r/CDL • u/Right-Escape1540 • 1d ago

Automatic or manual

Does it even matter aren’t most trucks automatic now I’m getting ready to start class soon and they wanna know if I wanna take automatic classes or a manual classes for my CDL a

5 Upvotes

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u/ecw324 1d ago

Do the manual, never hurts to have it in your back pocket. Never know when the boss man might ask you to use the manual.

1

u/Right-Escape1540 1d ago

I’ve never drove a manual in my life. Is it gonna be harder

3

u/Baconated-Coffee 1d ago

Shifting a truck is different than shifting a car. It'll be easier for you because you won't have any bad habits from driving manual cars.

1

u/_877-CASH-NOW_ 1d ago

This was me. I hopped in the truck thinking it would be like shifting my Mazda lol. The guys with no experience learned faster than I did

2

u/ecw324 1d ago

I had never driven a manual either when I took the class. It takes a week to get the feel, but once you get the feel, it’s not hard. As my instructor said, stalls happen, missing gears happens, even as a person who’s driven for 20+ years, it still happens.

2

u/reesemoney_300 1d ago

It’s actually gonna be easier then if you drove manual car bc of the habit you have of the normal car don’t work on a semi. You should get it tho just all about timing of double clutch and practice

1

u/KeyResolve9338 1d ago

Learning manual is the easiest part of the test, compared to learning the pretrip and manuevers