Just looking for opinions on the automatic

 

Absolutely the way to go. If you can get one.

 

I love mine.

 

I have a 91 automatic, as far as I understand it will be the same. (with V6). From my experience it works very well and for a lot of miles. But I HAD to add aftermarket oil cooler, it runs very hot when the torque converter is unlocked....

The current one I have has about 170k miles, put cheap non synthetic oil in there just like manual says and it's great.

 

Since I got my auto I've always planned on swapping a manual into it, read many, many threads on it. Even went and looked at a couple transmissions, but in the last month or so, it's slowly sinking into my brain that having the auto is actually pretty nice, especially in stop and go commuting traffic. My biggest issue is I don't know a lot about auto transmissions, which I need to remedy with reading/research.

I don't know if any of that's helpful, but that's where I'm at.

 

With the manual setup there seems to be more options for skid plates, crossmembers gear reduction and so on.

But what you gain when offroading is smooth power delivery to the wheels. This makes for a less jerky ride

 

Although my truck is a 2 Wheel Drive (different transmission), I love my automatic transmission!

I did a similar thing as 5 Fists above, because I love driving manual transmissions. I researched manual transmissions to swap, I started a thread here about swapping out my automatic to a manual, and even started buying parts to do the swap. In the end however, I also found that my automatic is much more enjoyable in day to day traffic.

I will eventually build a "weekend adventure" truck that will be a manual, but for everyday driving, I enjoy the automatic.

These Toyota automatic transmissions were well made, and can last quite a while when taken care of.

A little word of caution (I am surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet). These transmissions were designed several decades ago, and thus are not as efficient as modern day automatics. This means that these automatics take a decent amount of power from the engine over the manual counterparts. Also, for more intense driving (daily driving vs.off roading and rock crawling), you will want more cooling capacity for the transmission fluid so the transmission will stay nice and cool.

As with any used car, the condition of the transmission is important to consider from a reliability standpoint. Even the best made transmissions when neglected can give you problems.

As long as you are fine with less power, you will probably be happy with the automatic transmission.

Out of curiosity, what is your intended use for the truck? Daily driver? Overland vehicle? Rock Crawler? Restoration project?

 

I guess a modern manual tranny is not that terrible in traffic. My daily driver is an Audi A4 manual and I drive on the notorious 405 over sepulveda pass to get to work and back. With the exception of some massive accident causing traffic to be mostly stopped, it's not a huge bother. For about 1 hr of my drive I am in 1st gear crawling forward and I try not to change gears and keep my distance and so on. It works it's not terrible. WIth a heavy clutch or a difficult tranny maybe that would be less pleasant. Driving a manual car is so much more pleasant to me in general.