Hey everyone. I am looking to get a new clutch and am caught between the Southbend 3250 and 3600. Both are on sale now. Peter at SB recommended the 3250, but I am thinking of the 3600 possibly just for the extra insurance. Can you guys give some feed back on both? Pros/Cons?, Ease of shifting, drivabilty, wheel hop? Thanks

 

3250 and dont look back i think it was lloyd mills had a customer that held up to 1049 on spray with a 3250 ductile it slipped at 1049

danny

 

The 3250 has a diaphram pressure plate which will last longer for daily driving.The 3600 has a lever style pressure plate that really wasn't designed with every day driving in mind.

 

Sorry for the hijack, but I couldn't help wondering what a 3600 would be best suited for if not daily driving?

 

The 3600 has 4 levers on the pressure plate that take all the load of disengaging the clutch.Peter(Southbend) told me the repetitive depressing of the clutch that comes from daily driving or a better wording would be around town stop and go driving can lead to premature failure of one or more of the levers."Can" being the key word.There are probably many on here with many miles on the 3600 who have never had a problem.Its just something to keep in mind when deciding which clutch to get.

 

^^^^^^ Listen to the above.

If you're daily driving the truck, you want the 3250. That's what was recommended to me by SB, but I chose the 3850 just cause I thought it would be better...cause bigger is better, right?

Nope. The 3600 and 3850s are geared toward pulling. The finger design pressure plate will fail with repeated cycling. Mine did at around 30k miles.

I'm now running the 3250 with diaphragm plate design and couldn't be happier.

Jump in on the great pricing now, and don't look back...

--Eric

 

3250 is what I ordered as well for a daily driving/play rig.

 

I believe you can get the 3600 now in the diaphram style now.

 

Hintz, believe you are correct. The SB DD, I installed right after Peter came out with the 3250 ductile flywheel type (year ago) had a diaphragm style plate. After the install the pedal pressure was notably more than stock. Concern that something was wrong since everyone was saying the diaphragm DD pedal pressure was like stock, I talked to SB and tried a number of things they asked, and the end result was it must be one of the very first 3600 DD, ductile units. Other then the pedal pressure, the unit operates great. It really holds, no problem there. Sometimes, need to slip into 5th before reverse to stop the spin. The float plate appears to apply a little drag (very little) on the front disk to allow the shaft to spin and make it hard to engage reverse at times.

 

I would get the 3250 for driving.I had the 3600 in my 01 ,It sucked for every day driving,just my opinion

 

Why get the dd clutch at all? Whats wrong with the single disk? The op doesn't say he's going for big power and he doesn't appear to have all that much power now. What are the advantages to a dd compared to one of SB's singles what are the disadvantages?

The first advantage I see to a single disk is you keep 300 bucks in your pocket.

I ask because I talked to Peter yesterday and he recommended the single clutch that holds 450 hp for my 04.5. The op might have a little more power than I do. I don't remember off hand which ofe letters it is.

Do the tires have anything to do with the choice?

Peter recommended this clutch for towing normal weights not 30k.

 

You cant (not suppose too) slip a single disk ruins them real quick, and backing up a trailer or starting on a hill, I can tell you, you need to slip the clutch. And yea a single disk thats rated for 450hp will probably hold 550hp, put 15k behind it and with 450hp say buh bye to clutch. Where if you had a DD you be just fine.

 

I would get my 3250 again. Somewhat noisy. Like has been has said, reverse can be a little aggravating. I just put it in 6th for a second and then up and over and back to reverse with ease.