Auto vs. Manual Transmissions - which is better for 4WDing & Towing! Experts have their say

Automatic versus manual. Which one is better in your four-wheel drive and why? For around town, both a manual and an auto will be more than adequate, particularly if you leave your four-wheel drive stock and you look after them, they're going to last for years. Where you'll start to stress them out though is with lots of towing, heavy off-road use and with a heavily modified four-wheel drive, particularly in regard to performance. So we're going to show you what upgrades you need to keep them reliable. Let's go. When researching this video, I wanted to talk to some four-wheel drivers who spend more time behind the wheel of a heap of different four-wheel drives than most, whether it be heavy off-road driving, big highway Ks and of course, towing. Fortunately, I know three blokes in particular who fit the bill. So here are what Sean, Graham and Jesse have to say. Automatics. The older automatics like the RE4s and Nissans and stuff, a bit clunky, probably a bit behind in the time. These newer autos like the ZF6 I've got in here that complement all these modern diesel engines so well. If you came up to me tomorrow and said, Graham, I'm about to buy a new four-wheel drive. I want to do everything. I want it tough. I want to go towing. I want to go touring. I want to go to the beach. It's my daily drive of the whole lot. What should I get? I would say unequivocally, grab yourself a modern auto. Yeah, the auto gives you way better control off-road, I think in the low range sort of stuff. It's a lot easier to drive really tough stuff. They've got things like automatic torque converter lock-up. So it almost feels like you're driving a manual. You've got direct drive right there. I mean, look at the things you can attach to a modern auto as well. Valve bodies, lock-up kits. You can dial into a modern auto via the internet to check what's wrong with it, diagnose it, fix it if you need to. But a lot of electrics involved and that sort of does worry me. How bush-proof are they? But if I had to choose one transmission or gearbox to use for the rest of my life and I had one four-wheel drive to build that's going to take me to the most remote places in Australia, I'd have to go with a manual. I've got a manual over here and I absolutely love it for the hard stuff. At the end of the day, if your starter motor goes, you can clutch start it. If you fill it full of water, you can drain the water, put any oil in there and it's going to get you home. You don't seem to find big issues with temperatures with the manual gearbox and I just find them overall tougher. You do lose a couple of gears, you've got a few more, you can always get yourself back home. Why would I choose a manual? I just like changing gears. I like the feeling of downshifting coming into a corner. I like revving it right out when you're in a big volume vehicle. I like that feeling of engine braking coming down hills. I just like depressing a clutch and making a nice clean gear change. Nothing, nothing will ever surpass that vehicle feeling. When you're in a car that you love and it's a manual, I don't care what auto you've got in your vehicle, it'll never feel the same as driving a manual vehicle. For now, whilst I still can, I'm going to stick with my clunky old manual. The boys had a lot of excellent insights into the auto versus manual debate and it's interesting to see that they all recommended going for an auto for its ease of use while still choosing to go with a manual largely for its butch reliability. This really is a divisive topic, so let's break it down a bit more. For the most part, an automatic will allow you to tackle obstacles off-road a little bit slower and a little bit more controlled than a standard manual with standard gearing, particularly if you utilise a little bit of left foot braking when you're driving steep gnarly stuff if you need it. On steep gnarly hill climbs, an auto is easier to use and will make you more comfortable because you can use the handbrake and put the vehicle in park. It's important to remember though that the mechanism that engages your park brake isn't designed to take the load of a heavy vehicle on a steep, full drive track. So if you're ever parking an auto on a steep, full drive track, always ensure you fully engage the handbrake before you take your foot off the brake and put the vehicle in park and then when you go to take off, make sure you put it in drive before you disengage the handbrake. With a manual on a hill, you can leave it in gear but you'll need to depress the clutch to start the vehicle, which can sometimes leave people a little bit nervous when it rolls back a little bit before you start the vehicle and build up brake pressure. Another area that a lot of four-wheel drivers argue an auto can fall a little bit behind is when you're descending a steep hill. That's because autos lack the physical engine braking that you get from selecting a gear in a manual and using the engine to control the descent. You need to be on the brakes more, which may not be as comfortable. But most modern vehicles are coming out with hill descent control, which does the braking for you, making descents much safer. Also, you can get torque converter lock-up kits for your auto, which will give you much more control on steep descents. A lock-up kit gives the driver of the vehicle manual control over the torque converter, which will lock the engine output and transmission input shaft together so they spin at the same speed, which will reduce heat. So the argument that autos aren't very good for descending steep hills isn't really valid anymore. For me personally, I reckon that mastering a manual off-road, and I'm referring in particular to on really tough tracks here, makes you into a much more competent four-wheel