Manual transmission VS auto for off roading??

[Evan]

ya im the same all my brothers car were manual so i got to drive those all the time when i was like 14 15 years old the only time i drove an auto was my moms truck and my budies car 94 b3000 is manual an its my first truck and im goin to stick with a manual unless i get like a full size truck cuz my buddy has a 95 chevy 2500 5 speed an its just anoying cuz the gears have no balls the the shift is soo long to i like manual in small pick ups or cars

ok ya i kno how to shift without a clutch now ya my brother told me he does it when he races pll in his cobalt but he does it like you revit up to like 7gran thenpop it into neutral then when it drops a 1000 rpm you ease it into the next gear

is that the same why you guys do it??

Are you missing the , . and ! keys on your keyboard? Reading that post hurt my head!

I think the best racing strategy is to use the clutch. It's actually faster to shift with the clutch than without, as without the clutch there is a delay when you're trying to rev the engine to the correct RPM. When you "slam shift" or "power shift" in a race you have the engine at WOT the entire time, even between shifts. You can't go WOT all the time if you're gonna do clutchless shifts.

 

[mhughes165]

i only do clutchless when cruising, not if im accelerating hard then ill always use the clutch.

 

[reginald fairfield]

I like manual trans. Yeah, they ain't perfect, but I just hate automatics. I want the pickup to shift only when I want it to. In my experience, ford trans are the worst for shifting. nobody kill me, but the Chevy's are way better in this aspect. They shift right when they ought to, and you don't even have to think about it. Ford makes their's wind up to three and a half friggin thousand before they shift. Especially the f150 and 250. Maybe it is just because the 5.4 is a turd of a motor, I don't know.

 

[PaleBlue90]

Pull the trans out of gear, rev your engine up to meet the wheelbase RPM, while nudging the stick lightly toward the gear you want. When the speed is matched she'll slide right in. This would be hard to do on the trail when going slow, and must be done carefully.


On the trail, it's best to pick the right gear for an obsticle and stick with it.

isnt that hard on the trans syncros though??

 

[Will]

The way I shift is to run the motor up to about 3,000 in first, push in the clutch, shift, wait for the motor to drop to 1800, let the clutch out. It puts no wear on the clutch because it's spinning the same speed as the flywheel when you put them back together. 2nd to third is 1900, 3rd to fourth is 2200 and 4th to 5th is 2400.

Downshifting, it would work backward, but I don't bother. I get it close just by having driven if for so long. I never hit every gear in downshifting.

Anyway, it's meant to be shifted with a clutch. I think it's bad for it to misuse the synchros. You aren't good enough to be perfect, and it's not as rugged a tranny as a semi has and less forgiving.

 

[Evan]

isnt that hard on the trans syncros though??

No. If done correctly it's not any harder on syncros than a regular shift would be. When you have engine and wheelbase RPM matched up there is no need for the syncros to do any work at all.

 

[gw33gp]

you ever cleaned mud out of the fingers of the pressure plate? or hit a HOT fly wheel with cold lake water? i preffer a manual but they have some serious down sides just like a auto.

86

If you are packing mud in the pressure plate and are driving into a cold lake with a hot flywheel, that is what I call abusing the vehicle. I imagine more than a clutch would be subject to failure. To answer your question, no I have not done either of those things and don't plan to get myself into a situation where I would have to.

Couple questions for you, cause I have yet to see a auto trans failure due to usage. I have seen them fail when towing beyond their ability, but just moving the vehicles own weight?

How does an auto see any more abuse than a manual?
What fails?
What causes this failure?

I have towed my race car many thousands of miles and the transmission saw no where near the strain that it has seen while I am off-road. A vehicle pulling its own weight while climbing very steep inclines and being pulled down by mud will strain the transmission more than when towing a trailer. Yes, you could reach a towed load that could come close to what you could see off-road but that would be well beyond the capacity of a Ranger and falls under "abusing the vehicle".

I am no expert on autos and I don't know what fails in them but I know they do fail. I would guess heat is the biggest cause of failure.

 

[rboyer]

When i'm doing alot of city driving in any vehicle with a manual transmission I always with I was driving an automatic. The same does apply to my Ranger but I have a manual transmission in it mostly due to reliability. Also the maintenance is alot easier when it comes to fluid changes, with the automatic you have to pull the pan, drain fluid/change filter, put the pan back on and fill it up. With the manual you pull the drain plug and drain it, put it back in, and fill it up through the filler hole. And to top it off it's cheaper to do a fluid change since the capacity of the manual is like less than half of the automatic. I only take my Ranger offroad a few times a year so the difference between a manual and auto doesn't really matter to me in that aspect.

 

[Dishtowel]

If you are packing mud in the pressure plate and are driving into a cold lake with a hot flywheel, that is what I call abusing the vehicle. I imagine more than a clutch would be subject to failure. To answer your question, no I have not done either of those things and don't plan to get myself into a situation where I would have to.

That's what I built this rig for, lol. Not to purposely abuse it. But build to it can take some abuse and keep on truckin.

I am no expert on autos and I don't know what fails in them but I know they do fail. I would guess heat is the biggest cause of failure.

Agreed, thats why I am scheming more coolers.



All this no-clutch shifting talk. Automotive trans where not designed for that. Heavytruck trans were designed for it. that is all

 

[Evan]

If you are packing mud in the pressure plate and are driving into a cold lake with a hot flywheel, that is what I call abusing the vehicle. I imagine more than a clutch would be subject to failure. To answer your question, no I have not done either of those things and don't plan to get myself into a situation where I would have to.

I have done a lot of wheelin, and have never had a problem with mud getting stuck in my pressure plate fingers. I have heard of it happening, but I think it's quite rare.

As far as the flywheel warping, yes, this could happen but it's also rare and very mild generally when it happens. My brake rotors still aren't warped, and they're much more exposed, so I can't see my clutch warping anytime soon.