CaughtinmyGrill

I am waffling between driving my stock 48RE until it breaks or biting the bullet now with some tranny upgrades.

I don't need to be convinced that I would love the new-found responsiveness I would get with a new ATS Torque Converter, Valve Body and Torque Commander. I am sure that it would really be a lot of fun.

My dilemma is whether I "throw out" my perfectly good stock tranny now and spend $2500 (labor included) on the above set up. If I wait another 40-50K miles to do this, and my tranny goes south, what else will I need to replace besides the TC and VB? Basically what I am looking for is an economic justification to spend he money now rather than later.

My 04.5 has 15,500 on it now and I am running a Juice/EZ stack. I am running 315/70's and have a 3.73 gear ratio. I tow a 5,000 boat 100 miles about once a month. I have the Juice on level 3 and EZ on level 2. This produces plenty of power and I really don't get on it very often. I have only slipped the tranny once that I know of and that was just for a split second during a freeway merge. It is my best guess that the stock tranny will go out at 60,000 miles and that the ATS set-up would last me until around 150,000 miles.

Please help me make up my mind. Spend the money now while the rest of my tranny is still in good shape or wait until it breaks and replace more parts then.

BarryG

I went down the same road with my 01. I ended up waiting. Decided I might as well get my moneys worth out of the trans I had already paid for when I bought the truck. I went to 110k with an ez and 275 injectors (put the ez on at 15k and then added the 275's at 60k). The trans still didnt need to be rebuilt as it was showing no problems yet but by then I figured I got most of my money out of the stocker and did not want to chance gettting stuck on the side of the road but again the stocker had not given me any problems. However I have read of people with the same amount of mods having trouble with the stocker in very short order.

herb

i don't know why anyone would not go with the ats. you are the first one i have ever heard say anything negative about them. i tow (90,000 miles last year) a 48' gooseneck trailer from coast to coast and my ats has been the BEST upgrade i have done to this truck.
In fact the tranny is what my stumbling block is to trading for a new one, i don't want a stock 48r with the "slipomatic" torque converter.

WildBill

You would like the driveability of your truck a lot more if you upgraded now, a tighter converter will transfer more power in fluid coupling mode and get better mileage. Also, if you do it now when you can plan for it, that is a lot nicer than doing when the transmission decides it's time to be done

RUSSELLMAG

Spend the money!!! DTT is a great company as well. The power transfer is worth the price.

PThree

Anyone know of any either DTT or ATS or any other Diesel Trans companys install around the chicago area that anyone knows of?

Mark Thomas

I got my DTT converter and valve body today, should be installed by Monday. ATS i'm sure is a great product but way over priced!

MR4WLR

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Just wanted to share with folks my experiences with ATS in Wheat Ridge.

We tow a 5th wheel trailer (12,000 pounds), drive a 1996 Dodge Cummins. Stock tranny went out at 108K miles about one year after TST #6 plate upgrade. Went to ATS because I'd heard they build a good product - I now don't believe that.

I have had two complete ATS transmission failures in the last 12 months!!! Here's a recap:

Feb 2004: Paid $6,000 for ATS torque converter and tranny.
March 2004: In shop to repair vacume lines installed incorrectly by ATS in Denver.
July 2004: Torque converter completely failed - ATS repaired (2 weeks down)
Aug 2004: Back to shop to install $5 part to prevent line pressure over-load faults. 120 miles driving to install a $5 part that ATS should have installed originally.
Jan 2005: Valve stuck open - low line pressure - transmission wasted! Sat in Yuma for 3 weeks while ATS decided it was their problem. And then they asked me to help pay!!

We're on our 3rd ATS transmission - let's hope we're lucky this time. And I really believe it will be luck if this transmission holds together.

The thing that really got to me was that never once did ATS say "gosh we're sorry you're having problems with our product" almost every time they implied that it must have been something we did - and everytime it was their product that failed.

I'm not impressed with ATS nor their products. Their customer service is probably the worst I've ever experienced.

Bill Z.
Gig Harbor, WA
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CaughtinmyGrill

The reason I am considering ATS is that they already have a relationship with my performance shop. The shop will sell me their products at about a 15% discount over list price. The shop also will guarantee their labor for the same amount of time that ATS guarantees their components, 3 years or 75,000 miles.

