Yeah, ya know I liked you too...but I am NOT an idiot. I did not find out about the transmission leak untl this morning when I RETURNED home. You guys have to understand, it is not because of me. This transmission already sucked *** when I bought the truck. It didn't make sense to me that on the way up it was OK, but then the next morning, completely shot. The leak would explain this. I know I speed with it, but I can gauge my transmission, it was still managable. Also, the transmission has been the same since I've gotten the truck until now. My speeding hasn't made it any worse or better, it's just always SUCKED. It's easy for everyone to pin the transmission problem on my speeding, but that isn't the PROBLEM. Obviously it contributes to the issue, but like I mentioned before, the transmission, prior to me owning it, was already in rough shape. Again, there is nothing I have pointed out or said that deserves somebody calling me an idiot. I know I'm pissing a lot of people off because most of you guys PLAN to be lifts on your truck, so it's kind of like me ****ting on your dream. But guys, I've already told you we are all different. Some guys are into big lifts and tires, that's not my bag. Again, just because I'm not the most knowledable about VEHICLES, doesn't mean I'm an idiot. Vehicles don't gauge some kind of threshhold about your intelligence. You'd have to be a moron to think it did. Would you guys say someone going to standish who was a straight A student would be considered an idiot because they knew nothing about automobiles? I'm learning guys, cut me some fricken slack. If I thought I knew everything, I wouldnt bother posting. Come hang out with me for a day and see if you think I'm an idiot over at the university or in daily life, I mean c'mon...telling someone there an idiot over a truck is what is stupid man...jeez.

 

Ok then why did you buy a truck knowing it has transmission problems??

 

Why do you insist on a 10" wide wheel? Thats really too wide of a wheel for that tire. Not to mention you then risk rubbing. With a 3" lift which is 1.5" more than the offroad would have my 16x10's with 305"s rub when I hit a slight bump at full lock. You could go with a 8" wide wheel and hopefully avoid this. I know your tire is narrower but you still run the risk of it rubbing with that wide of a wheel. If you plan to run a wider tire later on then the 10" wide wheel may be the way to go but if you never plan to run a tire bigger than that I'd probably go with a 8" wide wheel.

Also on the tranny issue. How many miles do you have on it? The 35"s I'm sure didn't help the transmission but they just seem to go out in Dodges a lot so I'd guess it's more from it just being a bad design than having something eat it up. If you went with a nice transmission like APS or I've read good things about Dr. Evil too you could probably get away with the 35"s for a little while with 4.10's until you could save up for some new tires. Those burnouts and flooring it all the time are probably just as hard if not harder on it than the tires are.

 

Ok...do I really have to explain that? Take a look at the truck, for $6,800, I'm pretty sure it was worth buying a 2001 Ram knowing it only had a little bit of a tranny problem. Now that I know it leaked oil, I'm confident it can be fixed. At the rate it was at prior to the leak, the transmission was still tolerable. I was obviously dealing with it the way it was, and I was fine with that. I knew it roughly had about a good year and a half to two years left in her. I was just shocked that it died just on a trip, but once I found out it had a big leak up there, it explained why it **** the bed all of a sudden the next morning. Even if the transmission needs to be replaced, this truck is still worth it. It's a relatively new truck still and very beautiful with a great running engine. It was a smart buy, hands down.

 

If I get an 8" wheel, what kind of backspacing should I be looking for to make sure it sticks out the way I would like it to. In regards to the 35s, I'd be working hard to make it work If I wanted them, but I don't have a use for a tire that big. I hardly offroad with this truck, so it just seems overkill to be driving around a truck with 35s and a lift if I dont even need it. It'd be worth the crappy ride to me if I offroaded all the time, but if its not my bag, then its not worth trying to keep them. I'm still thinking with what I want to do. I have some hard thinking I need to do with what I want to do with this truck. Plus, it is very hard explaining myself with a damn keyboard, often times it makes me sound retarded. If I could talk to somebody verbally you guys would instantly tell I'm not some retarded kid burning out all the time in a lifted truck, for real. But if I don't have to replace this transmission immediatly, and it just needs to be addressed, then I will milk it as long as possible. The truck has 106,000 miles on it, is that normal for it to start going out at this time? I just need to find out whats going down with the transmission first. And just really think ahead for the longterm what I want to do.

 

I'm not saying your stupid at all. In fact I think your very intelligent. I can see from the way that you write that you are smart. I'm saying your an idiot because you know that you don't know very much about trucks and instead of listening to people who do so that you can learn from them you disregard everything they say. Every time without fail we all give you advise but, you've already drawn your own conclusions and your hell bent ignoring everyone else. Now understand before I keep going on that I'm not mad and I'm not being angry. I have no plans to lift my truck. I certainly don't think people are dumb because they aren't mechanically inclined. Everyone has there talents. Whatwe are all trying to say is that your tranny problems are not your tires. Your speed isn't whats wrong with your tranny. The burnouts are and the mainentence are. I'll give you that these trannys are very touchy. My tranny is going out and I take very good care of my truck. I've dont one or two burnouts since I bought the truck. I'm willing to bet though that you burnout almost everytime you have someone in the vehicle with you. Here's my point your tranny is probably toast. Here's what you do. Verify it by taking it to the shop but, fill the oil first so that they don't try to take advantage of you. Then make sure they don't tear the transmision out and tear it down. They should be able to diganose just by driving it. Then ask them wich clutches and wich bands have gone out because I'm curious. Then drive it home save up your money and buy an aftermarket tranny. If you rebuild the one you have it'll out again anywhere from 2000 to 30000 miles guarnteed. If you buy an aftermarket you'll never worry about it again. