Who do you think taught me how to do that? Yeah, anyway. Dad. Dad and brothers. So, anyway. Jiminy Crickets. I wonder. Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp. Yeah. Chicken pants.

I am chicken pants around him, still. I know. But, anyway. But when you're, I was always loaded. They, the company I worked for loaded me as heavy as possible. To the point that sometimes I couldn't fuel up all the way. I'd have to stop at like three quarter. I'd have to really pay. They, they used every inch of that trailer they could to make money out of, which I understand.

Well, yeah, I mean you get it. Yeah, so that being said, um, I lost where I was at. You were talking about the gear ratios. Yeah, your gear ratios. You choose your gear ratio for your situation, whether it's starting, accelerating, cruising, up and down a hill, you know. Yep. Going up hills one thing, going down is a whole different story.

A whole different story. And if you're a new driver, do not put it in neutral going down a hill. Yeah, never. Do you remember the, uh, DING story time off subject? Do you remember the guy that got, the driver that got convicted of killing those people in Pennsylvania going downhill a few years ago? Oh, that was Colorado.

You're right, it might have been Colorado. But, yeah, it was Colorado, I think. They got convicted, though? Yeah, drove by, drove by three runaway truck ramps and there was an accident on the highway and plowed through it. I don't remember the I think he got like 109 years or something, some ridiculous number.

But do you know what they finally got out of him during the trial? What? That he was in neutral? He was in neutral. He put it in neutral thinking well, I'll just pop it in neutral save on fuel once you're in neutral going downhill It's almost impossible to find a gear I mean the not a low enough gear to slow you down That's the only thing you can do is put it in your highest gear Start downshifting.

That's, that's really it. Or hit a runaway truck ramp. Yeah. Or hit a run. Why, why would you bypass three of them? I don't know. I, not him drove me. I would never have put it in neutral to begin with. I was taught better than that. Yeah. See, I didn't, I didn't hear that. But yeah, I, I remember it was, I only heard that recently though, and I forgot to tell you about that.

I do remember that. It was like a ridiculous amount of time that he was, well, now you know why. Yeah. They didn't, but I think they reduced it. I think I, they they didn't put that out to the public. In case you're wondering about my fiddling. I've, for those of you that have never seen me, and you haven't seen our YouTube, I have really, really, really blonde hair, and it's messing with me today.

It's fly away. Oh. Keeps going, yeah. Just today? That's like every day. Grrr. Listen, chicken pants. Yeah. So basically, manual transmissions force you to pay attention. Yes. You know, as a driver. Uh huh. Because. Yeah, you know if you're not paying attention, and you've got a jam on the brakes you're gonna stall it out Well, and there really is no neutral in it I mean you can be between gears, but there's not a neutral on a manual not really well.

Yeah, there is there There's right and right dead center. Yeah Anyway, but I'm just saying I mean basically a manual transition makes you pay more attention. It does yes because you're you're you're You're doing multiple things you're clutching Accelerate, shifting, braking. Oh yeah, and steering. You know, so.

You know, drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, eating a sandwich. So, I mean, if you can't multi tune in the radio, yeah, if you can't multitask like that. Oh, and calling somebody on the CB radio. Yes. But you're not using your phone, so you're not distracted driving. Exactly. So, I mean, if you can't do all that in a manual transmission, you're, you haven't, you haven't lived.

Gone are the good old days. Yes. So manual transmissions are more familiar to seasoned drivers who grew up driving stick shift cars. This is true. Um, I grew up in the Cars were mostly automatic, but there was still an awful lot of us that grew up driving sticks My family had some stick shifts, but mostly automatics, but I had the pleasure of learning to drive on a stick shift as well Most of my friends didn't.

Yeah. Let me rephrase that. Most of my female friends didn't. Oh. Most of my guy friends knew how to drive a stick shift. But then again, my last name is McCue. Therefore. What? Oh my god. Newsflash. No way. Newsflash. I thought it was O'Heller McCue. Well now it is. Anyway, um, So, most of the people that, Are the seasoned drivers that grew up driving stick shift.

They still enjoy that challenge and the skill it takes. And yeah, those people that did that, they grew up driving a stick shift car while. Eating, eating a Big Mac and, and fries, smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer, drink, well not drinking, well unless you lived in Wyoming, when I, when I lived in Wyoming, you could still drink a beer while driving a vehicle.

Yeah, but don't spill it, the cops will beat on your ass. Um, yeah, you could still have an open container. The rule was, as long as you weren't drinking it when the car was moving. You had to wait to drink it when you came to a stop sign. It could be open. Yeah. But as long as you stopped at a stop light or a stop sign, you could take a drink then.

Laws are laws. Yes, I know. But anyway, the, you know, you'd be listening to Commander Cody on the, the 8 track tape. Uh huh. Smoking a cigarette, drinking whatever, I'll just say it like that. Uh huh. Um, eating your Big Mac and fries or whatever, your A& W root beer, whatever you were having. Um... While you're shifting, you know, so you learned how to multitask and then grow up to be a truck driver You had your sandwich in the left hand with your elbow on the steering wheel You had your beverage in your right hand and you were shifting with your elbow No, you can put your beverage well on top and you can shift with your pinky Hey, I shifted a semi with a broken right hand.

What and wrist now, that's talent. Yeah Remember the y'all I made him keep the the finger And the thumb from the knuckle down here. Open. Cause your dad asked me one time, How did I manage to shift my semi with that cast on? Uh huh. When I told your parents, your mom and dad were both laughing at me. They were like, Of course you did.

Of course. Busted it on someone's face and then managed to still drive. Uh huh. Anyway. Anyways. Back to the show. Back to the show. That's why a lot of people that drive manuals, you'll find, are older, more experienced drivers, or were raised by more experienced drivers and they grew up in the industry. Yes.

No, I totally agree. You know, um, once in a while you'll get someone that grew up with the fascination of the industry that is younger. Okay. That is just like so, oh my gosh, I grew up and I heard all about this. And I wanted to try it. And I wanted to try it and I fell in love with it. And I'm driving a manual.

Or an automatic. No, no way I'm driving an automatic. Oh. They're, they grew up with that fascination and they saw it on, on movies and everything and they're like, Oh my gosh, I gotta be that person that does the whole 18 gears or 13 gears or 15 or whatever. Give me the, give me the super max. Yes, I want that, you know.

Bring it on. You still have that once in a while driver that does that. Yes. They're getting rarer and rarer. Uh, yeah, they are. There's very few super truckers out there. He he he Most of them are retired. Yeah, I'm one of them. Or have gone into, um, teaching. Well, I guess we're teaching. Yeah, but I'm talking about actual instructors at trucking schools too.

And the reason why I say that is because combined, 40 years of experience in the trucking industry. That's right. That's why people need to listen up. Listen up. here chicken pants. Yeah. Just, just saying. What are you saying? So as automatic transmission transmissions are becoming more popular and common in semi-truck, especially among new drivers mm-hmm.

uh, some of the benefits of automatic transmissions are automatic transmissions are easier to use and learn on. Okay. Uh, they eliminate the need for manual, uh, change. Manually changing gears. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Typo? No, no, no. I, oh, I gotta thing. I my through, I said I might have typo something too. Um, which, which could be stressful.

Um, and, and tiring on some of the new drivers that aren't used to a manual transmission. Correct. So, especially so I get, I get it in a, in a, in a instructors, you know, in a school. Yes. Um, point of view. They're easier to train. Well, it's, however, if you have the option mm-hmm. . To learn on a manual, I recommend that you do it.

I agree. That's, you know. And if you look at people, say, out here in Phoenix, for instance, where we're at, a lot of people don't even start to get their license until they're in their 20s now. Right. And we have a new community, we have a new community out here, that there's not even cars allowed in the community.

Right. That's, you know, electric bicycles. I know. Yay. They're giving you one. Well, the first 300. Yeah. Anyway. Anyway. So we're talking about, uh, some of the drivers who prefer manual transmissions over automatic if you're just joining us. Or vice versa. Vice versa, versa, vice. Yep. I prefer a manual. Ms. Janet prefers a manual.

Correct. So. Automatic transmissions are considered safer and more efficient. Now, compared to when they first came out in semi trucks, I have to agree with that. Um, they can shift gears faster and smoother than most humans. And I'll explain that in a second. Which can improve your fuel economy and reduce emissions.

