Quote Originally Posted by jennie285 View Post
Hk sorry to ask a stupid question but why the problem with a manual towing? I know it s easier with auto and all our cars are auto as they seem to be easier to buy these days,but we towed with our sandman originally with no trouble, we tow eith our sons ford ranger,when needed, and we tow with our yellow van although it's not great on take off on hills as has 3.08 and has the higher first gear box but really why is there a problem with a manual v8 cruiser?
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.