Manual vs Auto Fuel Consumption Offroad

[D4Dforme Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4Dforme]

My 120D4D is manual and I"m also of the opinion that 1st gear is too high of a ratio for towing anything with some reasonable weight off of an incline.......When using mine to launch and retrieve the boat (1200kg) at the ramp I always change to L4 otherwise it's just doing it too hard IMO.....that's what L4 is there for.

The clutch in the 6 speed is dodgey as hell.........running the thrust bearing on an aluminium input shaft is just plain stupid.
a mate just recently had his 120D4D clutch fail at 80k and by the feel of mine now at 72k it's proberbly not far off failing aswell.

I think with my time again i'd go auto with the trans cooler fitted to be honest........I'm a bit disappointed with the high first gear ratio and the shithouse clutch/thrust bearing set up.

Dan

[Prone Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prone]

In the 95 series I used to have, first gear was lower than in the petrol version. Most of the time 1st was great, take off on a hill at idle with virtually no clutch slip. Then I got a camper trailer, probably about 1300Kg, I have a fairly steep bitumen hill nearby that I use for testing. I struggled to get started in 1st high with the van on the back, the smell that came shortly after told me the clutch was stressed in the hill start. I made a mental note to be careful in the future. I sold the 95 at 180K and got an auto 150. I went and tried the hill start with the van on it, took off happily and changed into 2nd almost as soon as I got moving.

Fuel consumption with the auto 150 diesel versus the manual 95 diesel, the 150 is about 1 to 2 l/100k better at the same speeds and roads. I guess that makes up for the smaller tank capacity. I used to travel between 90 and 100Kph on the open road, now I can travel at 100Kph and still do the same or better than I used to. I guess the D4D is mainly responsible for this improvement though. That being said I still miss the manual transmission, old habits take a while to forget.

Cheers
Prone