[HBarlow]

I don't know about the 6.4 and certainly not about the new in-house Ferd V8 diesel but I drove a manual six speed Ferd 6.0 not long after the 6.0 engine was introduced. It was a MY 2003 in late 2002. It was a gutless wonder.

I was accustomed to letting the clutch out then throttling up on my '01 Ram six speed with 3.54 gears, unloaded or unloaded. Everytime I let the clutch out on the Ferd I stalled the engine. The 6.0 produced NO TORQUE at idle and the only way to launch it, unloaded, was to rev the engine and slip the clutch like a small block gas V8. It would have been absolutely useless with a heavy trailer behind. The worthless 6.0 couldn't be driven with a trailer behind without an automatic transmission with a loose torque convertor.

No low rpm torque is the reason manual transmissions are not offered with V8 diesel engines.