My '98 is an auto, so I have to use the brake quite a bit in traffic... the manual in my '05 is more clutch than brake, and I feel more in control of the truck - just have to pay attention more!

 

Well, boys I sure learn a lot here and I know the auto vs. stick war will just roll on BUT here's my experience: An old pard of mine has a ranch at 8,000 ft. elevation and regularly pulls a goose with a JD dozer on it with either an '04.5/NV5600/3.73 or a '06/G56/3.73. The trailer and dozer weigh in at 15,000 plus a little. Both are running an Edge Juice w/gages and they both flat haul it over the passes at 10-11,000 ft. He traded an '05/auto off on the '06 even though it would flat kick butt on the manuals in a dragrace. Before he got rid of it he did some comparison runs with an enclosed snowmobile trailer with 2 sleds in it. The deal went like this: Coming north out of Lake City, Colo. is a grade called 9-mile Hill and it's all 5-6 with some 7% and winding. He picked a milepost and hit that at 40 mph then punched it and drove it as hard as he could, curves and all. He did this several times with each truck and the stick would be doing 10 to 12 mph more over top than the auto. With the goose/JD behind the 6-speed KILLED the auto, bar none. SO, I still drive my Dakota/318/auto a lot but when I need to pull a LOAD I hook up the 6-speed Ram and I've got four 4WD trucks, 2 sticks and 2 autos, on this place. I reckon it's kinda like pickin' a wife: 'You don't have to please any one but yourself', just DRIVE it!

 

Wow..pickin your wife.. pretty tough..

Well for those that use their trucks for more basic task (i.e. <10k lbs) and lots of people (mega).. I smoke sticks all day long in traffic and hills while they are string at gauges, i'm enjoying my family..

I just thought I would give a different view point..

BTW: I love my wife and I dont drive her.. I cherish her.. I hope somebody treats my daughter the same inthe future.. Guys that think like that really **** me off.

 

I don't think anyone on here actually DRIVES their wife! It's a figure of speech and I think very apripo of the point he was trying to make.

 

eh gringo - 'ow much for jour leetle seester...

 

Nice......

 

You know, I missed this reply earlier but I believe you were reading between the lines since I never said anything about 'driving my wife'. I'd like to try and straighten you out on this but it's pretty obvious that you just don't get it and/or you had a really bad day smokin' sticks. Adios, my friend!