The Effect of Automatic Transmissions on Military Truck Fuel Economy

The purpose of this paper is to describe investigations made of military truck fuel economy with various types of transmissions and to present resulting data and conclusions. The primary factors influencing fuel economy in the military environment are identified. Vehicles were specially prepared and operated over a military type duty cycle at various speeds and loads with professional and novice drivers.

The resulting data indicates that in a military on-off road duty cycle automatic transmissions will provide fuel economy superior to nonautomatic transmissions, particularly when novice drivers are utilized.