Manual vs Automatic Off-road

hi there Ronnie Dahl four-wheeling in Western Australia calm manual versus automatic so which is better for offroad stay tuned and let's find out a frequent question I get asked a lot should I buy the manual version or the automatic version of my vehicle and this is a very important decision to make and you have to be comfortable with either manual or automatic so if you're not sure which one you want or which one is best for offroad well I've broken this video up into sections so we'll get down to every single little detail you need to know so you can make the best decision for yourself and yes I have driven both automatic and manual vehicles and this vehicle here isn't manual but does that mean manuals better well you'll find out manual transmission versus automatic transmission in on and off road general situations and we'll start with fuel consumption a manual will burn less fuel than an automatic version of the same make and model so you're going to get more kilometers per litre and more miles per gallon out of a manual vehicle and now we come to control which gearbox gives you more control offroad well some people are probably going to disagree with me here but you will actually have more control with an automatic than you will with the manual and then in some other situations you get more control with an manual with the automatic one have control so we'll get to those parts when we get to terrain because that's going to change so it's not that simple when it comes to transmission overheating it's more than likely going to happen in an automatic when you give it hard intensive driving on a beach or any low range for driving you will need to upgrade that transmission cooler [Music] wearable parts an automatic is generally alright if it's serviced a manual transmission on the other hand is quite wearable you have the clutch plate and the flywheel and can be prone to premature wear and failure for those who abuse or don't know how to drive a manual vehicle in soft sand and other situations so that is another point to think about flat battery situation no jumper cables are around no jump packs are around you can push that or tostart and manual vehicle when it comes to an automatic you can't you have to actually physically tow it out of there with another vehicle [Music] so if you're by yourself and you got a flat battery in an automatic you're going nowhere gearbox damage out on the tracks a manual more than likely you're still going to be able to get out of there you may be able to crash box it out and that means you've lost your clutch or we lost a few gears or something you can avoid those gears if you lost the clutch you can actually smash it into gears at the right rpm but you're gonna do more damage to your gearbox an automatic once that's damaged offroad you're more likely a sitting duck and if you spring a leak and you fluid you're done to an automatic gearbox relies on fluid to drive so you have destroyed your gearbox which is cheaper to repair and replace the manual transmission you automatic quite expensive static inertia one of Newton's laws of physics when you have a vehicle stationary at a set of lights so does free time landcruiser it's a manual gravity pulls it towards the ground all right you need a certain amount of force to make the vehicle move because of static inertia so in a manual vehicle there's no problem you slick your gear you hit the accelerator you pull the clutch up at the right time of course you're moving straight away in an automatic an automatic transmission uses fluids and you need to build up a pressure before the vehicles going to start moving so therefore you're going to have a slight delay from when you hit the pedal to when the vehicle moves and this has a bit of a factor when it comes to off-roading as well for example it can help you give control for when you go over rocks and other situations when you've got things in front of you so that is a good thing but also a bad thing so my point here is a manual is more responsive than the automatic radio now on to different types of terrain and we're going to start with sand when it comes to sand driving so this is all your general sand tracks beaches you name it small Jun's we're not talking my big dreams yet and automatic will absolutely kick the living crap out of a manual vehicle especially if it's soft sand those gear changes in an automatic are just so smooth you cannot replicate that in a manual vehicle unless you're a professional race driver or something you cannot replicate it the reason why is because with a manual once you put that clutch down there's a pause between your power and momentum so by the time you get it from say third to fourth you're going to lose that little bit of acceleration or movement so you need to be over revving before you change so you're keeping your momentum where as a an automatic you just cruise along automatics kick-ass on sand however sand ruins this is where things get a little bit different and we'll go more towards the manual say a manual vehicle when you head towards a sand dune you will select your gear at the base of the hill and that gear you'll stay in until you reach the top or you don't reach the top now unless you're really really good at flicking it down into a gear at the right time then you can do it and that still has an advantage over the automatic because with an automatic even though you can lock your gear you have Drive one two three some have one two three four you need to select which gear you want the final gear to be so if you leave it in Drive and you go up a hill it's just going to select whatever gear it wants to do it can chip down it can shift up and usually at the worst bloody time so yes you can lock it in second or third but it still may drop gears at the wrong time or shift up in a gear at the wrong time it may shift down and then back up so therefore a manual transmission on sand dunes is better in my opinion rock driving rock rolling whatever you want to call it it's a situation where you have big boulders or big rocks or hard obstacles you need to go smoothly and carefully and slowly over well if you are an expert at driving and manual vehicle then it's hard to say that the automatic is better than the manual however for most of us out there and automatic is easier and safer to drive than the manual so therefore the automatic I have to say is better in a rock rolling situation also you can just hold it there in Drive even if you