I do sometimes. But pulling my pontoon boat trying to eat a sandwich or hold my drink, NO! Also you cant, I think all the major truck manufacturers here don't even offer a manual in a half ton anymore.
Only full size pickup in our market now to be offered with a manual is the ram HD, and only with a Cummins diesel....and those I don't see many of..... Gas rams, fords, gms, Tit an and tundra......outta luck unless you want to spend a ton of money to custom install one......and never mind pickups, even the new f-650 and F-750s are all autos.....
Sucks that you really can't get a truck with a stick anymore! I loved the ford 6 speeds in the diesels. A lot cheaper to stick a heavy clutch in if youre making more power than a heavy built auto tranny. I get the reason most people moved away from sticks in the medium duties. The amount of morons that couldn't drive and would smoke clutches in our ramp trucks blew my mind.
That's probably part of the reason they've disappeared in pickups too.....haha. sadly in one way, the autos have gone from being harder on fuel and less durable, to the complete opposite. The newer diesels probably make as much power stock as the older ones do somewhat modified, and the transmissions seem to hold up just fine. I'm not sure if the clutch is the weak link or what, but even the last holdout, the diesel ram, uses a less powerful engine in the manuals than the autos. Gotta admit, although i haven't tried it, I probably wouldn't want one for a daily driver myself. Maybe for a weekend rig, private land use truck, or if i didnt have to drive in town. Driving in town and with all the hills here, I'd probably lose patience with it pretty quick.
I drove a manual ranger for like 8 years or so. Still have it. I had it in college at Clemson , which is hill country (im from flatland originally). You learn fast. I drove that truck in traffic after college and in hills in the moutains when I would hunt while in college. It's not that bad, would I want one today....maybe not as a first choice but would I totally hate it...Probably not either.
The Ford ZF 6 in the superduty would hold either 5 or 600HP. The stock clutch sure wouldn't though! My daily driver used to be a 13 speed tow truck in Boston traffic. THAT gets old quick! And to try and veer this back on track. Here's the load that's sitting behind me right now.
I still have it, but it has not been used in a while. A good amount are manual. They are 3 or 4 speed manual. The 3 speed was only in a half ton, and column shift. The 4 speed was available in 1/2, 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. The 4 speed in the old Fords, and probably GM and dodges, were geared very low in 1st gear. If you pulled out in the road in 1 gear by the time you got about halfways out in the road it was time to shift into second, unless you wind it out. Then once you shift into second it was a heck of an RPM drop, then really the same for 3rd and 4th. What some people would do was take of in second gear. That was fine if the truck was not loaded or if you were on level ground. If you had a load or were on a hill it was hard on the clutch. I'm not sure why they did not put a 5 speed in them.
People are too lazy. Plus how can they text, smoke a cigarette, and change gears? I prefer a manual trans. The newer autos that you can shift yourself aren't bad. I down shift going down hills and coming into stops. I also lock it in 3rd or 4th gear(depending on how fast the cars in front of me are going) when I merge on the interstate.
In Europe, well, when I was there last, pretty much only handicapped people had automatic vehicles. It's different here, and we'll in Europe too, in that automatics are more efficient ( fuel and acceleration) than manuals. Stick cars are fun, but not the quickest or most efficient now. Many full size trucks are not even offered in manual transmission. Even if they are offered, rare, they are nearly impossible to find. Motorcycles are really the only way to easily find a manual road going vehicle in the us. Yes, you can find them on several cars and a few trucks/ jeeps, but I'm most cases, the automatic transmission is better.
Nice one, well better to have than to be in need i reckon. Sounds like my Missus old ride, a VW T4. A 5-Speed might have been a gamechanger - might be a bit late now Hahaha - i got to agree makes all those things alot easier. Overhere they do all that and shifting gears... doesnt make it much better eh?! Getting caught using youre fone while driving gets you fines up to 200$ plus a Point in the Register. Getting enuff points together you lose your license for a while or for good. I never saw it from this point, all i knew was if youre driving a automatic while beeing in driving training (Fahrschule) you arent allowed to drive a manual later on. So my opinion was always a little low on automatics, not that i wouldnt try if the chance is there, but at the momment i wouldnt buy one - might change if i drive one... as i got me one of these new smartfones . Thanks for the thoughts and infos guys!
Like playin Tetris, the further youll get the more annoying the music gets and the speed of those bricks...a logs i mean.
It's rare now a days to find a person who is my age or younger that can drive a manual. I'm 35, and they were still common on the cars we drove in highschool. Entry level cars and older stuff. Kids now a days forget about it. Many millineal men in their 20s can't drive a manual, most any high school kid now a days cant...they have no need to and their families don't have one anyway since they have all new stuff and nicer big trucks that like we said manuals haven't really been offered for almost a decade now.
