Who actually off-roads their 7MT?

[userdude]

It's a bummer you didn't get the exact Bronco you wanted if it was just because of a Build & Price problem. I can't remember if the manual was offered in all trim levels back then, but it was a lot. Once you clicked the V6 upgrade, the manual went away, though you got a pop-up stating that the manual would be removed and the price increased by $1,800 or whatever. Not sure what happened to you during B&P, but it was an adventure using it during the first few months.

Did you end up getting the V6? If so, hopefully you are at least enjoying the extra power.

I only briefly looked at the V6, when I was considering the WT, but then went to the 2.3L for the BL, which is what I have. I don't think there was ever a logical block not to show the manual for that trim package. I just don't think it was being shown in the evenings (this was fairly soon after ordering opened? ). I also never saw the Base, which totally a Base MT with Sas would've been my order had it been obvious in B&P.

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[Joshc920]

YOU MUST UNDERSTAND that if the bronco senses you are on an incline IT WILL HOLD ON THE BRAKE PEDAL automatically for a couple of seconds no matter what you do every time even if you take your foot off the brake pedal. I did some damage to my bronco as a new driver thinking the 4 cylinder just didn’t have enough power to start moving and all my other manuals in the past would let me gas out of the holes and hills… essentially I was over reving clutch dumping with the brakes firmly on and didn’t know I started smelling it, eventually I figured it out but I love my manual and if I could change one thing it would be giving the driver back control on just that specific scenario, I’ve never needed a computer to help me not stall before and don’t need it now but it’s ok, please don’t hurt your bronco like I did mine….

 

[Joshc920]

YOUw MUST UNDERSTAND that if the bronco senses you are on an incline IT WILL HOLD ON THE BRAKE PEDAL

one other thing, you should never need to rev the gas on C gear, just don’t do it. As others have said just slowly let the clutch out and it will grab. Don’t give it any gas until you are crawling if you need to. The gear is different and you should never rev it.

 

[Sparky1337]

YOU MUST UNDERSTAND that if the bronco senses you are on an incline IT WILL HOLD ON THE BRAKE PEDAL automatically for a couple of seconds no matter what you do every time even if you take your foot off the brake pedal. I did some damage to my bronco as a new driver thinking the 4 cylinder just didn’t have enough power to start moving and all my other manuals in the past would let me gas out of the holes and hills… essentially I was over reving clutch dumping with the brakes firmly on and didn’t know I started smelling it, eventually I figured it out but I love my manual and if I could change one thing it would be giving the driver back control on just that specific scenario, I’ve never needed a computer to help me not stall before and don’t need it now but it’s ok, please don’t hurt your bronco like I did mine….

You can turn that off you know.

 

[Joshc920]

You can turn that off you know.

Man I love this message board after 113,000 miles I just found out what its name is and that you can turn it off! lol thank you, feel dumb

 

[Sparky1337]

All good haha. It was the first thing I turned off on my mustang years ago and I thought there’s no way ford would make it so you couldn’t disable it. It’s like you said, you can’t feel the clutch properly. Idk how people drive with it.

 

[zyglyrox]

love using my 7mt off-road.

 

[RoseLane4]

Love & surely miss those Colorado passes…

I’ve done some decent off-road treks.

Elephant Hill Road in Canyonlands.

Imogene, Pearl and Ophir passes in Colorado.

These are about the only times I have used my crawler gear, but as would be expected, it is an absolute beast in getting up the steep and rough stuff in 4L.

What might not be as appreciated, is how useful the crawler gear is when descending the steep stuff. It allows for considerable control with minimal breaking.

Wow! Surely miss the 3 districts of Moab.. Elephant Hill has the best camping, reservation needed! And the various Colorado passes.. Taylor and others on the way to Crested Butte (mentioned on 6G) - great stuff!

I would have preferred the V6 (who doesn’t want more power) but I was chasing best gearing over power so here I am with an awesome 7MT.. got to be the easiest manual ever made!

To the OP - you got a great rig, enjoy it!

 

[Vynull]

Just picked up my 7mt heritage and plan on taking it to NORA which is only 40 minutes or so from me in August or Sept. Cannot wait! I come from the high performance driving world and I think a lot of the skills will translate. Mainly throttle and brake control, and vehicle placement. If @APG12 is in NY would love to join up with other bronco owners!

