Heres a little manual story for yall. this should probably go in a blooper section or something, but i was boggin my '89 F-350 7.3L diesel, with a ZF 5 speed manual. well i prob. should have looked a little closer but i get helf way through this half mud, half rock pit, and my hand was on the stick in granny gear just crawlin through wiht my 44" swampers, everyoen else got stuck so i was definitley showing off. anyways, all of a sudden i slam her down into 2nd to start blowin tails and SNAP, shifter broke in two pieces. so i had about 4" left, and had to use that to get out of the pit and bog the rest of the way with. needless to say through some engineering, and use of garage resources, and no money, i know have a shifter out of an old school bus. its great, its so long, and everyone always talks about it. just little story. manuals forever.

|x| Jacksland |x|

 

Talk about long shifters.... I saw a photo in "Ford Pickup Color History" of a '70 F100 with a manual tranny and the shift handle looked like it was level with the top of the dash board. I wonder if it is for real or just the angle of the photo?

 

I grew up driving manual trucks, first a '90 F-350 diesel with the ZF 5-speed, now a '90 F-250 LD with the M5OD. I wouldn't trade em for anything when i'm driving through a foot of snow on the michigan roads, its great to be able to pick a higher gear to keep your tires from spinning. Towing was great with the F-350, but I will say that if you're gonna tow with a manual you better have the gearing, when I tow with the manual F-250 I just wanna kick the stupid thing, I'm already on my second clutch since I got it.

Dad has an automatic Dodge cummins diesel and I must say I enjoy driving that thing. It sounds like a semi and you can't beat an auto for city driving. When I'm out in the country though I'm happy with my manual.

I guess to make it short and sweet I like both, as long as its a good truck.

****************
1990 F-250 LD
4x4
5.0, M5OD tranny
140k miles
****************

 

i think manuals are more fun to drive, but i might get tired of it after i while.
i get my liscense tommorow so i cant say that ive driven either auto or manual enough to have a real valid opinion... but the truck ill be driving(77' F250 POS) is a stick and so far i love driving it.

 

I think the picture was accurate. I used to drive a '67 F350 manual trans wrecker. There was a notch in the dashboard where the shifter hit the frint of the dash when going into granny gear. The thing must have been 3 ft. long with a 2 ft. throw.

 

Recently saw on another web site for racing four wheel drives where they compared manuals to automatics refering to them as a "jerker" vs. a "slush box." Now I had heard of slush box, but never jerker. I have also heard autos referred to as juiceboxes.

 

I really like the C6 in my truck. If I want to pretend I'm Speed Racer I jump in my Mustang with the T-5.

Michael
'78 F-150 Ranger Supercab 460 w/C6
'84 Mustang GT350 302HO, T5, K&N Filter and underdrive pulleys

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-Jul-01 AT 00:40 AM (EST)[/font][p]MANUAL all the way been driving them since I was 10 years old
on our 16 acare farm

Rodney
LFLS

 

The only automatics I have had were hand-me-down cars. Always bought manuals. Was driving my wife's slushbox Aerostar yesterday. Stupid thing was driving me nuts. Very hard to get it to kick down one gear. Seems to always kick down two or three gears at a time and then wind out like mad. Or will kick down two, start winding, then upshift one. Or sometimes it will upshift and then kick right back down. Now, I don't have a twitchy foot or anything and it doesn't happen to my wife when she drives. Guess it is the wimpy 3.0 motor and I am used to my 4.9, because our 460 V8 automatic motorhome doesn't have these problems.

 

Well... having learned (many years ago) to drive in manual tranny cars on the streets and highways of the Chicago area i would say two things here... first, i LIKE having to DRIVE my truck (the automatic in my Buick is nice for when i want a car to do the driving for me but most of the time gimme a manual so I can be the one in charge thank you very much) and second, 5 miles of stop and go traffic with a manual? try 25 miles of stop and go traffic with a manual. I used to have a 96 Mustang GT with a sweet 5 speed manual tranny that was my daily commuter from the northern suburbs (where i was living at the time) to the far south side of the city (where my employer was nice enough to transfer me shortly after i moved to the north side). 25 miles each way, thru Chicago rush hour traffic, and i still preferred doing my own clutching and shifting. Sold the 'stang after a few years cause i felt i needed something more "practical" (bought a Grand Cherokee... nice vehicle, got me into the whole 4wd thing, but geez i missed shifting for myself). Now i have my 5spd F150 and i'm a happy camper once again. Why do so many people assume that traffic and manual tranny's don't mix? Is a bit more clutching and shifting THAT HARD TO DO? I don't think so... but maybe that's just me.


wolf189
************************************************** ***********************
'93 F150 4x4 Regular Cab, Long Bed - 4.9L I6 w/5spd Manual
no mods... yet...
http://www.pamba.thinkhost.com/images/bigblue.jpg

 

If you ask me I think people are getting lazier! jab jab jab First manuals are better from a mechanical pov. They usually get better mileage, lose less power (torque & horsies) in transferring from engine to differential and use a simple and straight forward design. Manuals all the way and autos for whimps! jab jab jab.
Have fun guys.

Use whatever transmission you want to use and who cares what the guy down the street thinks!!!!!!!!!


1994 Ford F150
300-6
Highly Modified and more to come!

 

Auto in the city. Grunt-n-growl 4spd. on the farm.

 

 

automatic

 

I refuse to own anything that's not a manual.