Got stuck in neutral

Moved from Forum Technical Support

One thing I do know about the Allison is that it won't let you damage it. He may have tried to downshift too far and it went into safe mode. I did that once on our '08 Dynasty, it seemed to go into a neutral position like you mention.

I think you are OK.

MM.

I agree with the safe mode theory.
I had my alternator fail and was trying to make it to the next town and the batteries drained down fairly quickly. The lights on the shift pad blinked a couple times and it went to neutral. So yes I think that is what they do.
It would be better to take it off cruise before you downshift.

Thank you guys so much. We did make it to our destination fine but it was a scare and I always appreciate the help you people on here always give us.
It will make us feel so much better when we take off again on Tuesday.
Thanks again!!!!

Janet

Call Allison they would be able to help.

I owned a 2005 Diplomat for ten years. Even though an Allison is still an Allison, no matter what coach it's in, I'm going to take a guess at what happened. When your husband went to downshift, he hit neutral by accident, not hard to do. Since the cruise control was on, the engine speed was too high, not allowing the Allison to shift into drive.

The Allison will not allow shifting from Neutral into gear, unless the engine rpm's are under about 750. I'm guessing with the cruise on, your rpms were about 1500.

DSDP Don wrote:
I owned a 2005 Diplomat for ten years. Even though an Allison is still an Allison, no matter what coach it's in, I'm going to take a guess at what happened. When your husband went to downshift, he hit neutral by accident, not hard to do. Since the cruise control was on, the engine speed was too high, not allowing the Allison to shift into drive.

The Allison will not allow shifting from Neutral into gear, unless the engine rpm's are under about 750. I'm guessing with the cruise on, your rpms were about 1500.

Agreed.

As one Allison rep once told me, those transmissions are basically a computer with a box of gears attached to it. It will know when and how to protect itself from operator error when necessary. Likely, that's what you experienced.

Thanks again everyone. I feel so much better knowing it was husband error, lol

Janet

JANETRUPP wrote:
Thanks again everyone. I feel so much better knowing it was husband error, lol

Janet

Can your husband chime in to tell what he did? After re-reading your first post, I realized that I have many times downshifted the Allison with the cruise on with no problem.

The 'neutral' situation that I encountered on our '08 Dynasty happened I tried to downshift from 3 to 2 while going slow up a hill (cruise off). It went into a neutral mode so I drifted off to the side and stopped the coach and everything was fine then. I was new to all of this at the time and realized later I was asking the transmission to do something that might have damaged it.

Did your husband hit the neutral or did he try and downshift too many gears?

Safe travels,
MM.