turbosmoker

just got Smarty Jr. and clutch slips on level 2 and 3 when i put my foot in it. truck only has 41k miles on it. i did buy it used so who knows what someone else did. Was really hoping the stock clutch would hold but guess ill be looking for a new one. works fine on level 1 but whats the fun in that. So thinking about a South Bend DD but dont have much experience and open to any suggestions.

dieselfreak21

SouthBend is popular on here and a sponsor. They aren't a bad company and have a lot of happy customers. They are known to have great customer service and will stand behind their product most of the time.

I wish I could say that was my experience with them but sadly it wasn't. When I ordered my clutch after talking to Peter about what to get clutch, he recommended a dealer of his in my area as I pressed for time so couldn't do the install my self (daily driver at the time). It was supposed to be a Sprung hub, diaphram style 3600# clutch.

Picked it up from the dealer and drove home. Went out the next day and problems started. Stepped on the cluth peddel and horrible grinding and truck lerching forward. Took it back to the installer and found front disk was wrong and had tapper on both sides of the hub. Honest mistake I guess in manufactureing. Had to argue to get new disk over nighted and they tried to tell me I would have to pay the difference for the shipping on a 2 day old clutch. Installer must have been a little clueless as well as that should have been caught on the front end but I digress. All fixed up and got about 60k miles down the road and transmission needed rebuilt. (not SBC fault). When tranny pulled the SBC throw out bearing fell apart. Not expensive but the factory one with alot of abuse was in great shape after 90k miles. Called south bend and they were happy to sell me one. wearable item. Ok fine, I got someone elses. The shop inspected the fly wheel and the rest of the clutch and the clutches and cover were in good shape but the pilot bearing was gone in the fly wheel after only 60k. I didn't even bother to call southbend. Get about 1000 miles on the new tranny then all of sunden, the truck won't shift and clutch doesn't rattle any more. Limp it home to shop to take a look and one of the leavers broke. Asked the mechanic how did only one breaking cause it to all quit working. He told there is only 4 levers and one was broke off and the other was bent. He then ask what did you think you have a diaphram style???? Looked at the reciept for it all and it was supposed to the be new model. So I call south bend and ask them what is up. They claimed they would fix the curent cover and cover some labor. Fair enought but when I asked about the type of clutch and not getting what I should have they claimed that was a transition for that model and must have been shipped the wrong one. I said ok how do we fix this? I can pay an upgrade fee since they have change clutch cover designs again and I would be getting an upgraded design. The fee wasn't unreasonable and was shocked they offered to cover some of the labor, although I did express my disleasure in their quality. So not perfect but not horrible either. As for the logevity of there products I can't say they are that great. This truck has not seen sled pulling or drag racing and truck isn't that powerful. I got 80k out of the stock one with the extra power and lots rolling smoke.

Now onto the diapharm style DD from lever style. WOW what a difference. Drives better and clutch pressure is very light comparitivly. Almost stock like pressure. Happy with it so far just hope it hold up longer than 60K. Who ever you go with make sure it is a diaphram style.

Do your research and shop around. There are some good manufactures out there. My next clutch will be a place called Kenny's pulling part. I drove one of there street puller triple disk with a 3200# pressure plate. Shifted better than my new clutch cover and peddle presure effortless with factory hyrdo's, My buddy can't slip it and holds up to his 600 hp. Cheaper than south bend too. A lot of guys that pull around me are running them with little complaints and several season of sled pulling.

rockcrawler304

Do a little searching here and you will have enough info to make your eyes spin!!

I'm in the same boat as you except my truck has 84k miles and now the Jr. will slip the clutch on SW2 and 3.
Later I will be going with the SB single disc or possibly the Valair http://valairinc.com/performance/24g56.html single disc. Both companies make one that will hold more than the Jr. can throw at it and you also don't get the noise that "Some" of the DD clutches give you.

turbosmoker

i dont plan on any other performance mods in the near future. is a south bend DD 3250 to much clutch for the power i have. the truck is pretty much a daily driver i dont tow much as of now and would like to use the extra 100hp from my smarty Jr.

turbosmoker

also would like to keep the same pressure in the clutch. some aftermarket clutches need to be stood on and not fun for daily driving

dieselfreak21

This diaphram style has a very light pressure and so did the 3200 triple. It appears that lever style pressure plates have the heavy peddle. A 3200 should hole what you want and give you some room to grow in. It will shift a little slower with any dueal or triple disk. I used to daily drive mine with the lever system and it wasn't horrible but my left leg did get a little bigger I think.

Festus

I went with the SB dual disc with hydraulic upgrade. I love it. Likely to never need another clutch again and will hold anything else I'm even pondering on doing.

whitebuffalo

Mine slipped on 2 with thestock clutch also. I just put in a napa smf clutch and it holds on 2, haven't tried on 3 yet.
I was in the same boat, hated to put in a 1200 dollar clutch when I had no intentions of bigger mods.

6.6lEater

Of the 3 clutches listed here I would go with a kenny 's pulling clutch. I am currently running a sachs in my truck and its holding tnt, ez stack and 70hp tips. Think it was around 350 to my door.