driver in the long run. And what I mean by that is when you're off-road on a real gnarly track, knowing which gear to be in and when, and then using the clutch to your advantage, say for example when you're winching or you're trying to drive as well or you're driving up a big rock step and changing between gears to suit what you need at that moment, can really help off-road. Not to mention the control it can also give you if you drive an old Toyota like me and the brakes aren't fantastic. That's not to say an auto still won't provide many benefits off-road and on tough tracks as well. Particularly with being able to select a gear, you still get plenty of control. But personally I reckon if you can master driving a manual vehicle on real tough stuff, it'll make you a much more competent four-wheel driver in the long run. To sum up, autos are easier to drive because you're not constantly focusing on the gear you're in. You can focus more on the tracks with two hands on the wheel, but from standard can lack physical engine braking, meaning you'll be on the brakes more. Particularly if your vehicle doesn't have hill descent control. Manuals offer more control over your vehicle, allow you to learn how to better drive your vehicle, but can be sketchier on a hill when stopping and starting using the clutch. Heat is the biggest killer of an auto, so if you're towing a heavy load, keeping an eye on transmission temps is crucial. A good rule of thumb is you want your transmission temps to sit roughly where your engine coolant temps are sitting. If your transmission temps do get too high, pull over and leave your engine running to cycle fluid through the cooler and through the transmission and watch the temps go down. Of course, fitting an aftermarket transmission cooler, particularly if you're towing or you've modified your four-wheel drive, is an essential upgrade if you want to keep your transmission temperatures down. Your factory transmission cooler is usually fine for a stock vehicle. Once you load your vehicle up, it will be hard for your factory cooler to manage transmission temps. Having an auxiliary cooler then becomes essential if you've modified your four-wheel drive. Like with anything, excess heat in your transmission can cause it to fail, and with modern automatics it can be one of the most expensive components in your vehicle, so it's important you look after it as best you can. When it comes to towing in particular, a manual can be a little bit more finicky and a little bit more hard work, particularly on long drives. Knowing which gear to be in before hills, always being mindful of how much load you're putting on your higher gears, and generally just being more attentive when driving. Compared to an auto, which is pretty much set and forget, provided you keep an eye on your transmission temperatures. Just be mindful that your temperatures can still get up in a manual gearbox, and just take it a bit easier, particularly if you're towing up steep hills. To sum up, autos are easier to drive, usually allow the car to more appropriately select the gear, but can overheat easier. Manuals don't overheat as easily, but require you to be mindful of how much load you're putting on your higher gears, and they're more physically taxing when you're doing long drives. One of the most important things you need to consider with your manual gearbox, whether you're chasing more power, you're towing heavy load, you run larger tyres, or you push it hard off-road, is your clutch. There are heaps of different options on the market, but I wanted to take two minutes to show you one of the newest. This is the Uni-Clutch from Clutch Industries. We recently installed it in a couple of our vehicles and tested them off-road. They use Australian steel, are made in Melbourne, and they're a twin-plate clutch. Some of the most common things you hear about twin-plate clutches are firstly, what are they? And secondly, what makes the Uni-Clutch different from a traditional twin-plate clutch? Well, to answer the first question, a twin-plate clutch is basically like having two clutches in one. Trucks have been using twin-plate clutches for a long time. Uni-Clutch is a more compact solution to fit your vehicle. Inside, there are two clutch plates, which means the Uni-Clutch can hold up to double the torque capacity of a normal clutch. Next, what makes a Uni-Clutch different to a traditional twin-plate clutch? Its modular design means that it uses the exact same pressure plate and clutch across all models. It simply uses a fitment kit to suit your specific four-wheel drive. It also has an integrated flywheel friction surface. What does that mean? Well, it means when you're changing your clutch, if you're putting one of these in, you don't need to remove your existing flywheel and have it machined. You can simply bolt it straight on, which will save you time and money in fitting a new clutch. The Uni-Clutch has patented urethane dampers and springs on the dowels. This helps to reduce some of the noise that you'll usually hear from twin-plates. The other advantage of this clutch is because of its design, in many applications, it actually requires less pedal effort than a factory clutch. So, you get a light pedal, smoother shifting, but a strong clutch that can handle all your upgrades. There are plenty of upgrades available for both styles of gearboxes, but especially autos. Don't just take our word for it though, let's hear from some industry experts for both manual gearboxes and autos. Hi, it's Rocket Rob from Wholesale Automatics. Hi, I'm Jackie from 360 Gearboxes and Diffs. Jock has asked me to answer some questions, he's sent me down. The boys have given us some specific questions to answer, so I'll give it a good crack. What are the biggest limitations of a standard automatic transmission and a modified vehicle? The