I am looking into buying a 97 or newer jeep and give it a 6" lift and adding 35" tires. I will mostly be driving aspalt, some dirt roads, & hopefully mud bogging when possible. I was thinking an automatic truck but my buddy says I would have to chance all my gears in the truck or I would be sorry. He suggested I get a manual jeep so I don't have to change the gears and all. Can you guys give me any feed back from personal experience and whats you preference.  

oooohhhhhhh. we can go round on this for months..

experience say's it a personal preference. the only place the  standard is better is in deep water...ya see where I stand... lol  

But if I do the 6" lift on an automatic and add 35" wheels am I going to have to change my gears? Or will my jeep drive just fine with good speeds and takeoff for street and highway driving?  

My first Jeep had an Auto. My  97'TJ has a manual. I've had both and prefer the Manual. If you do end up with a Manual, one of the first upgrades needs to be a hand throttle.  

yep, manual or automatic, it will need gears.

theres a huge differnce in the old three speed auto's and the 03+ 42rle 4spd auto we have now. it's close to 3.1 in first not to mention the 6x's torque multiplication from the convertor and .69 locked in overdrive. properly geared, 5.13's with 35's the auto is all over everything with ease, no bucking rolling backwards or sliping a clutch and rolls down the hwy at 2200rpm @65mph.

the manual can use a little diferent gearing. 5th is .79-.73 depending on which trany ya have. the nsg370 6spd has a .83 OD ratio.

the three speed auto even more different.  

yep... now my brain hurts!!! I have alot to learn!  

what you're doing is, changing the gearing in the differentials to make everything work more efficiantly