spoonplugger1 wrote:
I believe the max towing capacity of the manual trannies is 3500 lb isn't it?
Clutches seem to be the weak point.
not that the cluch is week but rather a problem with the driver
the MFG knows that 90% of the drivers will hit cluch and break when stoping wich will force all the breaking on the breaks and none on the drive train
also it has been my experance that most people dont know how to take off with a manual and tend to ride the cluch more than needed
none of this matters when you are not towing or towing a light load but a heavy load it does
if the autos realy were better at towing then over the road trucks ,18 wheelers, would all have them insted 99% have manuals
and they haul 80,000#+ all day every day and there cluch surfce is not 10X bigger than the one in a KJ
good example is when I had my ford ranger ,4.0 V6 5 speed 3.73's on 30" mudders, my buddy and his wife had the same model year explorer but with ever thing the same only differance was that they had an auto it was rated to tow 5,000# and my truck only 4,000# on the way to pensicola FL in july towing a good size boat ,18' I think, they could not run with the AC or the truck would over heat
I told them that I would tow it and see what happens 200+ miles on the same tank of fuel and running at 70mph+ and the temp guage never moved
I did use extreme care after the first time I had to stop and I did not want to but other wise no biggie
I agree with you Jason. I believe it takes less power to turn a manual trans than an automatic one as well.