Learning to drive manual trans?

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I've said for years that I don't think anyone should be allowed to have a license to operate any vehicle they want until they spend at least a year driving a 1-ton dump or larger vehicle with a manual transmission. It'd give them some idea of respect to have for those vehicles on the road.

I took my drivers test in an auto. A big boat of a station wagon to boot. And I rarely drove until I got my first vehicle - a manual. I had driven an F-350 manual a couple times on some dirt roads but I really learned how to drive a manual on my Ranger I got when I was 17. Since I was the only person other than the boss on the construction crew I worked on at the time that could drive a manual, I got to drive the extra F-350 dump all the time. From the time I got my Ranger until the time I got my first automatic (my 1988 BII Eddie Bauer), I never drove anything but manuals. My Eddie Bauer is still the only automatic I own, everything else has a stick.

That said, I struggled learning to drive a manual. I kept thinking my dad was nuts when he kept telling me that after I got used to it, I'd shift without even thinking about it. I had been driving on my own after he had deemed me ready to venture out on my own for like a year when I suddenly realized one day that... dad was right. When I drove the 1-ton dump for my old boss, I didn't get lunches, I was expected to eat on the road. So I quickly mastered the art of driving a manual and eating. I'd hold the bottom of my drink with my right hand so my ring and pinky could just catch the top of the shifter and hold the sandwich in my left. I'd steer with my knee and my left. I wouldn't recommend most people try it though, lol.

 

[racsan]

first thing i ever drove was a manual, a '74 F250 reg cab 2wd longbed. 300-I6, creeper 1st 4 speed. ive had a few auto's, but most of what ive owned has been a manual, i prefer them for trailer towing and snow especially. sure a automatic has its place, in town heavy traffic its nice, drive-through christmas lights at the local fairgrounds...(but i have ran through there in 4-low with the hubs unlocked) probly the only thing ive absolutly prefered with a auto is plowing snow, theres enough to be dealing with, and i do like a automatic for that. the wifes S-blazer is a auto, and it would be so much more fun with a manual...maybe i'll swap one in someday.....

 

[adsm08]

Ford is teaming up with GM to come out with a 10 speed for their new half tons.

They already teamed up to design one trans. It was a fiasco.

I was working on a 13 Chevy something or SUV other the other day, I was looking it over for safety inspection, and I got to looking at the trans. It looked kinda familiar, so I looked a little harder and realized it was a 6F50, same trans as the Edge and new Explorers have.


Also I think it's odd that the CVT was generally abandoned as a design because it was too complex and expensive to build for the performance and fuel economy benefits it provided, so now we are building million-speed transmissions trying to replicate the effect, and getting the complexity and cost up to the same mark.


What was so wrong with only 5 gears?

 

[wildbill23c]

I learned to drive stick before I had a vehicle or a license. Driving a farm truck all summer for a couple years, that paid for me to take driver's ed. The first day we went out to drive and got in the driver's ed car I was missing crap already, someone had stolen the clutch and gear shift and left me with a lever in the floor that had P/R/N/D/2/1. I was like WTF is this crap. The driver's ed instructor looks at me and say's you've spent too much time on the farm. I said no this car is just a piece of crap you can't even shift gears in it. My first personal vehicle was an 84 Ford Ranger 4x2 automatic, then a 93 Ford Tempo Automatic, 96 Jeep Grand Cherokee automatic, and my 08 Toyota Tundra. Every other vehicle I've had has been a manual mainly so my mom can't drive them LOL. I had a 1989 Mazda B2600i 4x4 pickup, 1989 Nissan D21 4x4, 99 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4, 06 Chevy Cobalt, and now my 84 Bronco 2 all with manual transmissions.

The manual transmission may just become an anti-theft device deduction on insurance here pretty soon. Most trucks today are automatics, and even many of the larger semi-trucks are now coming out with automatic transmissions. People are just lazy today. Not to mention having to shift gears means they couldn't be playing with their ipod, ipad, phone, etc. while driving.

 

[racsan]

....the "driver's ed" thing reminded me.....when i was in drivers ed we had stopped at a park. i didnt put it in park, i shut it off in gear, just like id always do with a standard...except this was a automatic...lol. it didnt roll too far after we had gotton out. the car was a 85/86 chevrolet celebrity. i was surprized to find out that drivers ed no loger exists in my local schools.

 

[4x4junkie]

I actually prefer the auto (especially for rock crawling). For one you dont need three feet to run it (crawling), I can ease into the obstacle, and the engine stays running, and then I can ease over it or hammer it down.

