Overland auto vs manual

So I have been watching and looking for a good year now and finally had the talk with the wife and we decided to start building an overland style of truck. We are going to start heading west and see Colorado this year. I want to know what you guys are running and what tranny choice you went with. Currently I have a 6 speed MT and was thinking it may be a problem in some area's. I have stopped doing any upgrades until we deiced on this choice. I had a rough price in mind being around 10 grand for upgrades, IDK if that's a realistic amount or not. Not looking for a long arm full blown overland but one that is very capable, thinking moab and rocky mountain trails. Should I just buy a TRD auto or a base and build from there?

Yes for my current manual or no for auto sorry for my crappy vote setup.

 

Well we just drove on all the trails and camped before it was given an official name. Since I've been at this almost 25 years now and have driven stick shifts pretty much exclusively I would say a manual transmission isn't a problem. But then again not having much experience with an automatic I'm not a good comparison.

And I've done plenty of harder trails, as do people in the 4WD club. Although almost everyone agrees an automatic is pretty much a requirement for a true rock crawler, but even that is not an absolute.

One reason I like a manual is reliability, there's not as much to fail or start acting up. I've seen automatics overheat more often than clutches be burned up, especially once you gain experience driving off highway with a stick. I burned a clutch way, way back being an idiot and slipping it. Don't drive with your foot on the pedal and let the torque and gearing do their thing and you'll be just fine.

 

You're overlanding. Not trying to fly a plane.

Get what you want.

Unless you're buying a new third gen.

Fuck the third gen auto.

 

But I can fly a plane I also take into consideration what others have done, I learn from the old timers cus I'm old school, all my freinds are at least 10 years older than I am because I don't get alone well with people my age anymore.

 

How about putting it this way? Driving a truck ain't rocket surgery, get what you want.

 

I've driven both and there are of course pros and cons as far as off road use goes. These days though with the TRD OR there are mostly just pros for the AT since DAC is a good substitute for running a MT in first in 4LO on a steep downhill.

AT still more expensive of course and more potential for costly repairs.

Really though it is down to personal preferences I think. I wouldn't have a strong opinion one way or another for an overland build.

Oh except as already pointed out if going 3rd gen it sounds like the AT is a bit of a disaster. For 2nd I'd be happy with either AT or MT.

 

Poll is confusing... Manual vs Auto? Yes or no? Does yes cast a vote for a manual trans?

 

Yeah sorry first vote topic, edited

 

That is a very good point and something we have to think about also, Currently she is not very good at all. I have showed her a few times but with no background with a manual it's hard for her to understand. Our daughter is much better at it but she will be graduating high school this spring ( wahoo) and will not be going with us much while off to collage.

 

Keep the truck you got, a manual isn't ideal but rock crawling is not a major part of overland driving. I'd would rather hang onto the rig I know and know the history of rather than dump a big portion of my build budget into taxes and DMV fees to buy a new one.

 

My wife was able to drive my brother's 1994 Wrangler well enough to be turned loose in traffic, but really struggles with the Tacoma. I think the YJ had a much heavier flywheel that made it harder to stall.

Definitely something to consider. We're planning a trip from Ohio to Arizona in the fall and as it stands I'll be doing 100% of the driving. Either that or we'll be replacing her corolla with an outback and putting the RTT on that for the trip.

 

Something I just never thought about to much, I grew up with them so sometimes its hard to understand how someone doesn't know how to drive them. I have to step back and think sometimes before I speak to her.

 

If you spend any time at all here on TW you should start to notice that Auto problems come in about 10 to one over the Manual.

 

One "trick" that I've found for long road trips is to let her start from a highway rest stop, with a nice long ramp onto the highway, and she's good for the next couple hundred miles until she can coast it back into another rest stop for me to take over. The first sign of stop/go traffic and she panics.