How hard is it offroading in a manual transmission?

[Rex3rd]

I've had several Mts but I've never went off the pavement with them and have no clue how it will be . I love shifting gears but not knowing how to respond off-road or backing a boat in ect scares me. Any takers want to give me some advice? I's it something that Id have to trial and error out and figure it out on my own or with some mt experience is it pretty simple?

Sponsored

 

[EugeneTheJeep]

Haven’t done it with a manual, but the auto works hard grinding through 8 speeds. The auto’s advantage for towing and off road is what swayed me.

 

[AggieJeep]

I don’t see any upside to MTs nowadays. Modern ATs are superior in every way. All you really get with a manual is the running through the gears part of driving. I’ve owned MTs, still have an old stick shift Jeep truck from the ‘60s. Working the gears can be good throwback fun but it is not my daily driver. I prefer having my right hand free for other things, like sipping a cold drink.

Some just like to say they can do it the hard way. That’s cool too. I’ve also seen people without good MT skills put themselves and others in real danger When things got hairy and panic set in. I just got back from a run in the Colorado Rockies where a little bad clutch work can quickly send you hundreds of feet down to your end.

Clearly people do MT wheeling everyday. Since you expressed concern and lack of confidence, I would suggest you go with an AT. The ease of use just adds so much to driving or wheeling. I personally don’t think rowing through gears, while fun at times, is worth all the aspects lost with respect to the AT. I just now thought of my Christmas light cruising with some hot cocoa at the ready.

This is meant to be helpful to you. I don’t know your skill or mindset. I’m not an MT hater at all, ATs have just come so far now. Full disclosure, I’m getting old so a bit of laziness is likely creeping into my thinking.

Good luck with your choice and have fun wheeling safely.

 

[Rex3rd]

I don’t see any upside to MTs nowadays. Modern ATs are superior in every way. All you really get with a manual is the running through the gears part of driving. I’ve owned MTs, still have an old stick shift Jeep truck from the ‘60s. Working the gears can be good throwback fun but it is not my daily driver. I prefer having my right hand free for other things, like sipping a cold drink.

Some just like to say they can do it the hard way. That’s cool too. I’ve also seen people without good MT skills put themselves and others in real danger When things got hairy and panic set in. I just got back from a run in the Colorado Rockies where a little bad clutch work can quickly send you hundreds of feet down to your end.

Clearly people do MT wheeling everyday. Since you expressed concern and lack of confidence, I would suggest you go with an AT. The ease of use just adds so much to driving or wheeling. I personally don’t think rowing through gears, while fun at times, is worth all the aspects lost with respect to the AT. I just now thought of my Christmas light cruising with some hot cocoa at the ready.

This is meant to be helpful to you. I don’t know your skill or mindset. I’m not an MT hater at all, ATs have just come so far now. Full disclosure, I’m getting old so a bit of laziness is likely creeping into my thinking.

Good luck with your choice and have fun wheeling safely.

I have an 06 GTO and a 93 Nissan d21 pickup and could use those to row gears if needed. But there not 4wd. I'd love to eventually get into overlanding whenever I decided to purchase and eventually get a small boat and camper. I've never towed using a manual either. I'd basically be a off-road noob

 

[Cape taco12]

It depends what you are doing. If you are doing unmaintained dirt roads and mud puddles here and there you won’t have any issues. If you are going to add huge tires with stock axle gears and crawl over large rocks it’s going to be a pain with the sport transfer case. With the rubicons 4-1 rocks will be easy. (If you want to add bigger tires) the auto is the way to go.

In my last truck I had a similar stock transfer case it had a 2.6-1. Stalled a lot crawling it was tough lifting tires off camber without stalling or powering forward to fast. So I added a doubler for about 6-1 low range and low gear was unusable. The 4-1 is probably ideal.

The auto will always be easier off-road, but for me i like shifting.

 

[Deleted member 30519]

I don’t see any upside to MTs nowadays. Modern ATs are superior in every way. All you really get with a manual is the running through the gears part of driving. I’ve owned MTs, still have an old stick shift Jeep truck from the ‘60s. Working the gears can be good throwback fun but it is not my daily driver. I prefer having my right hand free for other things, like sipping a cold drink.

Some just like to say they can do it the hard way. That’s cool too. I’ve also seen people without good MT skills put themselves and others in real danger When things got hairy and panic set in. I just got back from a run in the Colorado Rockies where a little bad clutch work can quickly send you hundreds of feet down to your end.

