I might have to sell the Ranger

[runner69]

after putting almost 400K on my 94 Ranger, with a 5 speed, and many of them off road I will never go back to a stick for anything I plan to go off road with. Now a Mustang hell yes I would get a stick

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[Nellieg]

Had a 5 speed in a v6 countour... Got a ticket at 90mph slowing down ... Car didnt look fast but decent engine manual transmission and small car... Had two requirements for my boys to drive... Parallel park a 93caprice wagon and drive a stick... I got no end of complaining i was being abusive and excessive... Years later they appreciated being pushed for their skills. Making the kids drive stick cuts down on other kids dui in your vehicle.

 

[caprtaineddie]

One of the golden rules in our family is that if you wanted to get your driver's license you had to be proficient in driving a stick, no ifs and or buts. My 2 brothers and I also had to know how to change a flat prior to getting a license.
Who remembers bumper jacks???

I also had to learn how to drive a three on the tree. We had a 1952 pickup with a flat-head motor. My dad pointed to the truck when I was about 11 or 12 and said "there's the truck. Go learn how to drive it!" I put hundreds of miles on that thing driving through all the old logging roads on our property.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I also had to learn how to drive a three on the tree. We had a 1952 pickup with a flat-head motor. My dad pointed to the truck when I was about 11 or 12 and said "there's the truck. Go learn how to drive it!" I put hundreds of miles on that thing driving through all the old logging roads on our property.

Hi Eddie,

Great story! Mine is my mom. We were in Germany when I was a preteen as Dad was in the Air Force. Mom told me that I had to learn to drive our Ford Taunus 4 on the tree as she said, If I learn how to drive a stick, then I can drive anything. So I learned to drive on the mountain road around Trier Germany where we lived at the time. So when my shithead brother came came of age, I taught him to drive a stick. He whined that this was useless but he learned...not smooth, but he is my shithead brother. So he ventures out on his own and gets into a situation where this dump truck was rolling back or folks in a ditch and he jumps into the cab only to find a clutch pedal, and he was able to pull the dump truck out of its backward slide which would have killed a few folks. So shit head brother, for the first and last time in his life, thanked me for teaching him to use a clutch.

I had one of 300 Aerostar Bus vehicles with a stick for one of my Ford Executive Vehicles. The Aerostar was a great vehicle for Heal and Toe...Ford cancelled the option and I moved on to a Ranger stick for my daily driver. Ranger was a great heal and toe vehicle as well. I miss this with my 2019 as I may get too out of practice to heal and toe again. My neighbor has just built a 427 Cobra kit car and wants me to teach him how to heal and toe... so maybe able to keep up the old racer in me " In tune" for a bit longer.... Sigh!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retire

 

[r1ch999999]

Hi Eddie,

Great story! Mine is my mom. We were in Germany when I was a preteen as Dad was in the Air Force. Mom told me that I had to learn to drive our Ford Taunus 4 on the tree as she said, If I learn how to drive a stick, then I can drive anything. So I learned to drive on the mountain road around Trier Germany where we lived at the time. So when my shithead brother came came of age, I taught him to drive a stick. He whined that this was useless but he learned...not smooth, but he is my shithead brother. So he ventures out on his own and gets into a situation where this dump truck was rolling back or folks in a ditch and he jumps into the cab only to find a clutch pedal, and he was able to pull the dump truck out of its backward slide which would have killed a few folks. So shit head brother, for the first and last time in his life, thanked me for teaching him to use a clutch.

I had one of 300 Aerostar Bus vehicles with a stick for one of my Ford Executive Vehicles. The Aerostar was a great vehicle for Heal and Toe...Ford cancelled the option and I moved on to a Ranger stick for my daily driver. Ranger was a great heal and toe vehicle as well. I miss this with my 2019 as I may get too out of practice to heal and toe again. My neighbor has just built a 427 Cobra kit car and wants me to teach him how to heal and toe... so maybe able to keep up the old racer in me " In tune" for a bit longer.... Sigh!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retire

Phil, this is my first RBV without a clutch. I may give it up for a Bronco if my wife doesn’t kill me over it.

 

[SN13]

Man that's a serious package on the Bronco... But, considering the upcharges for 4x4 and offroad lockers etc. If the fully loaded version is under $60k i'll be shocked.

Not worth the $30k upcharge for me.

 

[egilbe]

Phil, this is my first RBV without a clutch. I may give it up for a Bronco if my wife doesn’t kill me over it.

What's an RBV?

You know what I hate switching from a standard to an Automatic transmission? The adjustment period where you want to shift and smash your left foot on the brake pedal and my right hand flails in space looking for the shift lever.

 

[Deleted member 1634]

You know what I hate switching from a standard to an Automatic transmission? The adjustment period where you want to shift and smash your left foot on the brake pedal and my right hand flails in space looking for the shift lever.

Did that at first plenty of times too, coming from a manual Subaru. Makes it even more confusing that the shifter for the automatic is also in the same basic spot as a manual shift lever. To this day, I still reach over and put my hand on the shift lever when pulling up to a stoplight. haha

 

[r1ch999999]

What's an RBV?

