I've had them both auto and manual!
Auto is great if you tow under 10k. If you want to tow heavier the manual works better!

The manual also works better in the mountains.
I was hauling 2 5000 tractors on my 4500 trailer and could barely pull Rabbit Ear pass in CO. I'm glad they had pull overs every few hundred feet.
I just got back from Tahoe and was very pleased with my 5 speed truck, never dropped below 40 mph or lower than 4th gear, rarely had to touch the brakes going down either(e-brake), on RT-70 to Denver.

The only bad is the wide gear spacing on the 5 speed you would have to hit redline and hope you had enough speed to pull the next gear. Not a problem with an auto.

The auto is way faster empty and towing light loads.

I had a 3 car wedge and even with my DTT trans the trailer loaded was too heavy for the auto!
Conclusion:
very little towing or light weight towing auto is king!
heavy duty towing manual is king!

Sure wish I had 1 of each!

 

Beat me to it.... I find it hard to beleve someone could kill one of these trucks with a 6spd pulling a boat out of the water (granted exceptions due occur). I recently bent one of my stingers at a 45 while pulling a trailer out of the water that had dropped off the edge of the boat ramp (Low water levels in Texas!! ). Truck didn't even hesitate in 4H. I've even pulled a 2.5 decker houseboat off of Lake Travis in Austin (76' two jetskiis still on back twin 454 jet style engines plus 350 generator). Now that thing was crazy heavy!! (Didn't pull it far just out of the water and about a miledown the road for repair.) But the truck didn't even think about dying!! (Thanks God for 4L)

 

Autos have higher tow ratings because the OEMs need to have adequate margin for the powertrain, and they don't have control over how a manaul is used. Most autos these days seem to rely upon 'torque management', where they defuel in different situations in order to minimize load on the drivetrain. The more sophisticated the tranny, the more 'torque management' it's using.

A consequence is that you can spec a truck with an auto to handle xx thousands of lbs, and you don't have to state that it won't handle that load in all situations. I've read replies in this forum of owners of older Dodges with manauls delivering heavier than rated loads to people on farms and ranches, a kind of common situation, and the person receiving the load couldn't move it with his new 'heavy duty' truck with an auto.

One reads of tests of of 'best towing' ability, which seems to a running start at a grade and then seeing who can do it at the highest speed. In my opinion a real test would be pulling a max load up to a steep grade at altitude, stopping, and then seeing who does best getting the load moving. Do it several times to see how the truck handles the load. I'll guess that people will find out why manual trannys tend to work better in situations like this.

 

Obviously I say manual, but is it just me or do you manual guys feel kinda out of control and maybe even unsafe in an auto in tedious situations?

Like backin under a trailer or easin up to an immovable object.

I dont know maybe its just me but I feel like I have MUCH more control with a manual.

And if your leg gets tired from pushin the clutch on a pickup, send me your address and I will get you a membership at your local gym.

 

Put me in a manual truck, big or little, any make or model, and I believe that I can move it, controllably, exactly 1/4 inch, in either direction, if need be.

For instance, hooking up a clevis-type farm wagon, the guy holding the tongue hollers to come back a hair, and, with the manual, I can come back a hair.

On the other hand, in the same situation, with an automatic, the dumb thing will either not move at all, or suddenly jump about two feet, causing me to take a cussing from the pin man that I almost got killed.

The reason that auto-makers are so in love with the automatic is that they will absorb torque, instead of twisting out parts under warranty.

 

Yes I do, and I wouldn't have an automatic. My Con O cost $700 and the labor was included in my last transmission replacement. (which was prolly less than the labor charge when you had your tranny rebuilt). A 100,000 mile warranty is less than a year, so it doesn't mean much.

GM rates their manuals for less because they have a lousy duel mass flywheel and I suspect also that there is a huge profit margin in the Ally as an option.

