I agree with D-Rat here...Crawl ratio is everything in the rocks. And Nissan's by default don't have a crawl ratio of anything....

Anybody who has ever seen me drive knows that I go slow. 4low and barely touching teh gas. When climbing a rock ledge, I don't stop at the base, I idle up to it, then just blip the throttle to keep moveing and walk on up. This is with a manual tranny. No clutch until I need to stop or lose traction.

I guess what we're saying is that on a perfectly equipped vehicle, starting and stopping without ever touching the clutch is great, but with our Nisssan's it's not always possible.

I also agree that a lot of offroad drivers need some education on the proper techniques. I'm glad you had fun and enjoyed your class.

Cliff