Okay. The reason I say most humans is, they've, there's been studies, and if it's an older, experienced driver, An experienced driver with, um, say 20, 30 years experience on a, um, manual, I almost said a stick shift, on a manual, he can match, or she can match, um, an automatic transmission gear for gear, or faster, and get just as good a fuel efficiency, and reduce emissions just as well, because they've been doing it so long, and can shift so smoothly.

And I would, uh, I, I wouldn't even use, uh, I could shift without the clutch. Yeah, slip shift. Yeah. Yeah, which, I, hey, my boss appreciated not having to replace the clutch. Yeah, you know, I mean, they say it's not good, but it's like, if you were taught how to do it when you first got into driving. It's no big deal, yeah.

You know, it's. It's all about the RPMs. Yeah, it's all about RPMs, you know, and if you're watching your RPMs and you know your vehicle, it's. You can do it with your eyes closed. You just gotta listen. That's all. That's all it's about. So listen to the motor It'll tell you. So there are other perks to automatics.

Yeah Automatics can attract more and newer drivers to the industry. This is true, which is currently facing a big shortage of Qualified drivers. Well now I know there's been like real a lot of controversy Uh, where they want to lower the age to get in. They have lowered the age. But, they're limiting where they can't drive out of state.

They can only drive in state. It has still taken some pressure off of the industry by adding more in state drivers. Um, and they're also trying to get more and more colleges that have, uh, heavy, truck presence, you know, the states like Iowa, Nebraska, you know, stuff like that, where there's a big presence in trucking that there's, there's courses that they can take to be able to obtain.

They've added it into high schools. That's what I meant. That's what I meant. You said colleges. I meant VOTEC, like a vocational. Yeah, there's, there's vocational programs now, and they can start them at 16 as long as they have started driver's ed, or finished driver's ed, they can start VOTEC for semis. Yeah.

Yes, that doesn't guarantee them work that just shows them the trade and if they want to pursue it Then they can go to it can when they become of age then when yes Then they can they have a step up into the industry So but yeah, I I think that's that's perfect that you'll get them, you know, their junior senior year of high school Get them trained and then when they graduate if they want to pursue it that way then I'm all for it because they got two years on basically two years under their belt of training Yeah That's that's just my theory the ones that I have objected to Is people that go out and get their driver's license say they turn 21, okay They go out and they get the driver's license, a regular automobile license for the first time ever.

Okay, and as what? And as soon as they get their license, this story sounds so familiar like I've lived it. Anyway, so I got it as soon as they get their license then they go and apply it at Tractor trailer school. Have heard this story. And they go to their little class Um, barely being able to drive a car.

Yup. And managed to pass the class. Minimum qualifications. Yup. They passed it though. And they managed to actually pass the road test. Um, after a couple tries. Uh huh. And they managed to get a job. And managed to, because the industry is in such a shortage, in spite of multiple, multiple accidents, keep their job.

Yeah, right. Um, I really object to that. I, I do too. I don't think that you should be able to get your license for a car one week and your license for a semi a month later. Yeah, you gotta have a little, little, at least a year under your belt. God, I would hope so. But it's not so, at least not in Arizona.

Anyway, I'm sorry, I went off a rabbit hole. Uh huh. So some drivers may prefer one over the other. Well, some may not mind either way. I'm one of those I I prefer a manual, but if I got to drive an automatic I drive it. Yeah, I'm not I'm not picky picky I'll be grudgingly drive the automatic but whatever suits the drivers the best.

Yeah Yeah, so the best transmission is the one that suits the driver. So there are perks and problems What? No way. Yeah, so, but, for instance, if you're at a dock. Okay. When, when you're in a manual, you know how you can like feather it back when you're reversing and you can just kiss the dock? Yeah, you just like, just love tapping.

Yeah, you just like, and you're there. Yep. And you can always tell. You always tell when somebody's in an automatic. Yeah, because I can remember sitting in a dock and I just, Just kiss the dock and I'd sit there and the guys at the dock, you know, the loaders give me a thumbs up like hey way To go that was nice and then we'd sit there on the CB and talk to other drivers and we'd go to a different channel So not everybody would hear us and we'd be like, okay, let's take some bets I want to see who's in a manual and who's in an automatic.

