Your opinions on buying an automatic moho

forestfern

forestfern

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So we’ve been searching for “the one”, having missed a couple of beauties and kicked ourselves for not being sharper off the mark. First time motorhomers here.

Now a perfect rollerteam has come up, apart from the fact that it’s automatic which we weren’t previously considering, it’s not something we’ve ever had.

Is this likely to affect re-saleability or price? Any drawbacks or is it really no big deal? Maybe a great selling point?

Any thoughts welcome, thank you 😊
 
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jongood said:
Manual every time for me to. Every lorry I drive these days are autos/ robitised clutch, Volvo is the only decent one. I prefer a manual for my motorhome so I can pick which gear I go up hills or around islands. Autos are also crap on slippery surfaces, gravel, grass,snow etc.

Additionally way too may horror stories about comfortmatics and agile, taking weeks to repair for something you could have coaxed home if manual.
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We have traction control on our Automatic Motorhome, we happily pulled off a wet and muddy site with the engine on virtually tick over and the traction doing its thing.
Two manual vans were having a problem gaining traction and were just spinning in the mud.
And when we were clear of the mud, we did not have to wiggle the old fashioned stick thing and press pedals.
 
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9 speed box amazing, love it, even our travel sick dog has stopped being sick
 
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GMLS said:
I'd be more concerned that the gearbox is on a Rollerteam. See other posts re Rolling Rucks on Youtube, warranty, spongy floor and lack of support from their dealer
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I saw that episode on the Rolling Rucks channel.
The Rolling Rucks had so much hassle with Rollerteam, who had cancelled their warranty.
The Rucks had to get Black Horse finance involved, whose inspector confirmed the floor is not to specification, and it was down to Rollerteam to fix it, which they had refused to do up until this point.
 
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The 6 speed manual on our Fiat 160 bhp Ducato works very well. Light clutch and easy box with well spaced ratios.
Plenty of torque means you can hang on to gears longer when it gets a bit hilly so there’s no hunting around by the gearbox for the optimum ratio like some autos especially older generation ones are prone to do. I quite like being able to set the right gear in anticipation of steeper inclines to maintain speed or to help control descents.
Off-roading in these things is always going to be interesting no matter what gearbox you have or whoever is at the helm probably more important to have the right tyres on if it’s a regular thing.
Try both if you can and make up your own mind as I think the new autos are very good. We bought ours used so didn’t have a choice I’m not anti manual so wasn’t bothered. My car is auto and it’s great.

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Fiat auto (or half a VW DSG), love it. Absolute boon.
 
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forestfern said:
So we’ve been searching for “the one”, having missed a couple of beauties and kicked ourselves for not being sharper off the mark. First time motorhomers here.

Now a perfect rollerteam has come up, apart from the fact that it’s automatic which we weren’t previously considering, it’s not something we’ve ever had.

Is this likely to affect re-saleability or price? Any drawbacks or is it really no big deal? Maybe a great selling point?

Any thoughts welcome, thank you 😊
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Auto every time , best move we made going for the auto.
 
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Manual or Automatic not fussed and not a deal breaker from my point of view.
Layout is far more important.
 
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Not mentioned so far (though I skipped some so may have missed it) - when descending proper hills (mountains), if you want a lower gear than you initially selected you’ve got a mighty task to change down in a manual, whereas in an auto just a flick of the lever or press of a button will get the gear down for that spectacular hairpin. And engine retardation is just as good with a torque converter gearbox as it is with a manual.

If autos had been invented first, no one would have come up with a manual gearbox as an improvement.
 
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minesapint said:
We have traction control on our Automatic Motorhome, we happily pulled off a wet and muddy site with the engine on virtually tick over and the traction doing its thing.
Two manual vans were having a problem gaining traction and were just spinning in the mud.
And when we were clear of the mud, we did not have to wiggle the old fashioned stick thing and press pedals.
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Ive seen lorries stuck on flat gravel with all the aides on but cant feed the power in gently enough. diff lock and total control for me. love it.
 
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As someone said on an earlier post… as a newbie there is enough to concentrate on when driving a bigger vehicle than you’re used to without having to think about changing gear!! Auto for us all the way!
 
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jongood said:
Ive seen lorries stuck on flat gravel with all the aides on but cant feed the power in gently enough. diff lock and total control for me. love it.
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Are most truck Automatic clutch or torque converter Jon?

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jongood said:
Robotised clutch Martin. I think Alison are a Torque Converter but they re still rare on European Trucks.
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Guess that's the problem with fine control, but answering my own question the torque converter gearbox seems to an option on Scania, not that I am likely to get one :unsure: this week or next:LOL:
 
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CazPaul said:
Look at all the Comfortmatic tales of woe around I wouldn’t have one given.
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That gearbox is the exception rather than the rule.
Our Iveco has an 8-speed automatic and has done 169.000 miles. It is an ex-Tesco delivery vehicle which has been converted to a mobile Fish and Chip van but you can imagine the regular stops and starts through the gears when it was a Tesco vehicle.
The gearbox is faultless and to give some idea of strength the same gearbox is used by Lamborghini!
I would go for automatic every time.
Good luck with your purchase. Have fun.
 
