I currently have a MkII octavia 1.9 TDI 4x4 with a Stage one Shark Map. The gearing in 1st and 2nd is noticeably aimed towards slow speed crawling, pulling away with a heavy trailer etc. The car has a 6 speed box where the 2wd are 5 speed so it is a completly different set up. 

 

Eventually I'll swap it for an Octavia 3 4x4 or a Superb and am wondering what the gearing is like on the manual boxes? Is it much different to a 2wd to make it a more useful towing tool or are the ratios similar to the 2wd model. 

The Low Gears on both will be very low ratio for low speed/high tractive effort. Whether they are the same ratios I am sure comparing the Brochures will tell you.

I was most interested in hearing from any one who had gone from a 4x4 MkII to A 4X4 MkIII who tows regularly. I can look at ratios alone but the engines have different torque characteristics too so that has to be considered which is hard unless you have driven both.

 

More and more cars have longer gears with big gaps between ratios now to chase economy and CO2 figures. They aren't geared to pull boats up beaches and climb 1:4 gradients at little more than walking speed with 1.5 tons on the back without slipping the clutch constantly. The old MKII I have is awesome for this sort of use.