This guy's gonna kiss the dock hard He's gonna rattle the building. He's gonna rattle the building and you go BAM Oh, automatic. That's an automatic. Or, or somebody who doesn't know how to drive a manual. Yeah, it's either just learn to drive or in an automatic because... Or, or their depth perception. They, they have very poor depth perception.

That's why I quit driving though. Because if you, you don't have that depth perception to where you could... Judge how far away you are looking in a mirror. You know, yeah, that makes it rough. I Mean, I mean, well, that's off and mine is off after I had was in a head on collision in semis For people that don't know that that's why I chose to quit driving.

I wasn't forced out I chose to quit but my depth perception is not Things appearing further away mine is things appear too close, right? So when I thought throws you off it does but when I you're at the dock, you're not you're you're yeah when I thought I was right next to the dock, I was still like eight inches away and I'd be like, oh crap, I'm A little bit to get that adjusted back into play.

No, it never it never will never did never did still is off. But anyway so Automatics tend not to really engage until you get to a certain RPM threshold. Okay. And that means you have to, it takes that level of control away from the driver. And a trailer on an automatic semi will hit the dock, and that crash embarrasses the driver if they're an experienced driver.

Yeah. And it annoys... I used to hate that. It annoys the shit out of the crew on the dock. It's like, I used to do a lot of loading and unloading. Mm hmm. So, I used to have to take the smaller automatic trucks down to, down to our dock. Okay. And, and offload their stuff onto a trailer. Oh, okay, yeah. So it's like, I got used to, I, used to driving with two feet.

Want my left foot on the brake. Yep. So I'm not slamming the dot. Yeah. Trying to get the RPM up. I get you. You know, so you kind of learn. You learn the tricks. It's easier in a straight track though. Yeah. In a, in a semi, in a tractor trailer combo, it's harder than it is in a straight track. I don't know why.

It is. But it is. It is. It just, it just is because you got that delay, that slight delay in the brake. Yeah. And it's like, You know, it's like a really bad driver. Yeah. You know. Well, I know this, this next here. If you're stuck in the snow. Okay. It's not a, it's not a good look. Okay. For one. Uh, sometimes traversing through a lot.

A semi can get stuck. Okay, I've driven up north enough to know that. On a slick patch, patch of ice or slush. Okay. Um, but when you're moving at slower speeds. Okay, like in a truck stop? Yeah. Okay. Um, now I know. What we used to, when I used to have to drive through snow is I would grab higher gears. Okay. And just feather the accelerators so that as to not, you know, feather the clutch and the accelerator as to not get the wheels to spin.

Yep. Which helps out a lot because you're, you're, you're, how do I put it? You're, you're bogging down the engine, letting it do the work, you know, letting the transmission do, do the work. And set the grip of your tires, you know, you're letting the transmission pull you out. Yeah. You know, that's the best way I can describe it.

Okay. And I used to have to tell the guys that would come down, it's like, yo, grab a higher gear. You're just, you know, you know, turning snow to ice and I don't have salt to melt it for you. Well, and if you do get stuck. Anyone that's ever been stuck in the snow in a pickup, especially, or a car, but especially a pickup, should know how to rock a truck.

Yeah, oh yeah. It's kind of the same thing in a semi. Come on, baby. First to reverse. First, forward, you know, second, then reverse. Yep. Yep. And back and forth. And you get that little rock going. Once you the wheels catch, you go. Once your momentum goes. And you're on fresh snow, you go. Once you get it going, you gotta, you keep it going.

You just feather it and then pray to God some idiot doesn't cut in front of you so that... Yeah. You gotta stop and do it all over again. Well, and the thing to remember is fresh snow, you go. You know, once you hit fresh snow, you go, because there's nothing packing it down, you know? Don't go full throttle, just keep it, keep it going.

Yeah, so we did a poll about all this, didn't we? Yes, we did. How'd that turn out? I don't remember. Um, I know, I know manual won over automatic. Seventy five percent. Okay, yeah. I, I posted on our formerly known as Twitter page. Which... The app formerly known as Twitter. Yeah, uh, on X, I posted a question, manual or automatic?

