Well. I gave my reasons for wanting to swap out the transmissions. I think.
Either way, decision was made to start trading our Ford and GMC fleet trucks off in the spring for Nissan Frontiers with manual transmissions.
I know Ford reps will read TRS every now and then, so just in case they see this thread: if Ford offered a new manual trans Ranger, I'd happily replace the aging trucks in my fleet with new Rangers. Would have bought one for myself as well. Due to no manual option existing, all of our future feet trucks will be Nissan.
JIC I didn't state my reasons for asking about the swap, it's because I personally prefer them (see below), and because for fleet truck purposes I'd rather replace a manual transmission in a Frontier than in one of our Mercedes powered Sterlings/Internationals.
All of our heavy trucks in the fleet have six speed synchronized Eaton Fullers in them, and are $30,000+ each to replace (actual cost I witnessed when a former co-worker blew one years ago was $35k). For that price, I could buy an entire Frontier, let alone a trans.
As for my preference, my hatred of automatics (and GMC) happened on the same morning while on a icy mountain road in WV.
While climbing a lease road into a well site, the stabilitrack system kicked in on my 2013 GMC 2500HD. Due to (whatever), stabilitrack then proceeded to freak the **** out, the truck lost all traction, and then slid backwards down the road. Tried to compensate and get grip again, but thanks to an electronic throttle body, I was locked out of the throttle when stabilitrack lost its sh*t. The deckover I was towing slid off the side of the mountain, and took my pickup with it.
I wound up sitting perched on a boulder that my front axle lodged against for an hour and a half. Fortunately the client I was working for had a dozer out there, but still had to wait for it to pull me back off of the cliff.
Hour and a half in a snow storm teetering like a looney toon with my foot on the brake. Never again. No more autos.