Just drove 1600 miles round trip last month to pick up an 06 with the manual tranny. Totally worth the effort. There were 6 in the country when I got mine, 5 of 'em were in the same state that I went to.

 

Manual vs. Auto just depends on what you're gonna do with the truck and how you like to drive. But, everybody KNOWS that real men row gears!


3 - 2 - 1 ....

 

It took me about 2 months to find my truck. I used the online inventory on Dodges site. Only searched within 50 miles of my house. Found 3-4 one was a Mega, one was a Larime, and the rest just did not have what I wanted or not the right color. I then jumped it up to 150 miles and went through each dealerships inventory. If they had a 6-spd Cummins, I would print the page (acually put to PDF) then kept searching. After about a few days of that. I got a list of 4 trucks. Two were Sports and the rest were SLTs. Luckily the Sports were Mineral Gray. But within a week, they were all sold. So I jumped on the one I have, and NEVER looked back. Also got Sirius radio installed for free . Drove 3 hours to get the truck. Good luck on your find. Takes lots of time to get what you want. I am glad I did not settle for something else!

 

I looked for nearly a year before I ordered mine, folks here in the Northeast have no use for a manual tranny, never mind a dually. Dealers told me they won't bring 'em in because most people can't even drive one. They just sit on the lot. Closest truck was 1500 miles and short a few options. Around here people laugh at my 'old fashioned tranny', then I tell them I ordered it that way.

Order what you want, you won't be sorry.

Scott

 

Life is funny, I got rid of my 05 NV5600 manual 6 speed for the same reason you want to get rid of your auto.

 

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

3nickel, It's a Canadian thing I think, Hard to light a smoke and pick up your Tim's drive-thru and drive a standard at the same time. If you had my auto you'd never want a standard. ATS stand alone controller and valve body are $2500 or so and you can shift with your steering wheel volume controls up or down with or with out lockup controlled by the middle button...Almost as good as Ferrari!!! ks

 

I went out looking for an auto. Although I never asked the dealer when I called if they had auto tranny's. But everyone I looked at had an auto tranny in it. I was shopping for a truck with certain options. Mine had to have the power seat. I am tall so the seat drops down lower. It's not a case of being lazy. I also wanted the infinity stereo system. But that was not going to be a deal breaker. So in th end I got alll the options I wanted. I even got the eletronic 4x4 shifter. I have no use for the motor except I was so please with my last one. So this truck is just a daily driver and the only heavy weight hauling it is doing is pulling my fat *** around.

 

But 6 speeds sound cool! And as an added bonus, if someone irks me, I wait til the next light, lug the motor, and voilia, all my troubles seem to disappear into a cloud of soot!

 

Before I bought my 03 I looked at 06's and there was almost an even number of auto's and six speeds. It seemed the more basic trucks were more likly to have the 6 speed while the big horn editions almost all had autos.

 

While shopping for the wife's new truck in '03 we found that on the Dodge lots the Manuals and Autos ran about 50/50. We tried to shop the competition, but we could not find a manual truck on the Ford or Chevy lots. Bruner Motors, a dealer in Stephenville that handles Dodge and Chevy both finally got a manual DuraMax in, but it was so far off from what we were looking at that we really coundn't compare. It was an extended cab 4X4 dually, and we were shopping 3/4 ton quad/crew cab 2WD trucks. It had come in for someones special order. The wife didn't get a good feeling about the durability of the transmission (ZF-6) if the engine had to be de-rated for the manual. The Ford dealers didn't even try to order the F250 with the ZF-6. They just tried to convince us that their auto was the cat's meow.
Told them No Thanks, we plan to WORK our trucks, not use them to putt around town.
Dry Creek

 

I looked at my '05 for three months! No one wanted a stick and I was drooling over it! My wife got tired of my temper tantrums and told me to go and try to make a deal. The dealer gave me more of a break because I brought it to his attention that I knew how long it had sat on the lot. I really couldn't understand why someone wouldn't buy it, it is an awsome truck and all mine!!! Ok, I have to go back to my padded cell now.

 

When I bought my dually the dealer had about 85-90 duallys on the lot. All but 4 of them had 6-speeds.

 

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner for the #1 reason to get a stick.

Tonight I did that before someone could pass me on the right and cut me off a 2 laner becoming 1 lane.

"You like doing that, don't you?" said the Mrs WHO I CAUGHT looking into her mirror to watch the show.

"Doing what?"

 

DING DING DING DING Not if you were on a highway. The nv56 tops out at about 80 or so. So if you were trying beat them out before constructon on a x-way. You would be cursing the 6 speed