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I've owned and abused an 84 Jeep Grand Wagoneer with the 360cid V8 and an auto tranny, andI crrently own a 97 Nissan Hardbody with 4banger and 5spd. Having flogged them both, I still can't answer the question myself. They both have grat advantages over the other and they both can work very well off road. I'd say that the manual gets a bit tricky in a lot of places, but its easily overcome with a little "heel-and-toe" (sometimes it takes a lot). On steep hill desents the auto worksjust fine to slow the truck in low range, or at least it did in my Jeep, and keep in mind that this was the biggest jeep they ever made, totally stock, scraping the ends and t-case pretty often. The jeep was a beast, but loads of fun to take off road, even with the cheapes road tires that Sears would put on it. The auto did nothing but work well and free up my concentration to worry about the trail and what I was going to do about it.
I guess that My opinion is that automatics are great, maybe best, for folks who are just learning to get around off road. Manuals are better for the more (if only slightly) seasoned off roaders, but they don't nessessarily give anyone the upper hand in off roading prowess. I think that driver skill and equipment come into play and make the transmission a moot point.
P.S. You should move this over to the Frontier forum. This off road forum (while the right place for this tread) sees about as much us as my grandmothers liver.
Good question, I'm qurious to see the results.
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