I've had the same truck as what your looking at (except supercab) for a little over a month now and the only reason that I would like to have an auto is to drag race my buddies with their rice burners. However, the extra longevity of the tranny, extra torque, extra mileage, and the ability to put the truck in the gear that I want it in far out ways the quickness in drag racing.

As far as the price goes, I think 25k is a little high. Granted I got mine for a steal of a price at 13k but even looking on KBB shows that unless this truck is decked out with everything and you want to pay retail (which your getting ripped off if you do) then the price should be at most in the low 20k's. But if you can work a deal then I would say go for it cause you won't regret it.

 

I have had both, and I prefer the automatic over the six speed. The six is a great tranny and i had zero probs with it, but if I got stuck in traffic it was a killer on my knee. I am somewhat worried about the reliability of the auto tranny, but so far so good, and its alot faster than the 6spd.

 

The stock clutch can get a little heavy in extended stop and go, but is otherwise very manageable.

There is no throttle input needed to roll out at idle in the bottom two gears...unless you've got a loaded trailer behind it.

I shift between 2000-2400 normally. Lower if I'm trying to conserve fuel. I've been know to make redline shifts when I want to dust the guy in the other lane. It handles any situation with aplomb.

I never use low gear unloaded.

My stock clutch went 87,000 miles, but the engine has been well over it's stock output since 12,000 miles, so it did better than I expected.

Some minor clutch problems, but problems in the gearbox itself are very rare.

The gates are too wide and clunky for sports car fast shifting.....but you can get pretty close once you get the hang of it.

 

I appreciate the advice gentlemen.

Bad news though... just got back from a 7 hour roundtrip, and the truck didn't come with me. It must have been owned by someone in construction before... the entire interior had a slight orange color and smelled horribly like smoke, dirt, and grease (you could smell shampoo like it was just cleaned, but it wasn't enough). The undercarriage was heavily stained with clay mud, but couldn't tell from the pictures sent to me as the dealership painted the wheelwells black. Following some advice read on here, I checked the oil pan but couldn't really tell if it was rusty or not. I didn't have the time or means to check the turbo for the "death dust" as my uncle calls it, but I didn't really have to after looking at the truck for a few minutes. I took it for a 30 minute test drive anyway to see how the 6-speed was... through town and on the interstate, the truck seemed like there was nothing wrong with it mechanically. The radio wasn't working right (very hazy on all stations), the rear end was leaking oil, the seats were heavily worn..... it just wasn't the truck it looked like in the pictures the dealership sent me. Overall I'm very disappointed about the lost day, but feel like I made the right choice not to buy it (the dealer offered to let it go for $22k, but I still declined).

I am sold on the 6-speed though, driving it and reading about it are two different things and I really like how the PS felt with the manual trans. The clutch wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be, it wasn't near as heavy as my uncle's late 90s dodge cummins so i'm happy about that.

Anyways, thanks again for the advice. I'll be lurking on the boards for more advice as the search continues. I checked autotrader again for 6-speed PSDs and the nearest one to me is almost 150 miles... didn't realize how hard it was to find these things.

See ya'll around!

 

I saw a B+M shifter for the PSD 6spd. the other day, I think at Jegs. I never thought I would do it, but piotrsko is right, you cant shift the first three gears quick enough when running quick. Other than that, I have had two, and no problems with either one. Love them.

 

FYI, I put a South Bend clutch kit in my truck, and it GREATLY reduced the pedal effort. Its softer than my Mustang clutch now, I'm thinking of taking the spring out to get some stiffness back.

Mine revs up so fast in 1st I don't mess around until 2nd gear and up. Once you get the hang of how it feels you can slam gears pretty good though, for a truck that big. With my chip I have to short shift sometimes or I'll set the SES light for overboost

 

Sounds like the price was about $6k to high on that truck.

Anyway, I have a 6spd with 240k on it and I tow a trailer almost every day. I would not trade it for anything. I pull 6-8,000 lb loads on a regualr basis and sometimes forget I have the trailer behind me. I love taking off from a stop and running through all 6 gears, with my setup, it sounds like a big rig taking off. I have the 5" exhaust and dp tuner and it is awsome to pull out into traffic, roaring and smoking through the gears. I have no complaints, I rarely have to hit the throttle to roll in 1st. Just today I spend 9 hours and a total of 250 miles in detroit traffic with a 8,000 lb loaded trailer and had no problem. (almont to livonia to pontiac to lapeer to southfield, etc, etc)

Get the 6spd, you will love it.

 

I had to pull somebodies broken down Tempo back home a couple of weeks ago and he told me that I was pulling him faster than the car could accellorate when it was running.

 

LOL

Gahhhh, ya'll are making this itch worse....

 

bd diesel makes a short shift for thy 6 speed. I got one priced from them. WOW! too expensive! I bet it would help alot . i put one in my mustang and made shifting a breeze. IMO the gear ratios are all messed up. Always skipping a gear or rolling out in second.
I had a cummins pull up beside me at a stop light, (I DO NOT DRAG THIS TRUCK) and I could tell SHE (yes a woman) was going to go for it. as i said i do not abuse my truck and even if i tried that HO cummins manual has better shift intervals than i do unless im gonna slip the sh*it out of my clutch starting out in second. other than that i take care of my baby and dont put her up against eneven competitors.

Remember thats how ford wanted it with the 6-speed.a granny too low and gear ratios too close. sucks.

 

TJ,

It took me 4 months of combing the net to find my '99 PSD with 6 speed, and even though it had over 100K, and was $17.3K the previous California owner took excellent care of it. Keep looking at get what you want. You never know, you might find one on these pages.

Sam