My wife and I are looking at getting 2005-2012 Xterra as a third car. It will be used for light towing, carrying bikes and getting around in the winter. I read on an Xterra forum that towing with a manual tranny is a bad idea. Is that true?
Thoughts and input welcomed. Thanks.
I would guess people say that because it's easy to fry a clutch starting off, and tow ratings are typically lower with the manual. That's a whole different thread about legal vs actual tow ratings though.
I towed a 1500 lb trailer with my manual, 4 cyl 2005 Ford Ranger. It did it, but starting off would have been a lot easier with a torque converter - especially on hills.
My only input is that I have a neighbor with a Frontier of a similar vintage that he towed a boat with a lot. His driveway is a pretty steep hill and apparently pushing the boat up the hill and into the garage helped him to burn the clutch out in pretty short order. It doesn't seem to give him any troubles on the new clutch now that he has a winch mounted in the garage to pull the boat up the driveway.
My understanding is the automatics are often rated with a higher towing capacity because of the added cooling for the transmission. Towing with a manual transmission shouldn't be any worse than towing with an automatic. I towed with a Maxima SE 5spd for several years until we upgraded the trailer and needed more towing capacity than the 1000lbs rating of the car.
Thanks for the input! The manual felt like poo anyway:-)
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