1.) It's just more fun to drive - with 245 HP, the manual is a blast.
The HP is only 239 and torque 278 ftlbs, for both trannies.
2.) I believe (my opinion) that I can deliver more tourque, or at least can deliver the appropriate torque to the wheels under the appropriate circumstances, whatever they may be. I know this may be a very subjective statement, and maybe even the wrong use of "torque", but with a manual, I have more control of the ratio of RPM's to wheel rotation - i.e. it's easier for me to keep the cruiser in the same gear at higher RPMs, without the Automatic Tranny being smarter than I am and shifting gears when (it) wants to and not when (I) want to. There have been plenty of times where I wanted to keep the tranny in 2nd at high RPMs for faster throttle response and torque. You can always shift an Auto down into Low, but it's just not the same and in some instances, keeping an Auto Tranny in Low could really heat it up.
In defence of the Auto and techinques used with the auto.
You can deliever lots of torque with the left foot brake method(left foot on brake, right on throttle, raise rpm to 1k or more to get more torque, modulate the brake to move) on the flats and the down hill sections to crawl over sections very slow. The auto in the FJ will hold second if put in second( used it for many hours at a time on trails in Moab recently). I have never over heated a toyota auto (in low range on trails)in the almost 10 years of drving toyota autos on cruisers if the cooling system is working properly. I had a fj 62 that needed a external trans cooler besides the one in the radiator, for pulling loads on the highway.
Over heating a domestic tranny is more likely then a toyota auto tranny. Basing generalizations of domestic hardware vs toyota is a mistake.
I was also suprized that the Fj crusier idled down the trail slower then some of the other jeep products on the trails I was on(considering the 3.72 final drive ratio's and the first gear of 3.52 in the auto), while not as slow as a real low gear ratio, but slow and in control, and only using the brakes for down hill when necessary or left braking tech when I needed to crawl down a ledge. Best of all no stalling the engine.
later robbie
