Off roading with a manual transmission Bronco

[Gman90]

I’m really leaning towards manual, I can’t imagine giving up a manual as my daily. This bronco will be my new daily driver, I plan on not rock crawling but I live in the desert and will be hitting the trails a lot. Also my wife drives manual as her daily as well ? I told her once you went stick you never go back. Btw this bronco would be with the 4dr 2.3, and if possible with squatch or I’m going up a couple trims

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[Felix808]

With the 94:1 just get rid of the clutch switch & start it in gear, no clutch needed. Did this in my XJ all the time at 80:1 Hand throttle also came in handy as well, but that may prove difficult due to throttle by wire. But as previously mentioned, just choose a low gear & let it crawl. I almost never touched the brakes in my XJ.

 

[Skmarshall]

Is there any currently available vehicle that could be test driven with a manual that would be an adequate comparison to the Bronco? I can drive a stick but never have had very low gearing.

 

[wavydave]

I used to deliver auto parts when I was a teenager. We had a couple of panel trucks (think residential ups/fedex/foodtruck style); the smaller one was automatic and the longer one was a manual with a low gear. Whenever hauling eleventeen pallets of 18 wheeler brake drums, I had to use the low gear to pull out of some side-garage bays where the short driveway ramps met the street and the asphalt crown was built up too high (gutter looked like a V). All you had to do was feather the clutch out with no foot on the gas pedal whatsoever.

 

[MaverickMan]

I wonder if I can fit dual cases on the 4 door. I wonder what 189.5 to 1 crawl ratio feels like? ?

 

[kodiakisland]

I had no idea about no feathering! So if you’re on a hill already, say front tire is pitched way up high on a rut and you’re kind of stuck in and stopped, you just let the clutch out in crawler gear and it doesn’t bog down and stall?

Gears matter. Seems there's plenty on here who want to argue otherwise, but in a manual, proper gears are everything. Lots of stuff happens in the 2-3mph range, uphill with the motor near lugging and potentially stalling. My guess is most of those folks drive autos and just mash the skinny pedal till they get where they're going, or they never do any slow, steep stuff.

The crawl gear or low range is your friend. My little 4cyl Tacoma pulls some steep hills at slow speeds. Proper gearing has helped a lot. The Bronco will be better with the crawl gear and 4lo should really be awesome.

Honestly though, I've driven manuals since I was 12 and just don't think about it. It seems pretty intuitive once you start doing it. You won't have any problems.

 

[AZHUND]

Just don't ride the clutch or you will have a funky smell... and need a new clutch.

 

[kodiakisland]

I started driving a 'flat bed ford' with granny gear back in '61', then in the Army all of our early trucks were manual, and my first Jeeps were manual as well. I have never had an auto trans 4X4, so don't know how they feel on the trail. My wife wanted me to get the auto, but I told her my truck, my way, besides, she know how to drive a standard!

I learned on an early 60s flatbed one ton Ford (kinda lime green)when I was around 12 years old. If that transmission was synchronized, they went out well before I got ahold of it. Was pretty sketchy as I was barely able to fully push in the clutch and see where I was going, but on the farm I only slightly bumped one cow. Been behind a stick ever since. Thankfully my wife was raised on a mid 70s stick Celica and is just as at home with the stick.

 

[Kludge]

Not exactly on topic but someone mentioned you could start the truck in gear which I assume is why they don't offer the remote star on the manual. Can anyone offer advice on what after market remote start options exist? I'm sure there's a work around but don't know how safe that would be.

 

[JesseS]

Not exactly on topic but someone mentioned you could start the truck in gear which I assume is why they don't offer the remote star on the manual. Can anyone offer advice on what after market remote start options exist? I'm sure there's a work around but don't know how safe that would be.

Every manual vehicle has to have a clutch interlock switch that blocks the starter from engaging unless the clutch is depressed, it would be no great problem to add a momentary contact switch to over ride this when needed. I used to start my old truck in granny gear on hills, wouldn't need an after market option, Amazon and 10 minutes work would do it. We used to 'bump to start' a vehicle with a low or near dead battery all the time, can't do that with new vehicles.

 

[Beef78]

I think it depends on your terrain. Driving around In sand in Baja, we used to drive rear wheel drive Volkswagens and it was a blast. Just had to keep your momentum going. My old bronco with 3 on the tree handled rocks and hills well because you could stay in first gear for most of what you needed to do off-road.

 

[wavydave]

Not exactly on topic but someone mentioned you could start the truck in gear which I assume is why they don't offer the remote star on the manual. Can anyone offer advice on what after market remote start options exist? I'm sure there's a work around but don't know how safe that would be.

Just do a Google search and see more about why this is a bad idea.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/12/11/car-kills-a-man-in-queens-even-when-no-one-is-driving/

 

[JesseS]

I learned on an early 60s flatbed one ton Ford (kinda lime green)when I was around 12 years old. If that transmission was synchronized, they went out well before I got ahold of it. Was pretty sketchy as I was barely able to fully push in the clutch and see where I was going, but on the farm I only slightly bumped one cow. Been behind a stick ever since. Thankfully my wife was raised on a mid 70s stick Celica and is just as at home with the stick.

I am with you, drove an old Flex bus with UN-syncranized tranny and learned to double clutch and time the RPM to speed to shift without the clutch, what fun to miss a gear..... not!

 

[JesseS]

Just do a Google search and see more about why this is a bad idea.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/12/11/car-kills-a-man-in-queens-even-when-no-one-is-driving/

This is not the same thing, anyone who puts a remote start on a manual, AND by-passes the clutch interlock, is a candidate for the Darwin award, then to park it in gear and actually use the remote start, well, he NEEDS to be locked up. You never use a throw switch for this mod if you do it, a momentary push to connect, that way you cannot forget and leave it engaged. In any case it would only be useful off road.

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