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That 6MT transmission: I really like it!

WreckEm711

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Backing in a camper up hill here. Easy Peazy. 4 low is your friend. Won’t hurt a thing as long as your not making big turns.
Finally had a need to do this when I backed my Jeep into the garage to change the Diff oil. Popped it into 4-low and and idled right up my steep driveway, thanks for the tip!!
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BuyHold

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I have both a 6 speed JK and a 2019 JL. The clutch is weird on the JL. I can't get a feel for it.

I have a 2021 6-sp Rubicon and the clutch feels really good to me. I believe that FCA made some changes to the clutch between 2019 and 2021 (not talking about the software update). Someone can set me straight if this is not the case.
 

OldGuyNewJeep

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BuyHold

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Thanks @OldGuyNewJeep. Appreciate the correction.

I still stand by the "feels good" part. Excluding my wife's vehicles which I guess I technically co-own, I only own and drive manual vehicles for my own personal use. The clutch in my '21 JL is great. Less tractor-like than my old TJ but more substantial feel than my older sedans.
 

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I haven't looked into this any further than getting the part numbers themselves...

If you do a parts search for a 2018-2020 JL/JT clutch you will find a Mopar part number of 68273845AC. (This part replaces: 68273845AA and 68273845AB)

If you do that same search for a 2021 JL/JT it will return 68273845AD.

Not sure what, if anything has changed but there seems to be a possible parts revision. Or nothing at all. 🤔

EDIT: Would the "D" mean 4th year of production? Now I'm not sure if it's a year designation in the part number or a revision designation number.
 
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omnitonic

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I have both a 6 speed JK and a 2019 JL. The clutch is weird on the JL. I can't get a feel for it. We changed to a rock crawler exhaust so we can hear revs better to compensate.
The JL shifter is much better than the JK. I just installed a B&M shifter in the JK and the JL is still better.
It needs 3.73 or lower gears with 33" tires.
If I had to do it again I'd get the auto.
Same here on getting a rock crawler in order to hear the thing. The tach is frequently out of my field of view. I wish you could put a tach display somewhere in the center.

Now that I've lived with it for three weeks, put 1500 miles on it, and thrashed it off-road, the thing I most want to change is the reverse. It's way too high, and it's hard to feather. It's much worse in 4 hi for some reason. You're running in dirt, you stop, you need to back up, and stall it three times. It's also hell backing into my driveway.

My old truck with a T-18, which is also an old Jeep transmission, is just so much easier to drive as far as this kind of stuff. It has a proper crawler gear. It has a good ratio in reverse. The clutch is normal. This Jeep lugs 1st, and you have to dick around shifting to 4 lo uphill on a section of trail that was lugging 1st.

You want to see me look like a moron though, you should have seen me take the T-18 on a trip after getting used to the Jeep. The clutch is normal, but it's also obnoxiously high, and stiff. The shifter feels like shit, even after I went through it and fabricated some new parts that dramatically improved it. The pedals are spread out over half a mile.

Then I got back in the Jeep. The gas, brakes and clutch all basically touching each other. I swear, I think I hit all three with the same foot.

I'm not sure whether the monkey or the football took the day, but it was not a nice thing to witness.

All the same, I don't think I would choose the automatic if I had it all to do again. It's quirky, occasionally obnoxious, but I really like it.
 

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Same here on getting a rock crawler in order to hear the thing. The tach is frequently out of my field of view. I wish you could put a tach display somewhere in the center.

Now that I've lived with it for three weeks, put 1500 miles on it, and thrashed it off-road, the thing I most want to change is the reverse. It's way too high, and it's hard to feather. It's much worse in 4 hi for some reason. You're running in dirt, you stop, you need to back up, and stall it three times. It's also hell backing into my driveway.

My old truck with a T-18, which is also an old Jeep transmission, is just so much easier to drive as far as this kind of stuff. It has a proper crawler gear. It has a good ratio in reverse. The clutch is normal. This Jeep lugs 1st, and you have to dick around shifting to 4 lo uphill on a section of trail that was lugging 1st.

You want to see me look like a moron though, you should have seen me take the T-18 on a trip after getting used to the Jeep. The clutch is normal, but it's also obnoxiously high, and stiff. The shifter feels like shit, even after I went through it and fabricated some new parts that dramatically improved it. The pedals are spread out over half a mile.

Then I got back in the Jeep. The gas, brakes and clutch all basically touching each other. I swear, I think I hit all three with the same foot.

I'm not sure whether the monkey or the football took the day, but it was not a nice thing to witness.

All the same, I don't think I would choose the automatic if I had it all to do again. It's quirky, occasionally obnoxious, but I really like it.
That’s too funny Michael, you reminded me of my days in the 80’s. I drove 18 wheelers for 6 years before changing my career.
At the end of the day after pushing those heavy mechanical clutches I’d get in my manual sports cars and without thinking expect the same hard clutch. I would chuckle how my muscle memory was used to putting x amount of pressure to press that clutch, I would put so much pressure in the car that the clutch would fly down like I was trying to push the pedal through the floor. Lol. I would adjust to the car pretty quick though.
 

omnitonic

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At the end of the day after pushing those heavy mechanical clutches I’d get in my manual sports cars and without thinking expect the same hard clutch. I would chuckle how my muscle memory was used to putting x amount of pressure to press that clutch, I would put so much pressure in the car that the clutch would fly down like I was trying to push the pedal through the floor. Lol. I would adjust to the car pretty quick though.
Speaking of 18-wheelers, everybody started going over to automatics about 10 years ago, and you should have seen me when I decided to take the last Super 10 on the yard for a spin one day. The clutch was the least of my problems.

