Kenworth Truck Co. says it now offers Allison Transmission’s Load-Based Shift Scheduling (LBSS) as a standard feature on select Allison transmissions with its Class 8 and medium-duty trucks for enhanced fuel economy and performance.
Allison LBSS is included on the company’s fully automatic Highway Series (HS) and Rugged Duty Series (RDS) transmissions when configured with a 2007 and later emissions model engine. LBSS is designed to select between economy and performance shift schedules automatically based on the vehicle’s actual payload and its operating grade. The economy mode is used when the truck travels on level terrain with an empty or diminishing load, while the performance mode is used when the vehicle is loaded heavily or on a grade. According to Allison, the system can help enhance fuel economy, while also maintaining high productivity, even during heavily loaded situations.
The addition of LBSS to Allison 3000 and 4000 series models can allow the mode button on the transmission’s shift selector to be programmed for controlling other vehicle functions, such as body-builder functions or power-takeoff (PTO) operation. On trucks with Allison 1000 and 2000 series transmissions without a shift schedule dash switch, LBSS is designed to perform the shift schedule selection for the driver automatically, eliminating the need to select the transmission shift schedule manually for economy operation.