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SpeedyDux said:
True automatics do wear out. Partly because they tend to be neglected and regarded as sealed for life so the gearbox fluid is never changed according to the service schedule. It might not be mentioned on the service schedule at all. Trouble can begin at around 80,000 miles, in my experience. A few years ago a rebuild by a specialist cost me over £3k. He told me he has replaced a lot of Merc torque converters, a weak point apparently. That 9 speed ZF autobox had a poor reputation in its early days when fitted to Jeeps. It appears to be sorted now.

Driven in the appropriate style and in no hurry there is no reason to fear the ComfortMatic robotised gearbox. My view is that the mistake was to floor it especially with MHs over 4.2 tonne GVW using the older 3 litre engine. The clutch being a known Fiat weakness.
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I was going to mention the G-Tronic failures and service.

Just had my 7G-Tronic serviced by our local RAC approved garage. 55,000 miles £295 inc the Mercedes’ kit

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JustifiedAncient said:
I have the new Fiat 9-speed auto and was also worried about hill starts. I've noticed that if the incline is greater than a certain amount, then there is a 'hill holder' activated so that the vehicle keeps the brakes applied for a second or two after you have taken your right foot off the brake pedal giving you time to put your foot on the accelerator and move off. It works really well and means I can tackle 1 in 4 hill starts without worrying about the handbrake.
The only problem is that there is a 'grey' zone, where the incline is sufficient to allow the vehicle to roll back but not sufficient to activate the 'hill holder' (at least that is how it seems to be).
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Never had that problem with Mercedes sprintshit or g-tronics
 
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Paul and Val said:
That gearbox is the exception rather than the rule.
Our Iveco has an 8-speed automatic and has done 169.000 miles. It is an ex-Tesco delivery vehicle which has been converted to a mobile Fish and Chip van but you can imagine the regular stops and starts through the gears when it was a Tesco vehicle.
The gearbox is faultless and to give some idea of strength the same gearbox is used by Lamborghini!
I would go for automatic every time.
Good luck with your purchase. Have fun.
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To be fair there are different variants of the same ZF 8HP to cater for different torque and power characteristics,
 
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Auto for me every time. Its a stress remover without equal. Our 2020 Ducato box coupled to a 180hp option is so easy to drive that I can't even feel the cogs changing. Big tick on the options list I would suggest?
 
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It’s all very well for those that have the wear with all to buy a newish van, as auto boxes have improved dramatically in recent years. However as a perennial purchaser of secondhand vans the situation is a bit different. Our last Hymer had the wonderful 2.7 lump mated to the Sprintshift gearbox. Last winter whilst in Spain it misbehaved a couple of times, after returning home I asked around for advice and eventually found a guy in Bedford capable of repairing a sprintshift. What he told me was not comforting, it would be around 2k to inspect my gearbox and potentially thousands more to repair, we sold it as soon as we could.
More by luck than design our replacement Hymer has the Iveco 3.0 L engine with a manual box, now I’m not saying it’s better to drive as it isn’t, but I’m not having night sweats about a massive repair bill.

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Lemut said:
Auto for me every time. Its a stress remover without equal. Our 2020 Ducato box coupled to a 180hp option is so easy to drive that I can't even feel the cogs changing. Big tick on the options list I would suggest?
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Yeah and big dent to the bank balance too if you jump to 180ps and the 9 speed auto with the Ducato. Must be pushing £7k now.
 
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Unless you have stated the Automatic type and I have missed it ,is it the Bodge up Comfortmatic ( I had one it it worked ok) but it was a manual gearbox with a normal clutch, mostly electronically controlled , or is it a proper 9 Speed Automatic or similar, If it's a proper one I would go for it , can't see why anybody would want to physically want to change gear, when there is a contraption that will do it for you.
 
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Gromett said:
The only reason I can think for wanting a manual is if you do off road camping. The extra control you have for getting off the wet stuff is handy.
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I find that automatics give me all the control i need. Just stroke the throttle, and crawl as slow or as quick as needed.

Craig
 
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Think one of the reasons Lenny is changing his Motorhome is problems with the Comformatic Auto Box traction control on his Hymer.
 
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Had auto cars / vans and sorry but no way Id have an auto motorhome. Don't see what the advantage is to be honest over a manual which i love, maybe it's the irish in me.

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Fdhadi said:
Think one of the reasons Lenny is changing his Motorhome is problems with the Comformatic Auto Box traction control on his Hymer.
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To be honest it's not that bad (don't tell 'er indoors that) the comfomatic has only done one wobbly in 5 years just happened to do it on a hairpin on a mountain road, turn off and restart sorted it.
The traction control has only done if twice in 5 years and I now had the latest software updates. Again it always chooses the most inconvienant time and puts me in panic mode.
Had two Comfomatics, if the 9 speed wasn't avaliable it wouldn't put me off another Comfomatic.
 
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