Ranger Based Vehicle
Ranger/Bronco II/Explorer/Sport Trac etc. obviously newer explorers and sport tracks don’t count.

 

[egilbe]

Ranger Based Vehicle
Ranger/Bronco II/Explorer/Sport Trac etc. obviously newer explorers and sport tracks don’t count.

gotcha.

I was looking on facebook marketplace for older rangers and bronco II's, recently. Can be had dirt cheap. Around here though, they are usually rust buckets. My 87 Ranger was tboned at an intersection by a young kid driving down the breakdown lane, passing a line of traffic stopped at a stop sign. A car stopped to let me through the line, and the kid, I never saw, hit me. The door that was replaced, was the first part to rust out after I sold it to my father. He sold it to a friend of mine, who fixed it up again, but left the bullet holes my father's friend put in the bed trying to shoot at a doe in my father's yard. He used the bed as a rifle rest. The yard sloped downhill a bit and the scope was filled with deer, but the barrel was shooting just below the lip of the bed. He was just as shocked as the rest of us that the deer didn't drop. When we realized what happened, we had a good laugh at his expense.

 

[BDoc]

What's an RBV?

You know what I hate switching from a standard to an Automatic transmission? The adjustment period where you want to shift and smash your left foot on the brake pedal and my right hand flails in space looking for the shift lever.

I had to laugh at this because I remember it happening to me in my dad's '79 F-150. I was 17 or 18 and had driven nothing but manual transmissions. We were leaving my grandmother's house and dad told me to drive his truck home and he'd ride home with mom...I went to slow down, put my foot on the clutch and downshift just like I normally did - only to "miss" the clutch and flail at the air where the stick was "supposed" to be. I must have looked stupid as hell...thankfully I was by myself.

Would love to have a new Bronco with a manual...I miss manual transmissions.

See what I did there.

 

[Apples]

Personal opinion.

Why would anyone want a manual tranny these days? Perhaps a perceived advantage? Or, I've always had one? If you think it is being pansy driving a 10 speed automatic, then maybe you don't know how to get the best out of it. You think?

Every Gen 5 Ranger has a Sports mode built in. But if you're really in a hurry, push the trailer button while in Drive. As a result, the tranny goes through its gears sequentially! If you have the Performance mod installed (et. al), you'd best grab a hold of your shorts! Do everything correctly, and you can knock off well over 1.5 seconds to 60! Just remember: If you're driving on stock tires, best buy some stickier tires!

 

[egilbe]

Personal opinion.

Why would anyone want a manual tranny these days? Perhaps a perceived advantage? Or, I've always had one? If you think it is being pansy driving a 10 speed automatic, then maybe you don't know how to get the best out of it. You think?

Every Gen 5 Ranger has a Sports mode built in. But if you're really in a hurry, push the trailer button while in Drive. As a result, the tranny goes through its gears sequentially! If you have the Performance mod installed (et. al), you'd best grab a hold of your shorts! Do everything correctly, and you can knock off well over 1.5 seconds to 60! Just remember: If you're driving on stock tires, best buy some stickier tires!

More control with a standard. In the snow, its a real advantage because its not constantly upshifting so you can put it in a gear that's comfortable and it stays there. Less power taking off in 2nd or 3rd in snow. Automatics keep creeping up in gear until you are going too fast for conditions.

 

[r1ch999999]

Personal opinion.

Why would anyone want a manual tranny these days? Perhaps a perceived advantage? Or, I've always had one? If you think it is being pansy driving a 10 speed automatic, then maybe you don't know how to get the best out of it. You think?

Every Gen 5 Ranger has a Sports mode built in. But if you're really in a hurry, push the trailer button while in Drive. As a result, the tranny goes through its gears sequentially! If you have the Performance mod installed (et. al), you'd best grab a hold of your shorts! Do everything correctly, and you can knock off well over 1.5 seconds to 60! Just remember: If you're driving on stock tires, best buy some stickier tires!

Sometimes it’s just more enjoyable to drive a manual transmission.

 

[Deleted member 1634]

Personal opinion.

Why would anyone want a manual tranny these days? Perhaps a perceived advantage? Or, I've always had one? If you think it is being pansy driving a 10 speed automatic, then maybe you don't know how to get the best out of it. You think?

Every Gen 5 Ranger has a Sports mode built in. But if you're really in a hurry, push the trailer button while in Drive. As a result, the tranny goes through its gears sequentially! If you have the Performance mod installed (et. al), you'd best grab a hold of your shorts! Do everything correctly, and you can knock off well over 1.5 seconds to 60! Just remember: If you're driving on stock tires, best buy some stickier tires!

Sure, you can push the little plus/minus button to manually change gears if you want, but the control of gears isn't necessarily the reason everyone gets a manual. For some people, myself included, manuals are just more fun. Some people like roller coasters or sky diving or rock crawling or whatever. And some people like manual transmissions.

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