Ford Closing.

[buck]

Manual will never tow as good as an auto, especially when Toyota have some beautiful autos like the A750F which is what my Hilux has and what my next door neighbour's 100 series cruiser has. Both of us tow over 2 tonne regularly and neither would ever have a manual version of these again. The primary driver for both of us is we have to reverse up our driveways and this a manual will not do, not without using low range which would be OK with the 'cruiser ute as it has freewheeling hubs but most 4WD today don't and a transfer case isn't meant to push a 2.5 tonne load up a winding uphill concrete driveway. The Overlander and both Hiluxes easily reverse 2.5tonnes up to shed in 2WD high range. Cross8 did it even easier. But any manual utes that have tried to push even an empty trailer up there have left half their clutch behind, and i've had to unhook their trailer and back it up with my car. You'd never even back your HZ vans up there and these have proper flywheels, a modern dual mass flywheel manual would see me changing clutches every year. One of the service managers of one ute brand even warned me off buying their product as he knew the clutch wouldn't handle it.
All that aside, manuals simply do not tow big loads as good as a strong, properly cooled auto. In big trucks with big clutches, tall gearing and multi-speed diffs they are fine. If you ever want to compare try backing a 308 M21 3.36 anywhere up a slope. Then do the same with an auto. Even ignoring the torque multiplication of the converter, that test alone makes it quite clear why the power transfer capability of an auto is far superior to a manual for heavy duty work like towing or carrying large loads.

I see your point, I also have your problem with a drive way that approaches 34 deg with a boat to back up it roughly 1.5t, but i must admit i blew the auto in my fathers falcon au ute, and the adventra wagon auto trans was showing problems aswell, the Prado manual diesel does it standing on it head in low range with the clutch fully out. i agree and think autos are better in 4wds, but as for the average car i think the autos are to weak when pushed hard.
(the ford auto blew, after inspection that the pump is at the back of the trans and ran dry because of the angle of the driveway.)