Thread: new 70 series

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

well I have a huge back ground in 4x4 and give me a manual gearbox every day - if you are in deep shit and you need to move just a little bit a clutch gives better control - its positive feel against the mushy feel of an auto - look at what the dedicated 4x4 guys run aint no autos

That’s just not true mate.

Back in the day… then maybe, but these days a modern auto is superior to a manual in almost every way.

The control the modern automatic gearbox gives the driver in the really serious stuff is significantly better and safer than a manual gearbox. In a manual, if you’re hung up on a really steep incline with limited traction on one or more wheels with the suspension articulating opposite ways front to rear, and a shed load of weight, if you come to a dead stop like it or not, and have to put the clutch in and use the brakes, you’ve got problems. Gravity is a bitch. A proper 4WD automatic gearbox largely overcomes that kind of scenario and removes the need to keep on going regardless.

The only downside to an automatic gearbox is how complex they are technically, with the consequent risk of component failure of some kind. If an auto gearbox fails in the middle of nowhere, you are going nowhere (looking at you, Ford & Land Rover). A manual gearbox is more robust in that sense.

Yes this is one of those issues that really comes down to user preference, but having done all the hardest stuff you can do in Africa and Australia, lots in N America and regularly here in the horrible papa hill country of the CNI, if I was to go and do it all again then I would select an automatic gearbox without question.