Yesterday i had to go up a local steep hill and from experience knew it would strugle if i let it choose its own gears. kickdown doesnt seem towork for me properly it wont change down till the next gear it chooses will give about 1500 rpm. I decided to try it in manual mode so pressed the button on the end of the right hand stalk and changed the gears as i saw fit by pushing and pulling on the stalk.
Half way up the hill i noticed the little display that tells you the gear your in said “A power” rather than just “A” i left it alone as it was doing what i wanted top of the hill and i hit the button again and it went back to “A”. However, i could still change the gears by pushing and pulling on the stalk where as im sure i couldnt before. no amount of pushing the button seemed to get it back to not being able to change the gears.
a few questions arise
- how do you get the thing in manual as the button is labled A/M if all it switches between is “a power” and “a”
- what is “A Power”
- Have i done somthing to this thing as i can now change the gears in fully auto mode
Depending on the age of it, there should be either 2 or 3 different gearbox modes, these are automatic, automatic power and automatic economy. You should be able to change gear manually in any of these modes but there isn’t a proper manual option.
Automatic is your basic setting, the lorry will drive normally, which means it will die on any slight incline. Power mode will see it drop gears more readily to deal with hills to try and keep the speed up. Economy is the standard setting in new Actros’, this limits your cruise control speed to 53mph/85kph, although you can reach 56/90 by using the pedal. It will also put you in ‘economy’ gear (ie neutral) when going downhill to save fuel
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No idea if the Antos does it, but on the Actros, you press and hold that button to put it into manual mode.
Being in manual mode disables the kickdown when you put the exhaust brake on and also stops in running in eco roll mode too.
Terry Cooksey:
Power mode will see it drop gears more readily to deal with hills to try and keep the speed up
Seeing as…
It’s a Merc, nothing will happen. I’ve seen more power coming from ants riding ickle bicycles up steep inclines whilst wearing large backpacks.
