Manual or Auto for off-roading

I couldn't tell you which is better off road, for me I just prefer driving manual on road, it's part of the driving fun for me.

If you haven't come across Ronny Dahl on Youtube, he's worth a watch.

I normally drive manual cars, but my Jimny is auto and I love it. Makes driving in heavy traffic so much more enjoyable. Good off-road too, gives you really fine control. It doesn't have much engine braking, but as it's a gen4 it's got hill descent, so not something I really miss.

My first 4 offroad vehicles were manual. My 5th was a jeep with an automatic. After my first Jeep auto, every subsequent 4WD I purchased I tried to get with an auto transmission. The reasons have been covered fairly well with the previous posts.

Cheers zukebob, that’s exactly the kind of feedback I was after. We too have always been biased towards manuals for other types of driving for the increased involvement and satisfaction.
When green-landing or mud plugging I can kind of see it is more a case engage the correct gear for the conditions ahead and drive through the problem at hand which an auto can easily cover?
No horror stories of auto transmissions overheating either so reliability seems ok.

I'm glad that my comment was helpful but you touched on what is a caveat in using an auto transmission off-road. Heat can be a killer of auto transmissions. It shouldn't be a problem if you act accordingly. I can give an unfortunate example from one of my fellow SJCP club members. I'm not sure exactly what happened but he lost his 4WD low range. He decided to continue in 4WD high range which caused his transmission to overheat........to the point of his ATF boiling out of the fill tube. Some people would argue that this is an example of weakness. It is really a matter of trying to force your car to do something that you shouldn't. I go back to my comment of acting accordingly.

I would always suggest that someone using an automatic add a transmission temperature gauge. If you see that the driving you do causes the heat to go higher than it should, add an external cooler. Doing these things should take care of any problems short of abuse.

In spite of this caveat, my personal opinion remains unchanged. For off-road use, my preference is an auto.

That is true 9f a manual too, if you dont know how to drive you will kill your car in very short order. I have learned the hard way that by not having any mechanical sympathy it is entirely possible to literally boil power steering fluid in the lines on a Subaru at exactly the same moment as the brake fluid boils just a you are leaving the back straight at Croft. No steering, no brakes and a tyre wall behind a gravel trap is a very edifying experience.