Clearly people do MT wheeling everyday. Since you expressed concern and lack of confidence, I would suggest you go with an AT. The ease of use just adds so much to driving or wheeling. I personally don’t think rowing through gears, while fun at times, is worth all the aspects lost with respect to the AT. I just now thought of my Christmas light cruising with some hot cocoa at the ready.

This is meant to be helpful to you. I don’t know your skill or mindset. I’m not an MT hater at all, ATs have just come so far now. Full disclosure, I’m getting old so a bit of laziness is likely creeping into my thinking.

Good luck with your choice and have fun wheeling safely.

I disagree. My commute for last 5 years has been mostly curvy back country roads that are steep inclines and declines and my JL auto always searched going up inclines and felt sluggish. My manual is night and day .. 3rd gear 90% of time and the power is always there.

 

[Tacobuster]

Almost did some offroading leaving the carwash today in my m6 lt1. Goood times!!

 

[Rex3rd]

It depends what you are doing. If you are doing unmaintained dirt roads and mud puddles here and there you won’t have any issues. If you are going to add huge tires with stock axle gears and crawl over large rocks it’s going to be a pain with the sport transfer case. With the rubicons 4-1 rocks will be easy. (If you want to add bigger tires) the auto is the way to go.

In my last truck I had a similar stock transfer case it had a 2.6-1. Stalled a lot crawling it was tough lifting tires off camber without stalling or powering forward to fast. So I added a doubler for about 6-1 low range and low gear was unusable.

The auto will always be easier off-road, but for me i like shifting.

Will mostly do trails and occasionally places unknown. I live in Alabama if that helps. I don't think I'd ever take my 50k truck through the jungle book and flip off a cliff but I do want to go to remote places that are secluded

 

[AggieJeep]

I disagree. My commute for last 5 years has been mostly curvy back country roads that are steep inclines and declines and my JL auto always searched going up inclines and felt sluggish. My manual is night and day .. 3rd gear 90% of time and the power is always there.

The AT has a manual mode that will let you hold a gear as well.

 

[Deleted member 30519]

The AT has a manual mode that will let you hold a gear as well.

Had a 18 JL. It's not the same trust me

 

[wannajeep]

I don’t see any upside to MTs nowadays. Modern ATs are superior in every way

ATs have come a long way for sure, But as for the MT: driver control, weight savings, fewer parts, simplicity, serviceability, fun.

 

[jtimbrook]

It really depends, how much off-roading are you doing? What level of off-roading are you doing (lots of big rocks, mud, fire roads, etc)? What’s your level of experience in a manual as related to advanced techniques? It’s not a simple yes or no question, personally it wasn’t until my 2012 did I switch to auto and I’m not going to lie taking a manual out of the equation made offroading a lot more enjoyable. Below is the ‘12 I rock crawled with for quite some time and why I say YMMV in this discussion...

 

[Factoid]

Let’s see you do this with an automatic.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=JEEP

 

[LandoZ]

With the Rubicion and 6spd manual. It is not too difficult. Here is a video of me messing around on a large dirt mound. I was in 4Lo - 3rd gear, never used the clutch,break or accelerator. For the decent at the very end i was in 1st gear


Same for this video. Most of it was done in 2nd gear. You can break almost to a complete stop without stalling. At the end I did switch to first gear.

 

[siggy]

I don’t see any upside to MTs nowadays. Modern ATs are superior in every way. All you really get with a manual is the running through the gears part of driving. I’ve owned MTs, still have an old stick shift Jeep truck from the ‘60s. Working the gears can be good throwback fun but it is not my daily driver. I prefer having my right hand free for other things, like sipping a cold drink.

Some just like to say they can do it the hard way. That’s cool too. I’ve also seen people without good MT skills put themselves and others in real danger When things got hairy and panic set in. I just got back from a run in the Colorado Rockies where a little bad clutch work can quickly send you hundreds of feet down to your end.

Clearly people do MT wheeling everyday. Since you expressed concern and lack of confidence, I would suggest you go with an AT. The ease of use just adds so much to driving or wheeling. I personally don’t think rowing through gears, while fun at times, is worth all the aspects lost with respect to the AT. I just now thought of my Christmas light cruising with some hot cocoa at the ready.

This is meant to be helpful to you. I don’t know your skill or mindset. I’m not an MT hater at all, ATs have just come so far now. Full disclosure, I’m getting old so a bit of laziness is likely creeping into my thinking.

Good luck with your choice and have fun wheeling safely.

From a performance standpoint, agreed. From a driver engagement standpoint, disagree 100%. I enjoy my 6 speed manual Jeep. Same for my performance cars. I am well aware automatics, DCT’s, etc. are faster. But damnit there is nothing like rowing some gears. And this is coming from a dumb millennial.

Sponsored