I just sold my 98 Dodge quad cab, 318 with 5 speed manual, and am looking for a newer truck. I have found a 2WD 2008 four door 1500 with a six speed manual. The truck is listed at a great price and is well equipped.

All the local trucks I have looked at have the auto transmissions, so I will have to drive 2 hours to look at the truck. I much prefer the manual. We live in the mountains, and towing with a manual is just easier for me.

Anyone have real world info on the 4.7 with a six speed manual? Looking for info on mpg, towing performance and just how they like the six speed manual.

Many thanks for any input,

Shane

 

From what I have seen a manual 4.7 gets about 2 mpg more than my dogamatic. My factory sticker said 14 and 19. You will have to search deep and wide for a stick shift. My son-in-law sold my truck to me, and it seems Dodge only made 10% of the 06-08 line in stick shifts. Not sure who doctored the market research there...
If 3 grand starts burning a hole in my pocket, that's what I am getting...

 

towing is easier with a manual? i agree, but towing with the 4.7L aint gonna be so easy. go find a hemi if you do any serious towing at all. then again to find a manual tranny with the hemi you're gonna have to get a 2500.

 

Dogmatic, is true, I will never own a dodge with a pos transmisson, THe 4.7 with a manual is a great combo for a light duty truck, as for towing, its not so much cubic in ( more is allways better ) but rear end gear ratios, with 410 you will tow better than a 373, all thow I'm happy with my 373 in my 2500 hemi

Now finding a 2500 hemi with a 6speed is gonna be next to impssible, I had to factery order mine and now Dodge has pissed me off by not building gas engines with manual transmssions.

AS for twoing, I prefer a manaul, but a automatic has a advantage when moving forward or backing up slowly, a torque converter is more forgiving than a clutch, but a 6sp 1 st gear is really low, you can crawl and tow your your house!!!

 

The 08 4.7's are rated at 300 hp, which is up by about 70 hp over the previous 4.7's. I wish the Hemi's in the 1500 came with a manual, really don't need a 2500 series truck.

Shane

 

How much of a load do you normally tow? Id imagine that if you're not pulling a huge car-hauler or something, you would be alright. With that "new" 4.7 with the 6-spd behind it, and a decent gear-swap, you should be able to pull quite a bit comfortably....

 

My two cents is if Dodge had put the SRT 6spd behind the hemi they would have absolutely owned the world. Also would have taken a lot of wind out from under the SRT V10. But man that would have been a fun ride....

 

I agree Red, and probably coulda boasted a couple more mpgs to boot, as far as advertising goes anyways.

 

My boat has a trailered weight of about 3000 pounds. My old 318 5spd towed it fine. Anyone know how fast reverse is geared? In my old truck, reverse was REALLY fast.

Shane

 

I had to order my truck in dec of 04 to get it by feb of 05. I now have 142,000 on it and when our 74 international dump died, I hauled it on my tilt bed trailer to the scrap yard. 7,000 lb truck loaded with tools, 2,800 lb homemade steel tilt trailer, and a 9,000 lb International loadstar 1600 minus the bed you do the math. Take it easy and it will pull whatever you want. Yes, I scaled over 19,000 lb say what you want but it happened. And reverse is slightly faster than 1st. I average about 11.5 mpg, But my truck is always loaded. New axle 3 weeks ago.