If the bill was 10K all at once that would've been a no brainer. The
Getrag blew on that truck at 40Kmi and my father had to hunt down parts to fix
it. He found some but at 80Kmi it blew again (the Getrags were famous for
this) and he couldn't find parts to fix it again (they were so famous for it
that there were no spare parts left for the tranny in the US). He was forced
to have his truck retro-fitted to accept a used NV4500/3500. By this time the
truck had seen nearly a dozen transmission specialists and all of them said
the same thing, "Dodge selects terrible transmission partners". He figured
he'd have to take his chances on an NV4500. The truck was still fairly young,
less than 100K and worth about $20,000 so spending 5K on a used tranny
retrofit seemed a reasonable gamble: assuming the tranny held up. Later on he
ran into the guy that had over 600Kmi on his Getrag after he learned to put
Mobil 1 gear oil in it instead of the Dodge recommended 10W-30 engine oil. Oh
well, too late to go back to the Getrag.
He then proceded to find every flaw of the NV4500/3500 tranny when he
started hauling heavy loads with it. This particular course nickled and dimed
him up to past the 10K mark where it now sits. So if he was psychic, yes
dumping the truck would've been the way to go, and he's been biding his time
until the 6 speed hits. He may just buy a new truck, but his current one
isn't worth much with all it's been through and is paid off so it's got more
value than a new truck can return. The best truck on the market for hauling
now is definitely the FORD (the one that LOOKS like a Dodge) due to the better
tranny. GM's pickup trucks have ALWAYS sucked for this heavy application and
they don't even try for it. They try to push thier users to the commercial
truck market, not the pickup market. My dad comments that 3 years ago he used
to see a Dodge for every Ford doing that kind of work. Now it's nearly all
Ford's as the heavy haulers started abandoning their Dodge's for a truck with
a more reliable transmission.
Shaun H.
(You guys would love to see what a Cummins can do to a transmission mainshaft.
He has one that's snapped like a twig. Gotta love that motor.)
---original message---
I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but with $10k+ bills why not sell the
truck? :-) I take it Ford and Chevys aren't much better in this arena
either eh?
- -Chris
darkangel@map.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:11:24 EDT