Are manual transmissions things of the past for Ford Trucks?
#256
First car I ever drove was a manual. First car I ever bought was a manual. First diesel truck I had was a manual. I have always had at least one vehicle with a manual all my driving years.
I wouldn't get a manual in my truck for anything. Modern auto transmissions are AWESOME! I have a manual in my hotrod for a little variety, but even that trans is highly customized to work well and frankly just to live.
I wouldn't get a manual in my truck for anything. Modern auto transmissions are AWESOME! I have a manual in my hotrod for a little variety, but even that trans is highly customized to work well and frankly just to live.
#257
No. If you're converting put a ZF6 behind a Cummins. The NV5600s are heavy, clunky, and mechanically unsound. First gear and reverse gear shield the rear main bearing from oil on those transmissions unless you modify the gears to pump oil through. The easy fix is to overfill by two quarts, but that drags down efficiency. They also have reverse on the wrong side. On a truck it should always be IN & UP. To allow for easy rocking between the lowest gear and a numerically similar reverse.
#258
ZF6s are few and far between unless cheap bay has them. Not sure how running the cooling system will be on it since don't they connect with the radiator or do they run their own cooler upfront? Cause I still may yet do a Cummins swap and I would like to have a manual with it, rather than dink around with controllers and would like to teach my ol lady how to drive a manual just cause.
#259
I second that. Back in the good old days, when rangers (were still available), 4x2 V6 F-150's and super duty's still had sticks, I would sometimes go to the Ford website, and build a truck exactly the way I wanted it, and think that one day (i was a teen then), that I would go to their website, order a truck exactly the way I wanted it, and go pick it up from the local Ford dealership.
These days, I am an adult and work at a Ford dealership, and could pick up a brand new truck at a price better then what 99% of the people here could get one for...but as it is today, there is nothing new on the lot that I would buy.
And if lack of a stick isnt a big enough turn-off, just look at the price of these new trucks. At my dealership, the 2015 F-150's are about $55K, but if you want to "upgrade" (AKA pay way more then all the extra ***** they add to it) to an FTX/Black Ops edition, then you are looking at around $80K, $25K more for a lift, fancy tires, and leather seats, oh and dont forget the fancy plastic and FAKE air scoops on the hood which only make tight turns harder as they block your view around the hood.
My ranger has 210K+ miles on it and needs work, my F-250 is 31 years old, has 250K+ miles, and needs a frame-off restoration, and my 83 F-150 just sits in the back of our dealership because I bought it on impulse and dont really have the time or money to work on it with the two other trucks I have, but that is fine with me, if one truck *****s out on me, I can use the other until the first is fixed. And that is unfortunately what we will have to do if we still want to drive a truck with a stick, buy an older one and learn how to fix everything on it. Which would you rather work on, a 6.9 IDI or a 6.7 PSD?
#260
#262
Not 100% accurate. Ram trucks in the 2500/3500 still offer the Cummins 6.7L with the G56 6 speed manual transmission, you just won't get getting the 865lb/ft of torque instead its 660. You can varify it yourselves for ram trucks. Least its still an option in the 2015 MY maybe 2016.
#263
You can find ZF6s all over the place. Both GM and Ford used them in their pickups.
You can likely make up cooler lines for any radiator with a transmission cooler and get by. If you need something else, an external cooler would work, too.
...also, you can always find them somewhere... ZF Friedrichshafen - ZF Friedrichshafen AG
You can likely make up cooler lines for any radiator with a transmission cooler and get by. If you need something else, an external cooler would work, too.
...also, you can always find them somewhere... ZF Friedrichshafen - ZF Friedrichshafen AG
#264
Black Ops edition is a customized truck by Tuscany, the hood scoops look "cheesy" and they way overcharge for the lift, tires, etc....
#265
You can find ZF6s all over the place. Both GM and Ford used them in their pickups.
You can likely make up cooler lines for any radiator with a transmission cooler and get by. If you need something else, an external cooler would work, too.
...also, you can always find them somewhere... ZF Friedrichshafen - ZF Friedrichshafen AG
You can likely make up cooler lines for any radiator with a transmission cooler and get by. If you need something else, an external cooler would work, too.
...also, you can always find them somewhere... ZF Friedrichshafen - ZF Friedrichshafen AG
#266
The Ford and GM versions are the same transmission, but spline differences and bell housings make them incompatible. If you are customizing... pick the easier one.
