The auto vs manual discussion has been around for a long time.
I’ll add my 2 cents.
I wheeled the heck out of my 1986 22RE Longbed automatic from 1986 to 1994. I went on every popular trail in CA, NM, AZ, Sonora Mexico, and the Glamis sand dunes.
I never felt I needed lower gears while in 4-wheel drive. The torque conversion was awesome. The control on a trail, and most of mine was rockcrawling, was incredible. It is a bullet-proof tranny. And, if I could have purchased the same transmission in my current 1986 - I would have.
Now… there is one place where it failed to work well. In 4-wheel drive, 4-low, climbing a steep hill, started in first gear, it shifted too soon into second and then the engine would bog and I’d lose forward momentum. The option was to hold it in first gear, but then I’d run out of RPMs. Or I could try to make the climb staying in 1st gear at 5,000 RPMs, then I ran out of torque.
At the time, back around ‘87 or ’88, I checked to see if there were options for the issue and I was told by a Toyota dealer there were none that they knew about.
Now.. fast forward when I got my 1985 short bed 22R 5-speed around 1995. THEN I needed lower gears and bought one of Marlin’s first Crawler t-cases!
As far as 4-wheeling, on any terrain, the automatic transmission would be my first choice and my preference.
Gnarls.