 

[RoseLane4]

…CRITICAL PRACTICE!!

Force yourself to KEEP YOUR LEFT FOOT FLAT ON THE FLOOR.

 

[Wilbur's son]

If you stall in 4L, you will be prompted to Crank In Gear, which does what it says on the tin - it turns the starter motor while the clutch is still engaged, effectively driving the entire vehicle on the starter until the engine turns over.

Pomeroy Lake, Colorado. I killed the motor while climbing near tree line, was caught by surprise. Then I tried it. Great feature.

 

[GI_Jo_Nathan]

Yep, like others have said, tons of advantages to the manual off-road. And also you're really doing work, rather than just the point and click of an auto.

And yeah I wheel the hell out of mine!

I also never saw the Base, which totally a Base MT with Sas would've been my order had it been obvious in B&P.

That's pretty wild you didn't see it as an option. Yes if you selected a V6 or sass it changed it to auto, but like has been said it had a giant pop up.
That was my original want, however SAS was not available with the mt originally. You could only get that essentially by doing a Badlands manual.

It's basically one of the reasons I ended up with a Black Diamond. By the time you could get a Base SAS, there were still restrictions on tow package and such. And I really wanted to wash out floors so here we are.

 

[userdude]

Yep, like others have said, tons of advantages to the manual off-road. And also you're really doing work, rather than just the point and click of an auto.

And yeah I wheel the hell out of mine!


That's pretty wild you didn't see it as an option. Yes if you selected a V6 or sass it changed it to auto, but like has been said it had a giant pop up.
That was my original want, however SAS was not available with the mt originally. You could only get that essentially by doing a Badlands manual.

It's basically one of the reasons I ended up with a Black Diamond. By the time you could get a Base SAS, there were still restrictions on tow package and such. And I really wanted to wash out floors so here we are.

It's possible I skipped over it entirely, but I don't remember seeing the Base model offered at all on B&P back in late summer 2021. MT and Base were a complete surprise to me, which I found odd given the number of times I visited B&P and fooled around (I remember building Black Diamonds a few times trying to get it lowered in price). I took the 2.7L off since it'd bring the price down a little and the 2.3L seemed more than adequate. Sometime I don't see things that are right in front of my face, so maybe I'm just a moron, but I don't recall either being there. And I do remember the modals on conversions in general.

 

[honorableh]

Disabling the auto hill start is an absolute must for me. It's obnoxious that it will automatically turn on in the driver's assistance menu if the battery gets below a certain voltage. On my '22 Bronco least, it holds the brake too strong and too long and it is the feature that causes me to stall most, because I'll forget to give gas since the fuel injection anti-stall is always more than enough to get started before giving more gas for acceleration.

For the most difficult of hill starts you can engage the parking brake and it will auto release once it senses clutch engagement and throttle input, just like hill start assist but only for that start.

I've overheated my parking brake a couple times on mountain passes when I didn't realize hill start had automatically turned back on.

Having no ebrake on steep mountains is hard, and I wish I didn't have to trust it so often, but generally it is too cumbersome to momentarily leave the car in gear and ebrake engaged. Restarting ignition often resets the drive mode and then the lockers need to be reengaged or the 4lo needs to be reselected. These settings should be locked in their last position and shouldn't be reset because you wanted to get out to check an obstacle.

Love the manual otherwise, I'm okay that I had to get smaller engine as I know a clutch wouldn't handled my driving with the extra torque of turbo V6. 5.38 gears made my rig on heavy 37s feel as fast as it did on stock wheels and tires.

 

[T800]

The last manual I had was my 06 Jeep Wrangler. It wasn't bad, but you can stall out in bad spots. Most would say that an auto is better for wheeling, especially rock crawling. The people that disagree are the die hard manual folks lol.

I had my Jeep swapped from manual to auto because it's a dedicated trail rig. Many auto people have also switched to manual.

Where the auto helps: It will never stall on you. Put it in drive (or preferred gear in manual shift mode) you can slowly press the gas until it goes the speed you want.

Bottom line: If you are a dedicated manual enjoyer, you will probably not be happy with an auto and vice versa.

Though keep in mind that you can't get a manual with the 2.7 engine. That's where I stopped considering a manual for the Bronco.

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