AW4s hold up longer from my experience.

 

Brakes:

Dual diaphragm brake booster upgrade to any Single diaphragm Jeep makes an AMAZING difference. Full size brakes help too but that won't happen without an axle swap. The swap to rear discs seemed to help a bit too.

Auto/manual:

While I'd love to have a manual transmission in the Jeep that I DD I prefer the auto in the crawler. No real reason for it. I just like the auto. Manuals are fun in the rocks too I'm just lazy.

 

I use left foot on clutch, right heel for brake, right toe for gas.

 

a lot of this logic is dumb. really. lol.

i have seen numerous times, drivers with stick over clutching, revving high only to stall it on an obstacle. reason i said, if you have good clutch control.
most times you don't even need to touch the gas at all. but 99% of stick drivers are all the same. i bet most that have commented in this thread are also.

i wheel both a stick and an auto, i have very good control with a stick, so it doesn't matter to me what i drive, but as i said, most don't have that finesse with a clutch.

look at most KOH rock buggies....

 

I have not geared it correctly yet. That's why I'm giving it juice. I see what you are saying.. Stick or auto it all comes down to the driver.

 

I don't see why everybody's trying to brake in an auto down a steep hill, drop it into the 1-2 and let it roll, it won't roll more than about 5mph and it won't shift till almost 5000 RPM, engine braking in an auto is possible

 

full manual valve body 4L80s (which is pretty much the auto you'll find in a ultra4 rig running a LSx motor) arent really a fair thing to compare to AW4s.

 

difference between auto and stick

auto: My girl can drive it
stick: I can be a man

(granted there are some BA women who can handle a manual on the trails)

 

What you drive doesn't make you a man.

 

True...How you drive it does

 

LOL, obviously your definition of a hill is different than mine.

 

I haven't went wheeling too much. Everytime I have gone, I've had to go down a steep grade when leaving. (The only way in/out) I always put trans in 1-2 tcase in 4lo and let the engine brake me down the hill. Its hard to leave your foot off the brake but it always takes me down nice and slow.

 

My buddys cj5 when he is in first he cant use two feet on the brakes and it will idle through it.

 

In my experience with auto you can wheel with more comfort. Not on seat edge hoping you dont stall or roll back into that rut you just spent ten min trying to get out of.

 

hand throttle ftw!