[careyj]

I've basically only purchased manuals my entire life and started driving around 12 years old, both my xterra and frontier are manuals, as is our family '80 CJ7 as far as 4wd stuff goes.

With that said, I'm definitely in the "manuals are not ideal for technical offroading" group even though shifting is so second nature to me I don't even think about it anymore. Beyond that, unless you really mess with the gearing, I think they become a liability in many low gearing situations. Made the mistake of taking the CJ over black bear pass about 10 years back and that is something I will never do again under any circumstance and to me is the extreme epitome of why manuals suck for real off roading. For normal non crawling stuff, manuals are totally fine IME and way more fun to drive, but some water situations and stuff that needs really low gearing or where stalling or even braking can put you in major trouble, they're just not fun or safe in some situations. If I had a dedicated offroad rig to mess with gearing I might change my own mind but for non purpose vehicles I vastly prefer an automatic for a lot of stuff.

Well put. I think the crawl gear is quite high for descent and water. 3.69 is little better I assume but I bet it’s still little tall.

 

[Tlrtucker]

I've basically only purchased manuals my entire life and started driving around 12 years old, both my xterra and frontier are manuals, as is our family '80 CJ7 as far as 4wd stuff goes.

With that said, I'm definitely in the "manuals are not ideal for technical offroading" group even though shifting is so second nature to me I don't even think about it anymore. Beyond that, unless you really mess with the gearing, I think they become a liability in many low gearing situations. Made the mistake of taking the CJ over black bear pass about 10 years back and that is something I will never do again under any circumstance and to me is the extreme epitome of why manuals suck for real off roading. For normal non crawling stuff, manuals are totally fine IME and way more fun to drive, but some water situations and stuff that needs really low gearing or where stalling or even braking can put you in major trouble, they're just not fun or safe in some situations. If I had a dedicated offroad rig to mess with gearing I might change my own mind but for non purpose vehicles I vastly prefer an automatic for a lot of stuff.

After reading your first sentence I thought you were going to be one of those "you're not a real man if you drive an auto." Glad to see more people opting for performance/comfort rather than machismo, lol

 

[Brian086]

Reversing with a trailer and rock crawling are the only two circumstances I don't want a manual gearbox.

I cope with the former, and have no interest in the latter.

 

[peteteck]

I enjoy the hell out of it! Had my X for 8 years, never wished for an auto. There have been many situations that an auto would have been easier. I always prefer a challenge thou. Gearing is pretty decent, lost soem low end TQ when I swapped a SMF in a few years ago. Took awhile to retrain myself how to drive it. No Ragrets thou.

 

[careyj]

I enjoy the hell out of it! Had my X for 8 years, never wished for an auto. There have been many situations that an auto would have been easier. I always prefer a challenge thou. Gearing is pretty decent, lost soem low end TQ when I swapped a SMF in a few years ago. Took awhile to retrain myself how to drive it. No Ragrets thou.

That’s good info. I was just thinking about that this morning, I’m due for a clutch and wondered if it was a big change going smf.

 

[chevy42083]

If you start researching manuals in other vehicles... keep in mind that we dont have the BEST gearing... and a manual is a LOT easier off road with a slow crawl ratio.

 

[macguyvermedic]

Agree with all previous. I attended multiple GONE moab’s, and can confidently say I love my manual. I completed metal masher, hells revenge, and Hell’s gait with a 2008 MT OR and a set of NX rocks skid plates. My first clutch lasted me 150k and my second is going strong with zero slip at 250K. I know some of those references probably date me a bit, but I love my MT. I drove to Maryland from MI in 2010 to get my X because no one had even seen the 6MT near me.

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

I off-roaded my gen1 SC manual truck for over a decade. I love stick and I knew going in it would be but I embraced that extra challenge. Yes I've stalled on the trail many times. At first it's embarassing, but in the end, who cares? Personally I loved it but you need quick feet and a good finesse of the clutch to not burn it up. However with the lowly 2:1 ratio and 33's, I was starting to think seriously for lowering the T-case gears, especially if I had the trailer attached. I however never really fell in love with the stick gen2. I think also having an actual throttle cable on my gen1 also made the experience and control that much better, but people call me crazy for saying such.

Is auto better and easier off-road? Absolutely. But if you're a die-hard manual driver and would willingly enjoy that extra level of control and difficulty, it's a rewarding pleasure.

 

[OklaYeti]

Driving a manual offroad on hard obstacles is kinda like playing chess while those driving automatics are playing checkers 😄