The thing about the Jeep that still screws with my head after three weeks is that it basically has car gears. I never actually drove a car with a manual in all these years. Always pickup trucks or bigger. The JL does NOT shift like an old pickup truck!
 

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Thanks @OldGuyNewJeep. Appreciate the correction.

I still stand by the "feels good" part. Excluding my wife's vehicles which I guess I technically co-own, I only own and drive manual vehicles for my own personal use. The clutch in my '21 JL is great. Less tractor-like than my old TJ but more substantial feel than my older sedans.
100% agree. Mine is three years old, now, and clutch has felt perfect from day one. I got one of the first 2dr manual JLs that were ever produced.

Is it like driving a Miata? No. Thank goodness for that, too… I bought a Jeep! That said, it is much more refined than the JK.
 

OldGuyNewJeep

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the thing I most want to change is the reverse. It's way too high, and it's hard to feather.
Yes. Even worse if you are towing and need reverse. A viable workaround is 4lo, provided you’re not in a hurry…
 

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Mikester86

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Love mine. I'm regeared to 4.88's and no complaints. I will say though, I don't get the fascination with a dead pedal. (both from the MT and AT people). Like, where do you put your foot? The dead pedal gets in the way of where I want my foot to be. Had a loaner vehicle recently that had one (not a Wrangler) and it drove me nuts.

An auto would certainly be more convenient for on-road driving, but I have to have a manual for off-roading. It is such an advantage off-road. (At least rock crawling)
Manual an advantage for rock crawling? This is the first time I have ever heard this uttered. The auto transmission's advantages outweigh the manual's in the rock all day, every day and twice on Sunday. There is a reason pro crawlers use auto's.
 

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Manual an advantage for rock crawling? This is the first time I have ever heard this uttered. The auto transmission's advantages outweigh the manual's in the rock all day, every day and twice on Sunday. There is a reason pro crawlers use auto's.
I fully recognize I'm in the minority in my opinion. I also am not a professional rock crawler. I do rock crawl a lot however.

I feel it is a tremendous safety advantage offroad. I will admit that many of the reasons why I prefer a manual offroad is due to me being more comfortable with a manual than with an auto in that environment. While I have wheeled in auto's, 90% of my wheeling has been with a manual. Rock crawling full time with an automatic would almost require a rewrite of my brain. (unless we're just talking dirt roads, I'm talking big obstacles)

One great example of why I prefer a manual is because I do a lot of obstacles where the front end is raised so high in the air that things get uncomfortable. When I am attempting to clear the obstacle, if things start to feel too tippy, or I otherwise feel the need to abort, simply clutch-in and the vehicle (thanks to gravity) easily rolls back to safety. With an auto you have to quickly shift to neutral/reverse which is a far more tricky maneuver. I'm sure we've all seen videos of people rolling over backwards because they couldn't get into neutral/reverse fast enough. Those are the situations I'm describing.

I also prefer a manual for the built-in cruise control. Yes I said cruise control. You can put it in 1st gear and put along. Put it in 2nd gear and go a little faster. Put it in 3 or 4th, etc. Basically select a gear that matches the speed you are looking for. Don't even need to use the gas pedal for many sections of trail. The times I've been in 4 low with automatics I felt like I was pushing the gas pedal all day. Sure there are electronic systems available these days that can assist with this, or you can manually shift gears. I'm not trying to argue that only manual's can off-road.

I'm just one person and entitled to my opinion. I 100% prefer a manual when rock crawling. I also 100% don't care if anyone agrees with me. I also prefer that the drivetrain fully locks up unlike the fluid coupling (or lack there of) that happens in a torque converter. (again, when rock crawling. Who cares about that on the highway)
 

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I fully recognize I'm in the minority in my opinion. I also am not a professional rock crawler. I do rock crawl a lot however.

I feel it is a tremendous safety advantage offroad. I will admit that many of the reasons why I prefer a manual offroad is due to me being more comfortable with a manual than with an auto in that environment. While I have wheeled in auto's, 90% of my wheeling has been with a manual. Rock crawling full time with an automatic would almost require a rewrite of my brain. (unless we're just talking dirt roads, I'm talking big obstacles)

One great example of why I prefer a manual is because I do a lot of obstacles where the front end is raised so high in the air that things get uncomfortable. When I am attempting to clear the obstacle, if things start to feel too tippy, or I otherwise feel the need to abort, simply clutch-in and the vehicle (thanks to gravity) easily rolls back to safety. With an auto you have to quickly shift to neutral/reverse which is a far more tricky maneuver. I'm sure we've all seen videos of people rolling over backwards because they couldn't get into neutral/reverse fast enough. Those are the situations I'm describing.

I also prefer a manual for the built-in cruise control. Yes I said cruise control. You can put it in 1st gear and put along. Put it in 2nd gear and go a little faster. Put it in 3 or 4th, etc. Basically select a gear that matches the speed you are looking for. Don't even need to use the gas pedal for many sections of trail. The times I've been in 4 low with automatics I felt like I was pushing the gas pedal all day. Sure there are electronic systems available these days that can assist with this, or you can manually shift gears. I'm not trying to argue that only manual's can off-road.

I'm just one person and entitled to my opinion. I 100% prefer a manual when rock crawling. I also 100% don't care if anyone agrees with me. I also prefer that the drivetrain fully locks up unlike the fluid coupling (or lack there of) that happens in a torque converter. (again, when rock crawling. Who cares about that on the highway)
You do you!
 
 



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