Sounds like you haven't driven a manual with a deep-enough gear reduction behind it

I have a feeling the disappearance of manual transmissions will make my '94 Ranger the last brand new vehicle I ever buy in my life.

 

[adsm08]

drivers ed no loger exists in my local schools.

Go pitch a fit with the school board.

At my school we had three classes that were required to be taken for graduation. You had to have a "physical education" (that's what they call gym class now) each of the 4 years and the school's health education and driver's ed classes must be completed and passed before the end of the junior year.

 

[RonD]

Ah, Drivers Ed, Blood on the Highway and Red Asphalt, classic movies

 

[ab_slack]

The first day we went out to drive and got in the driver's ed car I was missing crap already, someone had stolen the clutch and gear shift and left me with a lever in the floor that had P/R/N/D/2/1. I was like WTF is this crap.

Yeah, well they do make the brake pedal extra wide so when you do go to push the clutch in your foot will find a pedal to push on....not that the feel is anyway like pushing on the clutch pedal.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

My experience as far as fuel economy goes, at least when there is load on the engine (like going up a hill), medium RPMs are better than low. That at higher RPMs you don't have to give as much throttle. I have had some good measures that prove that. One of the things I never liked about automatic was that the only way it knew to downshift was when you pushed extra far on the gas. Or it would stay in the higher gear and just make you push down further whereas in a manual I either could judge the hill and drop into the lower gear in anticipation avoiding the need to get hard on the gas.

I normally skip second and go straight to third so the second blockout thing usually doesn't even come into play.

If you drive the vehicle for awhile you learn how much it takes to make it downshift on que. My Ranger is only a 3 speed so at highway speed it has already unlocked and downshifted compared to a modern automatic... it cruises in its happy spot. My F-150 I do a little blip thing with the throttle to make it downshift on demand, it works great.

i was surprized to find out that drivers ed no loger exists in my local schools.

It doesn't exist in my school either, they have a company come in and do it. I think it is probably for the better to have someone trained to do it that does it all the time rather than whatever teacher was having a slow summer like when I went through it.

Also makes me think of my automatic problem in drivers ed. We were in some POS Chrysler Sebring and we came up on a motorcycle running about 45mph in a 55mph zone on a two lane highway so I pull around to pass. I keep giving it more gas to pass and the thing pretty much just sits there and looks back at me maintaining 45mph, I give it more and more trying to get some kind of sign of life out of the thing... and then it wakes up and just goes nuts. I was turning three shades of white but my former 4-5th grade PE teacher didn't say a word. I think if I had been more aggressive with it it would have known what to do but driving with the teacher I was trying to ease into it.

 

[Andy D]

Learning how to drive was easier when I was a kid. Cars only had 3 speeds ;D

 

[BLOODBANE]

Sounds like you haven't driven a manual with a deep-enough gear reduction behind it

I have a feeling the disappearance of manual transmissions will make my '94 Ranger the last brand new vehicle I ever buy in my life.

See thats what I hate about forums, everyone has to "one up" someone else....

My Samurai has 6.5:1 T-Case gears in it (low range crawl is .94 mph). I "have" in fact driven enough cars with low gears (see avatar). My Ranger has 4:56's and my Explorer has 4:88's.
I am building a 86 Samurai buggy with a 5.0, AOD, Atlas that will run 5:38's in a HP44 and 9"

Until you have tried it, don't knock it. Just my preference....

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Where is Gwaii to chime in with his Ranger that takes like 10 minutes to make one rotation of the tires in first, first, first, low, low range.

 

[ZMan]

Edit to add: Look having a Manual Trans is a good theft deterrent anymore because the younger punks can't drive them to steal them, and the older ones that know how to don't bother stealing stuff anymore.

Yep, perfect reason to drive a stickshift! Read this article:

http://jalopnik.com/three-would-be-...ource=jalopnik_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

 

[4x4junkie]

See thats what I hate about forums, everyone has to "one up" someone else....

My Samurai has 6.5:1 T-Case gears in it (low range crawl is .94 mph). I "have" in fact driven enough cars with low gears (see avatar). My Ranger has 4:56's and my Explorer has 4:88's.
I am building a 86 Samurai buggy with a 5.0, AOD, Atlas that will run 5:38's in a HP44 and 9"

Until you have tried it, don't knock it. Just my preference....

Sorry, I wasn't meaning to upset you...

I have driven plenty of automatics, however I ALSO have driven plenty of low-enough-geared manuals too (and plenty of not-low-enough-geared ones as well lol). I find a low-geared manual to be much more controllable than the automatic (especially when coming down a rock).

No doubt, everyone does have their own preferences, however a manual-trans rig that you have to three-foot it like you said simply isn't geared low enough.