I've never driven a ZF5.
Muncie 4 spd. <- 197x C10
T98 <- Jeep
NV4500 <- 5 speed New Venture in a 2002 GM
ZF6 <- Multiple Fords. V8, V10, 7.3, 6.0
M62 <- Yep, 3 on the tree
...I thought this list was going to be shorter... There are other Jeeps, a Festiva... just too many.
I've never driven a ZF5.
Muncie 4 spd. <- 197x C10
T98 <- Jeep
NV4500 <- 5 speed New Venture in a 2002 GM
ZF6 <- Multiple Fords. V8, V10, 7.3, 6.0
M62 <- Yep, 3 on the tree
...I thought this list was going to be shorter... There are other Jeeps, a Festiva... just too many.
#267
Now have about 150 miles on our new XLT (supercrew/6-1/2' box), and have driven it on a pretty wide mix of roads and conditions.
Part of one of our town/home routes brings us up a mountain road from ~~ 400' elevation to ~~ 2400' elevation over about 6 miles. It is windy, and the speed limit is 30-35 (some places 15).
Overall, the auto-magic did pretty well; especially around town and on the freeway. However, coming up the mountain road, the auto-magic lost its gusto. It wanted to keep up-shifting to 4, and then dropping to 3 or 2 when the steepness went up. In effect, it was "hunting" and it didn't do so well. I found that as I tried to compensate for the increasing steepness of the road, that it would have to suddenly downshift, and we ended up "surging" until I had to back off the throttle. No fun.
So I switched to manual mode, and it did much better with me just holding it in 3rd, except for the flatter straight aways. No more surges, and overall a much smoother experience.
YMMV.
Part of one of our town/home routes brings us up a mountain road from ~~ 400' elevation to ~~ 2400' elevation over about 6 miles. It is windy, and the speed limit is 30-35 (some places 15).
Overall, the auto-magic did pretty well; especially around town and on the freeway. However, coming up the mountain road, the auto-magic lost its gusto. It wanted to keep up-shifting to 4, and then dropping to 3 or 2 when the steepness went up. In effect, it was "hunting" and it didn't do so well. I found that as I tried to compensate for the increasing steepness of the road, that it would have to suddenly downshift, and we ended up "surging" until I had to back off the throttle. No fun.
So I switched to manual mode, and it did much better with me just holding it in 3rd, except for the flatter straight aways. No more surges, and overall a much smoother experience.
YMMV.
#268
I can say with many tie ins to fleets this is rapidly changing. 5 years ago, yes. But the Volvo I-Shift, Eaton Ultra-Shift, and the Allison lineup is turning automatics to the standard fleet order transmission outside of heavy haul and severe service. Almost all city transit and state transport systems are automatics. The most popular semi truck is the 13/13 XE (D13 engine, 13 speed I-shift automatic, Xtra Efficiency programing). Automatics perform far better in hilly terrain on the big trucks, and are better in icy conditions due to their flatter application of toque through the drive train. The only downfall is maintenance. 5k for a clutch service ain't cheap. But seems that 800,000 KM is pretty normal for service life, and the fuel economy increase offsets it. There is also much less driver fatigue for the corridor drivers, especially the ones that run flat beds for coil through the Chicago/Gary route. Less foot work allows the driver to concentrate on the crappy traffic, and the I-Shift delivers gobs of torque when needed for situations.
Last edited by Diabloplaya898; 09-02-2015 at 10:04 AM. Reason: Forgotten information
#269
The company I drive for has those very same Volvo iShifts you speak of, and they are complete crap in the hills, let alone the mountains. I refuse to drive them since the Freightliner with a 10 speed manual that I now normally drive will pull the same hills with more weight at double the speed, even though it has 100hp less. I also call crap on the autos getting better mpgs, as i get better fuel economy in my old truck than the brand new Volvo trucks. 6.8 mpg vs 7.5 normally, though I am sitting at 8.2 so far for this week.
Your old truck will best your new truck. It's called emissions equipment, and you should know all about it. It's the same reason why we can't get a 6.4L scorpion to out mpg an old well built 7.3L. For awhile now, diesels have only been trying to get back to the MPG they used to have. Drive a 2015 manual against the same 2015 automatic and you'll see what I'm taking about.