I bought my Sd because it was on the lot. It was exactly the truck Iwanted except it is an automatic. I love the truck, I hate not having a manual shift. Takes all of the fun out of driving IMO. I'm also waiting for the auto to take a dump, as that seems to be a given. I still have my dodge car though, so I can at least drive a manual once in a while.

 

IMO, there are a lot of reasons.

1. The 6.0 unlike the 7.3 has that flipping variable vane turbo. When you shift with a manual and let off the fuel, the vanes flip back and forth and you loose way too much power and have to pick it back up again almost as if from scratch. At least that's the way mine acts. I loose approximately 1000 rpms every time I shift and it takes a couple seconds for it to pick back up, the 7.3 didn't do that.

2. Unlike when I grew up, people today don't learn to drive sticks.

3. Ford is building these trucks for a completely different market than they did 20 years ago. 20 years ago a pickup belonged to a farmer, contractor, coal miner, or an outdoorsman. Today, they are building trucks for women to drive to town and yuppies to pull 30' campers with. If you ever drove a stick shift pickup before 1987, you remember a completely different truck. Those were cable clutches and would lift a light duty feller out of the seat, couldn't be pushed in by most women and yuppies. In 87, they changed to hydraulic clutches. The end was in sight.

4. I don't care what the numbers say, a 6.0 doesn't have the torque older engines have. For that matter, none of these newer engines do. That makes it a tad bit more difficult to drive a newer vehicle with a stick shift.

I used to say I wouldn't own a pickup with an auto. I don't today, but I seen the day coming, and I hate the idea of it. Fact is, I drove one with a torqueshift in it. Fact is, I've driven more than 1 with a torqueshift. They new autos have exactly the same faults to them that the older ones did, paticularly in the mountains. I have going up a mountain and every time I let off to go into a corner, the tranny shifts up 2 gears, then coming out of the corner, it's got to hunt it's way back down 2 gears. I'd rather do the thinking on the gear it ought to be in paticularly when towing, but they didn't ask me.

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Those were cable clutches and would lift a light duty feller out of the seat
I remember learning to drive when I was 7 in my Fathers Landcruiser... I used to have to stand on the clutch with both feet!!!

 

Having to stand on a clutch with both feet would be one of the contributing factors in the low sales of manual transmissions.

 

Does anyone know where the transmission gear ratios could be found? 4R100 5R110 and the six spd manual?

 

That was when he was 7 and I was 14. I'm now nearly 40 and weigh 250 lbs. Pushing a cable clutch in is not an issue. That and today's clutches are hydraulic.

I truly don't like an automatic in a pickup. I don't like these vehicles thinking for me. I like to hit the gas pedal and it go. I don't like that built in lag in the new F250's supposedly to keep you from tearing a rear end out from under the truck. I really don't like anti lock brakes. I'd rather do the brake thinking than a computer, paticularly loaded heavy. ABS might be ok on a car, but on a truck with 8,000 or 9000 pounds behind it, it isn't the best thing. And I hate a truck deciding which gear I'm going to be in. I'd rather do that thinking for myself. Oh, it'd be ok sitting on the interstate behind a wreck easing forward 6 feet at a time, but over all, I'd rather have a stick. Paticularly in mucky places like muddy construction jobs, you can do a thing or 2 with a manual vehicle to get unstuck that you can't do with an auto. (Yeah, I know, they don't want you to rock the truck back and forth either. "They" aint never been stuck in the mud.)

As unfortunate as it is, there are more people willing to pay to have something else do their thinking and I believe the rest of us will end up having to pay for thinking tools as well.

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Betchya miss that lever on the column to adjust the spark advance, dontchya?

(kidding.....)



Yea, I'm looking at the mfg's web sites meself right now to see just what you CAN buy with a stick.

 

Oh yes but Ford has a sense of humor. They only made the manual available with the super cab or single cab and even then pretty much on special order. If you make the drivetrain why not just make it available to all?

A while back a senior manager in Ford once told me Ford would never build what I truly wanted and he was right - I compromise every time - except on the badge of course.

 

If I recall correctly, the single cab came with a manual only (in either XL or XLT trim - both bed delete), the SuperCab came as a manual with the XL, and Auto with the XLT (the XL bed delete), and the Crew Cab auto only... (although I did see a Brazilian made XLT spec RHD Crew Cab running around Dubbo Zoo that was a manual - maybe a few were made???).
And the F350 (SuperCab only) came with either - but a 4x4 F350 is a pretty rare bird...
This is just talking the 7.3l 4x4 config though.

My local dealer (Centralian motors) pretty much only had manuals on his lot... admittedly he had a lot of the 4.2l Diesels, but I did notice, it was rare for an auto to be sold.
Here, now in Melbourne, I haven't seen a manual 7.3 4x4...

Anyway, as for your wish, I would be patient