My plea to the big three....

Shift the transfer case into compound low...make sure the hubs are locked first

Shift into 1st...pop the clutch and let it idle...crawling along towards where
you pointed it...inclines included

Do that for a couple hours and tell me how an automatic likes that..

Then climb a looooooooooong incline for about an hour after that...

My Toyota FJ40 did that without any issues what so ever...my K5 Blazer burned
up the automatic 'trying' to do exactly the same thing, same place, same time
of year, same number of guys in the rig, same amount of cargo...had to blip the
the throttle every few minutes to keep the ATF temp down.

Repeat...I *TRIED* to order, in 1995, my Suburban with a manual, but not allowed
for both half ton and 3/4 ton.

You cant special order anything you want, but you can pay someone afterwards to change it to what you want.

First time in my life I've never owned anything with a manual and I miss it some but not a whole lot. Driving a sporty car with a good manual is fun, until you get into traffic. Then it's a pain. Some real sports cars don't even offer a manual any more.

Never have liked truck manuals, they just used to be necessary. Heavy clutches, long throw shifters that aren't real precise. Too much like work. Give me a modern auto any time.

U can speical order any ting u want, happy-camping

U can special any kind u want. Happy-camping

Come and get my 1995 Dodge 3500, CTD, DRW 5 Speed 250K....or go to the Allison!

I know how to drive a stick shift and have no desire to own one in a pickup truck. I don't see them coming back ever again in pickups. they are even starting to go away on big trucks.

The major reason they are going with autos is because the pcm has full control over the shifting. With a manual you don't have as much control for such things as stability control and traction control. Sure they try, but it's not as good. And with the future looking at self driving cars, the manual is definitely on it's way out. And that is a shame because i love shifting a manual trans, whether it be on a sports car or a 10,000lb truck!

dreeder,

it was my understanding that the truck manufactures have to submit each motor/transmission combination to the government for epa test approval.

so, if they sell few vehicles of one combination, then it cheaper for them to just stop offering that combination, rather than spend the money to get that combination certified.

just what I read somewhere.

as they sell few manuals, some manufactures are dropping the manual.

I've had enough of manual trans trucks. I've had manual trans go for over 100,000 miles without issues, and I've had manual trans need new clutch plates at 40-50,000 miles. My auto trans all just simply worked.

Learn how your trucks auto trans with tow/haul works and towing is a breeze. Even if you don't know how the trans works and just put the vehicle in "D" and go, the newest auto trans will do their thing.

For something that will drive manual people out of their minds, our Nissan Rogue has a Constant Velocity Transmission that is just great. No gears of any kind! When they can make a CVT heavy duty enough for trucks and towing, that will take over the "regular" automatics.