buddy of mine just had major trans failure. Just completed plowing a small parking lot. A lot of backwards and forwards stuff. When he was done, his trans failed as he was driving off lot. What fails? and what can be done to beef this up for more durability?

thanks!

 

Don't abuse it, let the truck stop then change direction, ease into the throttle, and put a tranny temp guage on it so you know if it is heating up

 

Probably needs a realy BIG cooler for that kind of service.

 

Isn't really anything to 'beef' up the clutch packs prob forward/reverse he burnt up.
All you can really do is put a larger tranny cooler on.
And as said above, dont do a lot of forward/reverse's until coming to a complete stop.
Tranny temp gauge would also be a good investment.

 

There are aftermarket bands and clutches and steels that will hold longer, and better, but components don't fail without abuse. Plowing abses truck, all of them will fail eventually. Dodges have proven themselves as the best plow trucks around here, Fords are right up there too...the Chevy IFS doesn't hold up.

As far as the trans goes, replace the Low/Reverse ban, thats probably what he burned up. Drop the pan as well, replace the fluid and filter, and if theres chunks in it, he needs to have it pulled apart and inspected. I blew the Converter plowing in my 95.

Now that I have manual tranny's in both plowing is easy. Sure its a little more work, but my clutch doesn't mind being ceramic and all.

Put a trans temp gauge on it, if it gets over 210, cool it down. Our old 1st gen half ton at work has 4 B&M Supercoolers on it, its overkill for sure, but it has never let us down.

 

Plowing I'd have a straight shift over auto, that's rough work there on an auto trans. On the auto maybe a valve body to up holding pressures??? Still, thats is demanding work for an auto IMHO.

 

just happened to see this post,even though a month old, thought i would give my thoughts. My 96 plowed every winter for about 8 years. Im still on the stock trans, and havent had to do anything other than fluid and filter changes.
I always plowed large lots, so my way eliminated almost all of the forward/reverse strain. when i would get close to the end of the lot, i would crank the wheel and floor it. essentially do a 180. with all the snow on the lot, wouldnt take anything. that way at the end, i would just clean up both ends of the lot, and not have gone from forward to reverse 500 times.

ps. that technique is best used in the overnight hours, shoppers leaving a wal mart seeing a 20'+ truck spinning past there cars arent to happy.