- I have always preferred manuals and thought they have more advantages than disadvantages (also for offroad applications), but now having a big engine combined with trucks 5speed I'm not so sure anymore. Big transmission has a lot of rotating inertia and for gear change it takes time for synchros to equalize shaft speeds. If you want to shift quickly, you have to put a lot of force to shifter and it's still slow. I've heard that from '96 NV4500 has different synchros, maybe they got it a bit better... Sure, this tranny is made to last and reliability is more important than quick sporty gear change, but still I don't like the "truck's tranny feeling" when having over 300hp - it just doesn't fit... On the other side I have to say that reliability has really been great and maybe I have forgotten priorities when nothing have broke...
I've seen also some aftermarket synchros with bigger coefficient of friction, but I don't know how long would they last.