transmissions themselves, especially modern ones, they're actually pretty good, they last really, really well. But if you are going to modify your vehicle in any way, just turn around, just Nomad valve body, that's all you really need, and an oil cooler. A valve body upgrade is an upgrade you can make to your transmission's valve body to help increase oil flow and reliability. The valve body is like the brain of your transmission, and if you upgrade your vehicle, chase more power, you have bigger tyres or your tow, it's important to make sure your valve body can handle it by upgrading the internal components inside it. So the biggest two modifications we see is increasing tyre size and width, so circumference and width, which effectively introduces drag on your take-off or increases load on the gearbox. And the second thing we see is increasing power. Tunes are just mad at the moment, so they're really upping the tunes and more than tripling, more than doubling and tripling the power, and the poor modified gearboxes, sorry, the poor standard gearboxes just don't stand a chance. So the next question was what we see as the most common faults in four-wheel drive gearboxes. I'd have to say lack of maintenance, clutch drag, and just broken gearboxes due to the sheer power and torque that the vehicle's running. Any upgrades for an automatic transmission? Yes, mostly, deep cast aluminium pan, oil coolers, and the Nomad valve body if you're doing any sort of upgrades. So another question the boys asked is what upgrades are available for manual gearboxes? So the best upgrade we do is the cryogenic and heat tempering treatment we do in-house. This changes the molecular structure of the steel, making it more durable and fatigue resistant. Then we've introduced the oil cooler for the V8 Landcruisers, which we've even fitted to sooty. That increases the oil capacity by 30% and keeps it nice and cool for your long trips. Fitting a set of reduction gears can massively benefit a manual vehicle off-road. Reduction gears are an upgraded gear set you can put in your transfer case to increase torque and control that are often stronger and have a different ratio to standard gears. When paired with the correct differential gearing and tyre size, reduction gears can be one of the best modifications you can make for technical low-range four-wheel driving because of the torque available at low speeds. What is the most important maintenance item to do or driving tip you can take for an automatic transmission to last? One, if you go on a beach, do it in low range. Don't put it in high range when you're on a beach. One of the biggest tips, and we get a lot of cars in here that suffer, they overheat, they actually get part, they can go from 60 degrees to 160 in less than 60 seconds. It's just incredible how big it is, right? Also, don't just jam it in a gear and try and keep on driving. If you're hitting a hill or you're doing something hard, drop it down a gear, kick the revs up, away you go. Look, we always say if in doubt, swap it out. So, you know, master and slave hydraulics shouldn't do more than 200,000 without being swapped out. And on top of that, regular oil changes. So, if the manufacturer tells you to change your oil every 50,000, forget that. Your engine's being done every 10,000. So, your gearbox does just as many revolutions and works just as hard. So, absolutely change your oil every engine service or at least every second engine service. I'm Jackie from 360 Gearboxes and For both transmissions, they have a lot of upgrades available to avoid overheating and improve the power you can run through them. It's important to understand that they may be under significantly more strain from other upgrades like bigger tyres and big power upgrades. And like everything on your vehicle, they need to be properly and regularly serviced to avoid wearing out or premature failure. If you're daily driving your four-wheel drive, it spends more time on the bitumen and you tow a van on the weekends or go four-wheel driving every couple of months or so, go on auto. They're much nicer to drive around town and they're smoother, easier, and modern autos have come a long way with reliability. But if you're going remote, four-wheel driving a lot, beach driving a lot, and ever in a position where you can't have a major failure in the bush, go a manual. They're more bush-proof. They're less likely to completely fail and give you excellent control when four-wheel driving. Whilst they can still fail, if something like a starter motor goes on a manual, for example, you can still clutch start the vehicle. Even if you lose a gear, you can still use different ones to get you out of the bush. Short of the clutch failing, it's more likely you can get a manual four-wheel drive out of the bush, whereas if an auto has dramas, like a starter motor, your only option is a replacement spare. And if it's more sinister, then your next option is a tow truck. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you use the vehicle for. And what do you guys prefer? Let us know in the comments below. Auto or manual? For me personally, it just still has to be a manual. The fact that you've got driver inputting, gear selection, and clutch control out in the bush. The fact that you can clutch start it if you do get into trouble, provided your clutch doesn't fail. Ask me about that one. And of course, there's just a bit less going on with transmission computers, hydraulic lines, and of course, transmission cores. I still just prefer the good old manual. That said though, the N70 is my first automatic four-wheel drive. And after the recent trip to the high country, I have to say it was fantastic. So who knows, in years to come, maybe you'll only be able to get an automatic four-wheel drive. Brave new world, eh? Thanks for watching and catch you next time.