modern autos handle more than enough and have the convenience obviously they just cant move the manuals anymore theres a reason most drag cars are now auto faster seamless shifting that needs no practice to do which helps alot when you pulling a load up hill

but plenty of times i have wished i had manual and still hate that ford discontinued the excursion because of the same can't move it reason

 

Who's gonna be first retrofit one into an Excursion????

 

no i was sayin the same way it bothers people the discontinued manual trans it bothers me theres no more excursion--im trying to say that just because theres no excursion im not going to buy a dodge or chevy because in my opinion ford still makes a better vehicle

 

wow, if that motor is all they say it is, I will have to take my sig down.
It looks beautiful.

 

You are kidding, right?

 

Actually he is not kidding. The auto's are rated to tow more.

 

And have been for a number of years.

I think the manual fanatics out there are just control freaks. They want the control a manual provides instead of letting the automatic do what it needs to do, when it needs to do it. But to jump ship to a Dodge or Chevy just because they offer a manual, that sure is extreme.

I can't wait for the new truck and engine. I should have my current truck paid off and be ready for the new one. I love my 5.4L and it has done everything I need, but my future plans are calling for an upgrade. I just hope my plans don't run afoul of more economic BS!

 

I'll say right now that I don't own a SD but if I were to upgrade I'd question the use of "Diesel Exhaust Fluid" just another $20+ bucks in fluids that need to be changed IMHO.

 

No changing....just adding like your fuel.

 

Thank the EPA for that one.

 

lots of good things about the new engine.... hot egr valve which should be much less prone to gumming up like those IH ones, that new turbo, very compact compared to any set of compounds out there, very short exaust manifolds, yup they're in the middle of the motor, but there is much less square inches of hot exaust radiating heat. aluminum heads, they were a failure on the vega when they put aluminum heads on a cast iron block, BUT all the brands have learned something since then, yeah chevy had some probs with them on the dmax at first,but you never hear about it anymore,just that dmaxes are the fastest,and dodges win the pulls. point being that aftermarket chevies using al heads make incredible power and speed and nobody has had to develop some special mod to keep those "poor" al heads from failing. i won't be buying a first year anything from any brand especially after the failed hype of the 6.0 and 6.4, but it does look like they actually thought about what was failing on them and tried to address it. only time will tell how successful they are. sounds like they tested them under very heavy conditions, but what about under much less load like alot of trucks where the vehicles sees lots of lighter loads, will things clog up or will it keep working. manual trans???? i have one at work 18 gears it gives me ALL the manual fix i need, driven 18's for about18 years at the end of the day or when i go on holiday i want a holiday from shifting, even though i don't like everything about the auto's shifting strategy

 

Well said nitro.

:-) At least with the newer generations of auto trannys - it's not hard to get a programmer that adjusts the shifting strategy to your liking - not to mention ones like the DP that can give you 16 maps and tranny strategies :-) (as much as I love a good manual 6... it's getting harder and harder to argue with a good auto. A certain part of me is sad to admit that the new auto trannys are making the age old skill of shifting almost obsolete. I almost hate to make it so easy for idiots to get to drive, not to mention that new drivers seem more detached from the act of driving.)

As stubborn as some of us are... the things that these new technologies make possible is pretty impressive. I still don't know how we lived without key-less entry, when 10 years ago it seemed like a silly option that rich people had.

 

Feh.... It's not stirring a gearbox that drives me nuts, mostly. It's the freakin clutch pedal, that makes you shove the damn thing all the way to the floor before the synchros will release...

Might not be an issue for some people, but with me and my short legs, I have to bury the steering wheel in my chest/stomach to be able to reach the bottom of the clutch pedal, which makes the top of the pedal travel too close to get my foot on the pedal in the first place, to shove it 18 inches down.

The only complaint I have about the gearboxes themselves is that it takes a micrometer to figure out the difference between 1 and 3, and 3 and 5...

Guess I'm just FAR too used to a sloppy old Eaton Super-10, that has several inches of travel (at the top of the shifter) between EVERY gate, not just the up/down (fore/aft).

-blaine

 

for fun try what i did with my 03 6.o 6 speed manual, broken left leg do all shifting with right foot. everything we had at the time was manual, the truck had the lightest clutch and the diesel didn't need gas to keep from stalling when letting out clutch. funny i never had an issue with the gates on the 6 speed thought it had great gates and had first and rev where they belong like a big rig. then again over the years i think i've driven just about every big rig tranny out there, 5x4, 6x4,2 or 3 kinds of 13's, 15's 15 double over's, mack airshifts with rev on the air shift( can you say 5 gears in reverse?), and sometimes 2 or 3 different in 1 day and keep straight which one you're in. i found that with the ford 6 speed when shifting from low to 1 if you just push forwards, rather than forwards and up you hit 1 perfectly everytime. to

 

I'm guessing the diesel will be a good $8K-$9K option now. It is already getting ridiculously expensive at $6800 and that doesn't include the auto tranny. Maybe it will be $10K+ since the auto will be the only thing available.