INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Allison Transmission is set to unveil a “radically new” transmission design for tractors at this week’s Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky, that officials say will “redefine tractor performance and operating efficiencies.”

Allison Transmission says the new approach to tractor transmission design will incorporate the manufacturer’s torque converter and twin countershafts. The company says the new design concept is intended for distribution applications where a tractor-trailer splits its work cycle between city and highway conditions.  Officials say the design’s full-power shifts will bring productivity and fuel efficiency to stop-and-go portions of a route, while the 10-spead-countershaft architecture will offer fuel economy while cruising. 

“Initial in-vehicle demonstration tests have allowed us to document some very nice gains in fuel economy and we achieved increases in a vehicles miles-per-workday,” according to Lou Gilbert, Allison Transmission’s director of North American market development. “Our testing has shown this new transmission offers better fuel economy than an automated manual in the targeted duty cycle markets for which it was developed.”

Allison will have one of its demonstration vehicles, which incorporates the new transmission, on-site for customer driving and evaluation during the Mid-America show.