A follow-up question: If my stock 48RE does break, other than the TC and VB, what else will I need to replace? I would guess that the tranny cooler would need to be replaced (meaning a new radiator, I think?) because various small parts would get sucked into it. What else would I be stuck with replacing?

banshee

There is a lot more to that ATS story than what is posted here. The full story is laid out on the TDR. It turns out the owner was happy in the end....

John

Joel Richards

MR4WLR,

You must have "overlooked" the fact that ATS takes care of their problems... So, seeing as how you probably just forgot to do it, I'll do it for you....

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ATS Stage V troubles finally solved!

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Back in November I had an ATS Stage V transmission installed in my truck by a local authorized installer in Houston. It lasted for two weeks then one of the bands failed (as I understand it) because a lock nut was not tightened correctly. Although the band could have been replaced and the transmission most likely would have been fine, ATS did the right thing and sent another transmission because they had to warrantee it for three years.

As luck would have it the second transmission was damaged by the shipper so it could not be used. My truck sat in the parking lot at the installer’s shop until another transmission could be built and sent to Houston.

When the replacement transmission arrived it was installed and checked out. When I got the truck back the transmission did not feel right but I took it thinking it was just me being paranoid. After driving it for a few days I realized it was not my imagination, the transmission was not right. It was not using second gear unless it was shifted manually. I brought the truck back to the installer several times in the next few months for diagnosis. The installer thought it may not be using second gear because there was not much load on the transmission. I was not going to buy that one. After a couple of talks with the installer and ATS it was decided to replace the valve body. This made no difference. Again the installer tried to half heartedly tried to convince me it was ok. They did not really think it was but they were not able to figure it out or give ATS enough information so ATS could figure it out. I was then sent to a dealer to run some diagnostics and the dealer found that the governor control pressure was bad. Along with the other symptoms ATS could not figure it out. Joel at ATS found a transmission tech in my area and asked me if I would be willing to let him take a look at the truck, and ATS would pay the charges. I accepted that as the last attempt to get it right. The tech found out that the governor solenoid and governor pressure sensor were bad. He spent about four hours testing it and replacing the bad parts and to my surprise the transmission now works exactly as ATS intended it to work.

During this whole ordeal ATS stood behind their product and did what they could to get it fixed short of sending another transmission (they were sure it was a minor problem in this one). The installer in Houston tried to fix it, but they are not transmission technicians and they did not have equipment to do the testing. I don’t think it was a matter of them being incompetent, as much as not educated on transmission internals. They are a good bunch of guys and I would let them work on a motor, they know what they are doing there. They specialize in high performance Fords. All I needed to do was have a transmission technician spend enough time on it to do a proper diagnosis. I am glad to say the neither ATS or the installer in Houston ever hinted that I would have to pay any more money since I bought the transmission in early November. The transmission Tech also did not charge me anything because ATS told him to bill them directly.

If anyone were to ask me if I would do any more business with ATS I would say yes because they did stand behind their product. I would also do business with the installer again, but not transmission trouble diagnosis. I guess the lesson learned here is to not hire a plumber to do an electrician’s job.
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So, there you go..... It's ABSOLUTELY AMAZING how some people "forget" to let everyone know the outcome of some things..... So, like you said... "If this is the kind of company you would like to give your money to by all means be my guest." Now everyone can make an educated decision....

Thanks for listening
-joel

Joel Richards

CaughtinmyGrill,

The warranty on the TripleLok (and ATS tranny) is 3yrs/100,000miles. As far as replacing the rest of the tranny, it depends on what the failure would be. The cooler usually just has to be flushed and back-flushed, followed by a flow test to make sure there are no blockages - rarely does the cooler need to be replaced. That being said, the 48RE has a decent Overdrive as compared to the 47RE. For moderate power (up to 400HP) and moderate towing (10k pounds) the only thing that is really needed is the VB and TC. Above 400HP its recommended to get the tranny up front to save the R&R labor and downtime of a failed unit (you're already paing to have the tranny taken out for the converter upgrade).

HTH
-joel

MR4WLR

I have never heard of you or your story to get the whole story, I did not post about you.
Just passing on what info I have.

What I posted did not come from TDR and is not that old of a post with no updates from the poster.

pcburnout

DTT all the way! Great people to work with and my tranny out of box works great. What a great investment and tranny is really neat on how it works now!
I feel my family will be safe from tranny burn ups when where smoking the tires on vacation!

New TC
New VB
New Billet Input
New Two billet Servos

New Input as new TC will twist old off!

AK RAM

What you need to do is throw a trans together like mine....so when it fails, you can blame both of them. Double the fun!