And, uh, y'all, y'all didn't disappoint. There was some, there was a couple of good comments. Mm hmm. I'm not going to read any of them. Correct. But, 75 percent say they prefer to manual transmission. And if you want to follow us on Twitter, our, our call sign is at 18WheelTalk. Hard to remember, I know, just like.

I know. Look right there at one eight the number one the number eight. We'll talk. Yeah, and we should note that most of the people that prefer manual are experienced driver Drivers who have been driving tractor trailer for over a dozen years or more at least and it's probably what they're accustomed to.

Yep You know, they got into a company that had manual transcription Like I said, a lot of companies are Leasing tractors, you know, bigger companies and, and it's cheaper to lease an automatic because everybody drives an automatic. Yeah, especially with like Peterbilt now, 90 percent of their rigs coming off the line are automatic.

Which drives me up a wall. But they are improving. Yeah. And they're cheaper to make. I always told my boss, I said, when you, when you can't get me a manual transmission, I quit. Okay. And then I decided, you know what, I'm going to retire instead. No jokes on him, you're cool. I'm outta here. So, all this being said, there's always going to be diehard must have manual transmission drivers.

Just like there are in cars. Yep. And going forward there's going to be many more drivers that have no clue about how to drive a manual. This is true. You know, it's kind of like what happened with cars, you know. Uh huh. Many, many moons ago. I know. Um, I just said, you know, 90% of the rigs coming off the assembly line now are, are automatic because like I said, I think they're, they're starting to become cheaper.

Cheaper to make, and they've improved how they work, you know? Um, my, that's why, that's why I said, I don't know, with the research and everything, I, I just think finance, you know, money wise mm-hmm. , I think the reason why they're doing it is because they're doing more. Fleet type vehicles versus owner operators.

They are ordering, you know, yeah, so they're just mass producing automatic They've always leaned towards fleets But with the research that I also did they're using the same gearboxes

the same transmissions the plain Jane way of putting it Right. Okay, without going into deep, deep dive. It's programmed. It's, yeah, the computer's operating everything. Because computers have come so far, they're able to make the computer control the same type of transmission. You're still seeing like Eaton Fuller, uh, shifters.

You're still seeing the same computer, or same transmissions and everything. Just like the big cat engine, you're still seeing a big cat engine and everything. It's being computer driven though. You see what I mean? Yes. Um. Not by a person doing everything, but Yeah, that's the age we're, that's the age we're going in, you know, unfortunately, the digital age, AI and digital is, is taken over and that's just, you know, you either gotta join them or join them.

Well, you know, adapt in one way or another. If you can't lick them, lick them. What did you say, chicken pants? Anyways. Yes. Anywho.

Whatever it is. Whatever, whatever your choice is, driver. It's yours. It's yours. Definitely yours. You know, uh, I totally agree. And be sure to have your ears on the 18 Wheel Talk podcast show when you're doing it. That would be wonderful. Anyways, we hope you enjoyed our show today. That's, that's it in a nutshell.

Automatic versus manual. And I believe the, uh, there's, the, the post is still pinned on our, you know, you want to leave us a comment about it. Feel free to hop on over to, at 18 Wheel Talk on, on Twitter, X, whatever, X Twitter, whatever. X, X Twitter. Whatever you want to call it. Whatever you want to call it and uh, just leave us a comment.

Oh, did we mention the deadline on the giveaway? Uh, two weeks. Two weeks. You got two weeks. If you're not in it by the 20th, you're done. October 31st is the last day we are taking entries for our giveaway. Then it's ka put. Ka put. Done. Done. And uh, and the winner will be notified, uh, in November. In November.

November. Early November. Yes, so so if you want to get in it, you gotta you can go there's there's many ways you can go You can go to 18 wheel talk com slash giveaway You can go to 18 wheel talk com and click on the floating Giveaway banner You can go to 18 wheel talk. com fan club sign up for our fan club Then you'll always be notified of our giveaways and then you want to click on the fan zone button Once you confirm your email address then you'll be in the know so otherwise Very good.

Very good. Keep your rubber side down and your shiny side up. We'll catch you on the flip side y'all Bye. Okay. Bye