I did a search and did not come up with a post covering this question. I am just curious...why does the A/T have a higher towing capacity than the M/T? In my owners manual it says the a/t can tow 5000lbs, and the m/t is only 3500lbs. Why is that? Does it have to do with the way they are geared?

Any info is appreciated.

Onemadfool

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2001 XE V6 4x4 5SPD Aztec Red AOL IM - mtg junkie
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Liability issues. Nissan underrates the MT's towing capacity so that it doesn't have to warranty smoked clutches owned by people who don't know how to tow.

In most cases *with proper technique*, a manual tranny can tow more than an auto.

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:wq!
Senior Member - Southeast Xterra Club
Tread Lightly!

In a round-about way, I guess you could say gearing is one factor.

The manual transmission has "hard" gears, with a fixed/known 1st gear. On the surface, comparing gear-ratios, it appears the auto tranny has poorer gearing...

But - the auto tranny has a torque convertor! Below the stall-speed, the fluid is in "shear", and the convertor performs a "torque-multiplying" function. American General and others specify a multiplier of 2x for this. So, rather than a first-gear of 2.5:1 (for example), the auto tranny's convertor makes this more like a 5:1 first gear. Significantly lower than the Xterra manual-tranny.

There are domestic truck manual transmissions with "granny" gears, featuring 5.6:1, 6:1 or even 7:1 first gears. It's rare that you can use these on the street, but towing or getting a heavy load moving is one great use for them.

In the case of the Xterra, I think it's simply the lower-effective-gearing offered by the automatic.

-GordP

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