7speed manual for off-road/crawling

[JT58Bronc]

I love manual transmission for off road. Back in the day I had two Gen 1 Broncos, Toyota Land Cruiser and a Jeep CJ5- where all I did was go 4 wheeling in any spare time back in the 70's and early 80's. They were all manuals. Some on the tree (Broncos), some on the floor. 1st gear, low range I could crawl over anything- would let the vehicle just idle almost over anything. Just left the clutch engaged. Never had to "clutch it". Very light on the gas and idling. For hill climbs and mud, just got into the appropriate gear and used more RPM. I 4 wheeled on soft sand at beaches too. Never once had an issue with a manual in 4 low- or 4 high. Never wore out a clutch. You just have to know your vehicle, know the engine and power band and how to drive a manual properly. I even had no problems with my 71 Bronco- and all it had was a 170 Cubic Inch 6 with only 100 HP. It's all you the driver.

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[JoeSpeed]

Drove through quad trails on my friends friends neighbors property, got the scars and video to prove it

Dont need more than 1st gear, crawler is sick and dont attempt to pull people outta mud in Baja mode

 

[Hkak45]

I

so i'll kinda be the anti-manual guy here... and don't get me wrong i love rowing my own gears. but i had a 2 door jeep with a 6 speed and it was a major PITA when you were on very complicated obstacles. you had very little wiggle room for finesse. when i switched over to the automatic JL, it was a game changer for crawling inches at a time over the steep off camber stuff with basically zero risk of an unexpected roll backwards. now the newer stuff with brake hold sure helps, but man I really enjoy the automatic offroad.

I agree with this. If I lived somewhere where there was close by rock crawling I think I may have went automatic for the harder obstacles. I think manual is way more fun on day to day driving though. I get so bored with my automatics when going on cruises or on road driving.

 

[Scott R Nelson]

I prefer a manual transmission, and have one in my Mustang, but didn't have the choice for my Bronco. I have not wished that I had the manual in the six months that I've owned it. First gear in 4L is really low, even if it's not quite as low as the crawler gear. Going down steep rough stuff in first gear, it goes plenty slow enough.

I've found that "manually shifting" the automatic seems to work well. When going up stuff, I just shift back into "D" and let it do its thing.

 

[Jon_chimpo]

I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and opinions. I was able to purchase a Wildtrak a few days ago. It was divine intervention. So I’m an automatic Bronco guy now.

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