Hey thanks for the warm welcome guys!
Yeah, I was kind of figuring that the auto's were the quicker ones. Unfortunate since I really love rowing the gears myself.
I've been driving VW TDI's for almost 10 years now (all manuals) and just love them. I just love diesels in general. The whole sound, smell, vibration, etc. My dad is a commercial fisherman on the east coast and I grew up around boats and marine diesels. Most are big inline 6's, lots of Cummins. Both my uncles ran B59's in their boats, but that's actually a small engine these days. My dad seems to love John Deere's. His current engine is a 6.8L PowerTech (I6), makes 225hp. On the smaller side these days, but the fuel economy makes up for it. For a truck, he has a Chevy 1500 ext cab SB w/ 6.5TD and auto. Not a bad old truck, still rattling away somewhere in the 300k km's on the clock range.
I've just been finding more and more I keep needing a truck. Whether it's garden projects or moving furniture, it always keeps coming up that a lot of things really need a truck to do. My wife is not in disagreement thankfully!
My personal favorite for engines is by far the Cummins. Not that the others aren't good engines. My buddies with pickups all say don't go with a manual, but I'm just not a huge fan of autos. They don't really fit my driving style, but then maybe that's just because they're gassers.
I like to be able to stick the thing in a higher gear and let the engine pull. Load the thing up under boost and let it work. I find that most auto's when you do that automatically drop down and get the revs up. Definitely faster because it's up in the power band. I just don't like all the ruckus and shifting and can't see it helping the fuel economy much either. The other thing is being able to shift up when *I* want it to. Again, I like to load the things up on boost and make em pull. Get to 2200 or 2500 rpms, shift quick, get back on the boost, repeat. This is all from my TDI's, but others like to rev them out under lighter load to 3000 or so and then shift, more like a gasser. I just find I get better economy and acceleration keeping the rev's down and let the engine work.
So how are the trucks w/ auto's? Do they hold higher gears and keep the rev's down, or are they always downshifting as soon as you tip in a little on the go pedal?
How do most of you with manual's drive em? Shift early and step into it hard to get them on boost, or a light foot all the time?
How is the fuel economy manual vs. auto for just normal driving around?
Thanks,
-Gord