The price of wanting a "stick"
Not debating manual vs automatic plenty of threads on that already, however for me personally I like a manual and considering I'm a dodge fan they still offer one. But as I look at the numbers payload...
Forum Discussion
Yes, an auto is inefficient when compared to a manual. Typically, an auto will decrease rear wheel torque by 15% - 30%. And if it is decreasing torque, it is decreasing fuel mileage as some of the fuel is "wasted" in the transmission.
Funny thing is when I had a rock crawler, my vehicles were always backwards to everyone else's. I had the manual for on the road vehicle and an auto for the rock crawler. Found the auto to much more advantage compared to the manuals I had crawled with. However, it did take a different technique which most folks couldn't understand. The proper way to crawl with an auto is apply throttle to sufficiently load up the torque converter than use the brakes for allowing the vehicle to move.
Downhill was a bit harder, but found it did a pretty good job for the 4,000# vehicles, but it was one place where the manuals did outshine my auto.
The other advantage to an auto is the torque converter acts as a shock absorber for any sudden shocks to the drivetrain. Lots of times my wheels would spin then suddenly grab which in a manual would have surely ripped a u-joint out. By-standers didn't were amazed and thought I had much stronger or heavier duty u-joints than stock. Never did have to replace a u-joint from shock stress.
(sorry for long repeated post, I'm just so bored after not being able to do things for 5 weeks.)
Funny thing is when I had a rock crawler, my vehicles were always backwards to everyone else's. I had the manual for on the road vehicle and an auto for the rock crawler. Found the auto to much more advantage compared to the manuals I had crawled with. However, it did take a different technique which most folks couldn't understand. The proper way to crawl with an auto is apply throttle to sufficiently load up the torque converter than use the brakes for allowing the vehicle to move.
Downhill was a bit harder, but found it did a pretty good job for the 4,000# vehicles, but it was one place where the manuals did outshine my auto.
The other advantage to an auto is the torque converter acts as a shock absorber for any sudden shocks to the drivetrain. Lots of times my wheels would spin then suddenly grab which in a manual would have surely ripped a u-joint out. By-standers didn't were amazed and thought I had much stronger or heavier duty u-joints than stock. Never did have to replace a u-joint from shock stress.
(sorry for long repeated post, I'm just so bored after not being able to do things for 5 weeks.)