 

I never would have thought I would like an automatic, but since i put the shift kit, and TC in mine, I really like it. Automatics hold boost. There is no shifting and wondering if you are gonna be able to hold the next gear. I would take a built auto for hauling over a 5 or 6 speed myself. Now a stock 47rh/re is pretty sick, but a good torque converter makes all the difference. Along with a valve body that enables you to lock the converter in any forward gear. I will put my truck against anyone with a 5 or 6 speed of around the same HP that wants to try em with a load. From a stop, roll, whatever. The only thing I dislike about mine is that it is slow spooling, even without a load. But I think that problem must lie somewhere else, because 2 other trucks I know of with a close to same setup both spool much faster than mine. Plus I have 3:55 gears, and 285 tires. And if you guys want to see something that would make something twist in half if it was goin to. Go ride in a built auto with billet shafts, and a heavy load, shifting with the converter locked, at full boost. Now that is putting the power down. It really is all personal preference, and I would like to have one of each to drive myself, but I am really happy with my automatic now that I have this converter(the stock converter DO suck for pulling though).

Eric

 

How do you talk on the phone and eat a cheeseburger while driving if you have to shift all the time??

 

Ive got both ,the auto is a weakling,with 1500lbs of fuel and tools in the box I cant slow it down quick enough going down a hill or make it go fast enough up a hill.The 5 spd laughs at both.Granted the manual has some goodies on it but the auto has a tc done too.Not only that-twice now the cooling lines for the auto have rubbed causing a major loss of fluid in the tranny.And the guy who had the truck before lost his tranny while towing a load because of this very reason.I drove for 1000 miles spewing fluid on the highway,filling it up every 3 hrs or so.It never smelled bad or shifted hard,probably because it would spend all of its time in overdrive and also i would drive the truck at around 90 mph the whole time.Surprisingly enough the auto is as strong(weak) as its always been though,despite all that.I had no choice I was in the canadian north in the middle of nowhere in the middle of night in the middle of winter!So now the lines are padded and I carry some hose to replace if i ever have to.So I cant explain why the tranny is still working

 

They're called knees!!!

 

Oh, I can't resist. I'll give the pot a stir in a completely different direction. I just sold my NV5600 equipped 2002 to get a 48RE equipped 2006 and I think they both leave a lot to be desired. Four gears in an auto aren't enough, six in a manual aren't enough. On top of that, why in the world do we even have overdrives? Highway gear ought to be 1:1 and any necessary highway gearing ought to be done only in the rear-end.

I think a perfect truck would have a rear-end that would allow a 1:1 gear on a transmission to have a highway RPM of about 2000 at 75 MPH.

Then the perfect manual transmission would have eight gears spaced closer than they are in the current sixes such that your granny was a smidge lower than even the G56, but you also had two highway gears so that you could add a few hundred rpm for heavy loads. I'm talking about final drive ratios, since I'm advocating a completely different thinking on rear-end ratios.

The perfect auto would have six gears, including two highway gears, and would have a tap-shift mode and some way to tell the torque converter to stay locked up when you're happy to be flooring it at peak torque rpm. Again, the rear-end ratio would be appropriate to allow for a top highway gear at 1:1 in the tranny.

Tad

 

I have tore up auto's and standards and have found the cost to fix the auto's to be about half . Also on the road finding someone to fix a standard can be hard sometimes . I tow heavy with the auto and can find little to complain about right now . Yes there are times when I would like a standard but in most cases I prefer the auto now . Try picking up bales with a standard on wet ground you will lose traction faster and be stuck way more and not to mention trying to keep a tight load with a clutch when stopping and going a lot . A few more gears would be nice at times but all in all the 48RE is not all that bad .

 

I think it is market driven. The manufacturers are simply giving us what most consumers want.

Most people just don't want to be bothered with learning how to use a manual transmission and like to the convenience of not having to think about shifting gears. After all, it's a real pain to keep using that clutch in the stop and go traffic at the McDonald's drive through and then having to manage shifting gears while stuffing a Big Mac in your face and yakking on the cell phone all at the same time.

 

JMTCW. . . . . .The first 3500 I owned was an auotmatic, 1999 I think. At 73K it started to slip and that I was not hauling any real weight to speak of and hell 80% of the time it was empty. It cost me $2300 to rebuild. The last 2, 3500 and my new 2500 4X mega cab are both 6 speeds, I will never go back and have found better mileage with a stick. Sometimes simple really is better.

 

I think manuals are simpler, cheaper and more reliable in the long run.