Which is better for general 4 wheeling (off road, rock crawling), or does it matter at all, auto or manual transmission?

I prefer a manual because you have more control and alot more get up and go. There great when going down a steep hill. Both transmmisions have there pros and cons.

(Con- Wheeling with an auto. is very hard on it because of the excessive heat buildup to the tranny. Definately get a aux. tranny cooler if you prefer an auto!!! (Pro- You can keep your wheel speed constant with an auto., and you can keep your beer or fast food burger in your hand while driving.

(Con)- Wheeling with a manual requires you to lose wheel speed due to disconnecting the drive train due to shifting gears unless you stay in one gear like I do, at least with low range. It's also harder to hold your beer or eat your burger when shifting gears, but it can be done. It also sucks when your going up a steep hill when offroading and you can't make it. Having to push in the clutch pedal sucks. This happened to me at one time when going up this very,very steep hill. I almost got to the top and stalled and it was kinda scary to ease back down it with a big hole at the bottom of the hill. (Pro- Better drivability, more power, better gas milage, more control.

I'd still prefer a manual to an auto. because its alot cheaper to replace a clutch than an auto. trans. ($$$$) I've never had a manual trans. go out on me, and I abuse the crap out of them sometimes!!!!

This is just my knowledge and $0.02 on this matter.

everything 4x4ranger said is right on the money, both have pros and cons, but a manual is much more fun shifting the gears I think   

I have to agree.  I recently swapped to a manual in my 90 Sub.  I was tired of replacing misc parts on my auto (replaced the pan seal three times in one year and who knows what was wrong with OD cuz it rarely worked right) and I could never limp it home whenever something went wrong.  You cant go wrong with a manual because the parts are cheap and troubleshooting is very easy.  

when they say that its less expensive to drive a manual for wheeling they arent kiddin. my boyfriend and i last feburary went down to florida with his 01 dodge 1500 and the truck is beefed up so we really never had problems wheelin back home in ct.  we made some friends down there and decided to go wheelin it the swamps well we almost made it no problem when the tranny blew on the trail and we where miles from the nearest town and hundreds of miles from home.  to have the tranny rebuilt down there costed us $2000 and thats including all the extras we had them do to beef it up a little. needless to say we're still in debt and the trucks better but a manual tranny can take the abuse better and cost a lot less to fix lol.  it was still an awsome trip and id do it again in a heartbeat. later

Definatly personal preferance. I have had trucks w/ both, and offroad couldn't make up my mind what one is better. A perfect trans would be both a man/ or automatic w/ a way to choose what one you wanted to run at the time.  

if your in the tech rock crawling then auto may be a better choice cause you dont have to wory bout rolling back off an opsticle as much... a manual is better when in comes to general off roading do to the fact that you have more controll over which gear you want to be in... when doin normal 4x4in then the manual is also a good choice do to the fact that you can rock by and forth between opsticles which can help in over coming that opsticle. the choice you make should be based on what you plan to do the most  

I busted several 4 speed cases np435 and its just as expensive as a auto or more. Also I was running a centerforce clutch, kick but clutch. broke lots of cool stuff. I broke everything behind the clutch. Bellhousings, tranny's, 205 transfer case, drivelines rearends/dana 60's dana 44's bustes axles.  I run a c-6 auto/manual tranny and love it. I have not lost a drive line since I went to a auto. Manual you slip the clutch and rev the engine and drop it in gear and trash u-joints and other related componets. My motor was a big block ford and very strong. O'yeah ford busted frame mounts. Since I went auto these problem went away because the auto keeps the drive lines loaded and not allowed to jerk things around. My truck can carry the front left tire off the ground also if I hit it hard. 77 ford with a nice 460. My truck reliability has gone up tremendiously since c-6 auto.  

cabledawg:
I have to agree.  I recently swapped to a manual in my 90 Sub.  I was tired of replacing misc parts on my auto (replaced the pan seal three times in one year and who knows what was wrong with OD cuz it rarely worked right) and I could never limp it home whenever something went wrong.  You cant go wrong with a manual because the parts are cheap and troubleshooting is very easy.

Your problem is classic when you have the wrong axle gears. It would choose a 700R4 and proper axle gears over a manual any day. Many lift trucks and put big tires on a never bother to regear and then blame tranny. The beauty of a OD automatic (that few exploit) is that you can run some very serious gear in axles and still cruise at a lower RPM than a conventional manual or 3 speed auto on road. Example, you can run 5.13's with a 700R4 and still cruise at a lower RPM than you can with 4.10's and a 465 or a THM350/400 and 700R4 deeper first gear together with deep axle gears makes crawling a breeze with little torque converter action or heating needed. BTW, the reason OD rarely worked is because overall gearing was too tall as there is no rocket science here on this problem. BTW, I have plowed snow for over 20 years with automatic and proper axle gears and I have yet to loose first tranny doing it and plowing snow is tougher on automatics than off roading (when proper axle gears are used) Many go to great lengths to avoid changing axle gears and place blame elsewhere.