Dancing Mustard wrote:If when towing heavy loads you enjoy the sensation of causing uneccesary wear to your gearbox, the warm fuzzy feeling you get from being grossly fuel-inefficient, and the joy of overheating your engine... then yes it's preferable to be using an automatic for towing. On the other hand, people who can actually drive use manuals for towing, but you feel free to suit yourself... we just want to see you happy. And after all, we all know that everybody who owns a car is a good driver; don't we?
I'm so glad that my pre-school has these Dorling Kindersly 'How Cars Work' books laying about, don't know how I'd learn anything without their handy-dandy pull-out cross-sections.
Now you run along and bathe in your ignorance of simple motoring mechanics Autoload, my 12 year old brain has a finger-painting class to attend.
Your information is poor on so many levels.
Grossly fuel inefficient? Son, when pulling a trailer, your fuel efficiency is naught anyways. Besides, most differences amount to only 1 or 2 MPG nowadays with today's 5 and 6 speed automatics. I would like to see you try to even back up a trailer. Of course I would expect you to be a pro at it because of all the wonderful reading you did about it.
Causing unnecessary wear to your gearbox? Take a look at some owner's manuals for newer vehicles. I guarantee that almost all of them will give a higher tow rating for the automatic than the stick for the same size engine. What do you think the reason for that is? Pulling heavy loads require more slip in your transmission than lighter loads. A torque converter in your automatic transmission can handle reasonable amounts of slip where as the same amount of slip causes a measurable amount of wear on the clutch of a manual transmission. Excessive shifting of an automatic is what causes overheating. Keeping the transmission in third gear reduces the frequent locking and unlocking of the Torque Converter thus reducing heat build up.
Now you run along and bathe in your ignorance of simple motoring mechanics Autoload. Well, I may not be able to swap out an engine or transmission by myself, but I can at least change alternators, do my brakes, tune ups, batteries, lights, etc. So I don't believe I am totally ignorant of "
motoring mechanics" as you like to put it.
You better get some books newer than the year you were born my boy.
Research and come back to me when you are educated.