don't move and drive it's resting against the rock you control the amount of force you need to give it before the automatic gearbox actually engages and starts moving because you have static inertia in play again remember that Newton's law I mentioned earlier where as opposed to a manual transmission you have instantaneous force or power when you're clicking in the gear and you lift the clutch and the other thing with a manual you got to play with a clutch a bit to move over objects so you're going to wear your clutch as well so there's another reason that an automatic is better for rock driving [Music] and when it comes to the mud I have to say in my opinion that a manual vehicle is better than an automatic and the reason for this is you have control on your rapid acceleration as I said before you have that static inertia or you need that amount of force applied which there is a delay on in an automatic vehicle so when it comes with our situations you need to spin those tires to clean your tread blocks because you're going down a hill or or you're going through a sticky situation you need a manual vehicle to just quickly bang down into a gear or hold that gear for a lot longer and you can just flick all that mud out whereas an automatic it's got a bit of a delay it may decide to just change up and a gear when you apply more acceleration just maybe even stop the wheel spin as well and manual in that situation is better than an automatic river crossings there you have to cross a river you have a manual vehicle what are you doing you pick second gear low and then you go for it you do not want to change gears once you're in the water because you do not want water up in your clutch because that may cause clutch slippage and you may get water into your clutch bearing as well which will give you troubles down the track but let's say you have an automatic on the other hand you cross that River you should still pick your second or third in in your gearbox don't pick Drive because that'll go too fast and will encourage you to change up in gear you can just go on through that through that river crossing and you can even change with your automatic shift result as you're driving you can stop you can keep going no water is going to get into that gearbox it's sealed so therefore in my opinion the automatic wins the river crossing [Music] we're now onto hilly terrain uphill and downhill we'll start with uphill when you're driving uphill if you are in a manual vehicle and you stall it well you need to have some pretty good skills if you want a very steep hill to get that clutch at the perfect spot so you can take off without too much wheel spin or without not giving it enough and you start going backwards and a manual vehicle is very dangerous on a very steep hill when you're stuck like that you need to plug your handbrake you got a you know you're really going to know what you're doing and you're really got to practice it but you can also do the hill start and that is you leave it in first gear low you just start it from there and then it it'll wear your starter motor but most vehicles can actually handle this and it can get going in first gear low so that's good typically actually when it comes to an automatic if you get stuck on a hill who cares yes you still got Drive you can still move backwards a bit and go forward a bit you don't have to play over with a clutch your vehicle is not going to all sound just career down the hill so an automatic is a lot safer for going up hill so now it comes to downhill and this is where things can get a little bit complicated so I'll try and keep it as simple as possible when it comes to a manual vehicle versus an automatic vehicle generally speaking a manual will have a lower or a slower first gear low than an automatic will have so when you go downhill you can use your engine braking in first gear light on most full drives especially diesel versions they are so good that is what they add is perfect for going downhill engine braking pleat speed off the pedal concentrating your steering that's all we need to do when it comes to an automatic you gotta have your foot on the brake pretty much the whole way down to the bottom now of course if it's a modern automatic so for those guys are going oh that's not true well if you're in modern autumn panic you're gonna have for you better control than a manual because you got your downhill assist you got all this fancy stuff and the gears you know the vehicle will control its descent on the way down you don't have to do anything really you're gonna do Stuart but when it comes to the older version of an automatic you really got to be careful there and if it's a really long really long hill you may get brake favored by the time and get to the bottom especially if you're following your manual vehicle you're going to be right up the back of him or her the whole way down because they are moving slower then you are we've pretty much covered everything that I can think of for automatic versus manual manual versus automatic whichever way you want to say it and in my personal opinion I think the automatic is the better choice when it comes to off-roading it's easier to drive it's safer to drive and it's better to drive in most situations off-road most general situations so what do I Drive a manual vehicle when I say that in my opinion an automatic is better well it's because I find the manual vehicle to be more fun more entertaining and keeps me aware offroad and for some reason I just don't like automatic vehicles even though I do go into a zone from time to time it just reminds me of how much I like the stick versus the automatic so what do you think what is your opinion which is better automatic or manual put them down below are there some things I haven't covered put them below - I would really like to hear from you and if you'd like to see some videos on gear selection there's one here and there's one here please do subscribe and if you like to support the creation of videos like this you can go to patreon.com/scishow

Channel: Ronny Dahl

Views: 1,911,271

Rating: 4.797451 out of 5

Keywords: Off-road, tracks, 4wheeling, adventure, 4x4-off-road, Manual vs Automatic, Manual vs Automatic Off-road, stick vs shift, stick vs auto, best gearbox for off-road, 4 wheeling gearbox, automatic off-road, manual off-road, off-road gearing, which is better auto or manual, automatic vs manual gearbox

Id: BE_NMaIL5IQ

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 21 2017