Wheeling... with a M/T

XJEEPER said:
2 feet, 2 pedals.

I agree. I have a 98 with the ax-15 and its a puzzle going off road with the damn thing. I've been debating on swapping in a 700r4(computerless) or something to make it easier, I have the hand throttle and e-brake tuned but no bueno, I miss my old 93 with the AW4.
:dunce:
 
lower gears...

running 5.13's and 33's wasnt low enough...

5.13's, tera4:1, 1st gear seems to be the ticket for me...

gears, gears, gears...

if you wheel a manual in the rocks, you need an aftermarket t-case gearset - your choices are teralow, nv241OR, atlas, Stak, d300 4:1, or some other booty fab gearbox... save up $2000 and just buy it
 
As previously mentioned, lower gears, axles & T-case. Hand throttle helps in a few ways. 1 when you need a third foot. 2 for me, my foot bounces a lot, so I drive a lot w/ the hand throttle.

Rob $.02
 
XJ_ranger said:
lower gears...

running 5.13's and 33's wasnt low enough...

5.13's, tera4:1, 1st gear seems to be the ticket for me...

gears, gears, gears...

if you wheel a manual in the rocks, you need an aftermarket t-case gearset - your choices are teralow, nv241OR, atlas, Stak, d300 4:1, or some other booty fab gearbox... save up $2000 and just buy it

I'm by no means a rock whore, I like the go-fast kinda stuff more, but I'd like to have a rig that I can do a wide variety of things in.
 
That's the great thing about a manual, is that you can gear it low & you have 10 gears to choose from.

Rob $.02
 
When I wheeled SWB CJ5's I had no choice but to go with a manuel and lower gears and a SBC/SM420 gear box/4.56 gears helped with the granny low first gear. I was OK with it but I'm much happier with the auto and will never switch back to a manual tranny for anything other than towing. I like the piece of mind and I'm really not that co-ordinated!

I'm amazed at how well, and how much better than me, some do with a manual and hats off to them.
 
lower geared tranfer case, right gears in the axles. and then practice offroad. manuels are just plan fun. i made a promise to myself to always have atleast one manuel vehicle at all times.
 
I was really rough when I first switched from an automatic to a manual offroad. I have gotten much smoother with it, and still have stock gears. When I am in rock gardens, I wish I still had an automatic though.
 
I ran lower gears for a while with my 5 speed, but decided to swap a AW4 in. After running the AW4 in Moab a few weeks ago I would never go back. I still like driving stick shift, just not on the rocks.
 
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any of you guys swearing by autos wanna trade your manual for my auto??? i'd rather have a manual and either stall it a few times a day, or have to replace the clutch every few years than fry another auto. i've had nothing but problems with my auto when offroad. i've replaced every single component in the system, and the stupid thing just keeps overheating and eating itself.

auto: electrics and other goofy parts in tranny, tranny lines, cooler, and more sensitive to contaminants

manual: gears and shift fork............................. that's it.


i will admit an auto is 1 less pedal to worry about offroad, but i'm not sure if that's worth a new tranny every time i do major rock crawls that are more than 10feet long.
 
scorpio_vette said:
any of you guys swearing by autos wanna trade your manual for my auto??? i'd rather have a manual and either stall it a few times a day, or have to replace the clutch every few years than fry another auto. i've had nothing but problems with my auto when offroad. i've replaced every single component in the system, and the stupid thing just keeps overheating and eating itself.

auto: electrics and other goofy parts in tranny, tranny lines, cooler, and more sensitive to contaminants

manual: gears and shift fork............................. that's it.


i will admit an auto is 1 less pedal to worry about offroad, but i'm not sure if that's worth a new tranny every time i do major rock crawls that are more than 10feet long.

I know you have been through everything in your trans over and over but something is fucked up. I wheel with 5 other XJs all of which have the original transmisions in them. Mine has 211K with a stroker and I am semi heavy on the skinny pedal, VERY heavy when on the road lol. Another has 245K 33s and stock gears, he beats it like it owes him money, the fluid looks like tar and it still works just fine, he did get it so hot that it stopped shifting once but a cooler has fixed that. The others I wheel with all have over 150K and all have the original trans. I even towed a friends dead XJ out of one of the local wheeling spots with mine, about 3 miles or so through some pretty bad terrain and my puny stock trans cooler was hardly warm.

EDIT, OK one of my friends did Kill an AW4 I forgot about this one. It was an 89 XJ Waggy that had been parked for 4 years. He bought it for $200 got it running, put gears, lockers, lift, tires etc on it. He never drove it farther than 1 mile to the gas station and we took it wheeling for the test drive lol. The trans did take a shit on that one, his driving style coupled with not letting off when it slipped the first time all lead to this.
 
yeah that's what i don't understand neither. i see auto jeeps wheeling all the time. but mine hates me. EVERYTHING in it is new, and i'm even running an 19,000GVW stand alone cooler on it, and it still hates me.

i don't know. i grew up on manuals, and know how to handle a manual all day long. these auto's are just way more headache to me than it's worth.

but that's just my opinion.
 
Auto's FTW offroad.

The only problems I have encountered, is when you are "rocking" the Jeep from Drive to Reverse. If you keep your foot on the gas, it really shock loads the drivetrain HARD. Seen a few D30 Ring and Pinions get voted off the island for that one.
 
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to anyone not wanted a manual i'll trade ya my auto tranny for ur manual :p I miss wheeling with a stick. First time I wheeled it my clutch foot was shook up. After a bit of regearing it was awesome. i miss driving a stick on the road too... guess i'm weird in the fact I like controlling it :p
 
scorpio_vette said:
yeah that's what i don't understand neither. i see auto jeeps wheeling all the time. but mine hates me. EVERYTHING in it is new, and i'm even running an 19,000GVW stand alone cooler on it, and it still hates me.

i don't know. i grew up on manuals, and know how to handle a manual all day long. these auto's are just way more headache to me than it's worth.

but that's just my opinion.

I don't like the idea of a standalone cooler, might be ok in the warmer months but in the winter its a bad call IMO. Running it through the rad might help keep it down, it doesn't need to be cold it just doesn't need to be super hot. The fluid/fluid property of the rad unit might help bring the temps down to engine temp quicker than the standalone unit.
 
actually i dropped the temps almost 50degrees after bypassing the rad. and that was AFTER replacing the rad with a brand new upgraded rad.

I think my tranny just hates me. if anything i'm hoping that with winter coming, it'll force the tranny temps down into submission.

my tranny was actually getting so hot it was actually raising my engine temp when i had it going through the rad. at least now my engine temps are nice again. i'm also just ordered a new set of gears to help take more load of the tranny, and hopefully lower the temps some more.
 
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