You are welcome. You’d be surprised how many people don’t know which end drives their car. I watched an inspection station try and dyno an AWD Aerostar van from the front wheels only with the owner insisting it was FWD. A few pairs of pants nearly got soiled when the van jumped off the rollers but no injuries!
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… or even what type of engine they have.
The father of one of my brother’s friends had a '55 Buick, and he insisted that it had a straight-8 under the hood.
I politely asked him to open the hood, and when I pointed to the obvious V-8, he seemed genuinely surprised. He had already owned the car for at least 4 years at that point, so I guess it is fair to say that he had never checked the oil–or anything else under the hood–during those 4 years.
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That was probably so long ago that the gas station attendant checked the oil every time the driver filled up with gas, especially in NJ.
You’re probably right, but the truly ironic part of that scenario is that this guy considered himself to be quite the expert on everything automotive, yet he was clueless about the hunk of iron that sat under the hood of his own car!
I too live in a “pickup truck culture”. People around here drive large trucks all the time, just In case they need to haul something…which amounts to 1% of the time. Meanwhile, you’re paying for fuel, etc. 100% of the time.
I used to be a pickup guy myself, but had a Moment of Enlightenment a while back. All things being equal, it’s FAR cheaper to just pay for delivery and/or rent a truck when you need it.
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You’re probably right, but for me the convenience of having one when you need it as well as having a backup vehicle is worth the minimal cost to me. I have a 21 year old F-150 that I keep around, probably put about 1000-1200 miles a year on it. I keep liability insurance on it, which amounts to less than $200 a year, and it’s only $50-$70 a year for property tax/tags (on account of it’s age). If I had a rent a truck every time I needed it, it would be a wash, financially speaking.
Agreed, and your scenario isn’t what I meant. I’d be inclined to have a old “beater” truck around myself, as you’ve described.
What I was referring to was driving around a new(er) truck for no real reason, other than personal preference.
I thought that I should what you mean. My point is that you didn’t have to know as much way-back-when because there were service people to help at the gas station.
I split the difference. I paid $1200 for an old Japanese mini-truck, then spent about $100 at Rockauto sprucing up the mechanicals, and $50 on Bondo to cover up the more obvious body rust.
Ended up with a little truck that looks decent, hauls more than a ton, and doesn’t take up much room in the driveway.
Within the first year of owning it I hauled loads on 15 different days, which would have cost about $1500 at U-haul, so I was already ahead of the game.
And, it gets 35 mpg highway and runs on regular gas so it’s actually cheaper to run than my daily driver. Win win!
The most amusing part is that I have a very good condition MR2, a mint-condition CRX, in addition to our two daily drivers, and the only car we have that gets routine notes on the windshield asking me to sell it is the truck. 
Have you ever towed a vehicle before? An automatic is the ONLY transmission you want to use. SUV’s and trucks that had either a manual or automatic - with the manual you were limited to Class-II (3,000 lbs), and the automatic brought you up to a Class-III (5,000 lbs).
The weak link in a manual is the clutch.
Weak link for automatics is the HEAT. But an added higher capacity tranny cooler takes care of that.
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Have you tried to rent a truck? I have. Even in a metropolitan area like Boston - it’s NOT easy. I found many places that had a lot of large enough trucks to rent, but they all had a clause saying - “NOT TO BE USED FOR TOWING”. I finally found ONE AND ONLY ONE place and that was 50 miles away.
I have driven everything with 2 and up to 18 wheels. I only use a trailer 2 - 3 times a month these days, I have cars with manual transmission (have never owned a car with a/t) and I have have never worn a clutch out despite some of my cars - which I’ve bought used - went north of 300k miles before I sold them. Two of them, i drove for around 200k miles (a -87 SAAB 900 I and a -78 Opel Rekord 2,0). Has never changed a clutch on any of my own cars.
Depends on the driver/owner.
A friend of mine sold his -99 Toyota Hiace 2 years ago with +265k miles on the clock That van was always fully loaded - and then some and 90 % of the time it pulled a 2 axle trailer loaded with building materials. He bought the van new and when he sold it, it was still on its original clutch. Even the exhaust was the original.
That was one good workhorse, Rust took its toll, but you couldn’t wear that thing out. Its probably running around in Afrika somewhere now.
So, no I’ll keep my m/t.
Edit
I’ve owned and used 1 and 2 axle trailers since -78 and used them extensively, including moving my neighbour from DK to France with my Morris Minor P/U and trailer, a +2200 miles roundtrip.
The weak link is the operator of the clutch.
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No cabin cruisers, just a boat for the cabin. Probably something like a 20’ deck boat, roughly 3000 lbs.
Yeah, definitely rent a tow vehicle then. I definitely wouldn’t want to be pulling a 3,000 pound boat (plus trailer) up a boat ramp with a FWD. Good recipe to put the van in the drink.
Another option is that lots of boat storage places will trailer the boat for you.
AH…no. When you tow (especially heavy objects) - you will horse the clutch more which causes more wear. Also starting uphill with a load puts a lot of wear on a clutch.
I have no idea what that has to do with the discussion on manual vs automatic for towing.
My original statement is true…Automatics for mid to large pickups and SUV’s are much stronger then a manual tranny…thus the higher tow ratings.
Quote taken from above link
> The size of your load can also play a role in which type of transmission is more favorable. Usually, vehicles with automatic transmissions will have a greater allowable cargo load than those with manual transmissions. This is because towing large loads with a manual can damage the clutch from shifting gears.
Not necessarily. The clutch’s durability plays a big role. If you look at the Ford pickups from about 1987-1996, the manual F-150’s got the Mazda-sourced M5OD, it was a light duty transmission as far as light-truck use goes, and had a particularly flimsy clutch. It was only offered with the 300 I6 and 302 V8, you couldn’t get it behind the 351W because it couldn’t reliably handle the torque. The towing weight limits reflected this. If you had a 1996 F-150 (4WD, regular cab with the 302 and 3.55 gears), with the manual, the rated limit was 3500 pounds, paltry for a full-sized truck. But with the automatic the rated limit more than doubled to 7100 pounds.
More curious is when you move up to the F-250 (same year) with a much beefier ZF 5 speed manual. If you have a 1996 F-250, with the 351W and 4.10 gears, it’s rated for 7700 pounds. Same truck with the automatic is also rated for 7700 pounds. In that case the stronger transmission (and heavier duty clutch) offers parity with the automatic, where with the F-150 the manual transmission gets you less than half the towing capacity as the automatic.
You can be the best manual transmission driver in the world, but if the clutch isn’t up to the job, you’re not going to have much success.
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Both cars towed trailers for umpteen 1000’s of miles with no problems.
To be honest, I don’t understand Your reply. You state, that I’m wrong on the assumption that an m/t is the better choice, yet the link You supplied pretty much stated otherwise for my conditions (see the first link at the bottom) as I know how to handle my vehicle.
They are useless here, so not sold to other than a few US-fans, I’ll admit that a few of them looks nice.
Yeah, I hear that a lot from the owners of such vehicles with a/t’s when their car is at the local transmission shop. Whether it is there due to lack of maintenance or abuse, I don’t know.
I’m not trying to convince You that a m/t is better than an a/t and if You want to tow with a/t, I wish You a gazillion of happy miles of towing with that.
But I’ll stay with my m/t.
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It’s been 10 years since I rented a U-Haul F-150. I didn’t tow anything but it was equipped for towing and the only restriction was the factory weight limits. I drive past the U-Haul place 3 or 4 times per week. I will check with them.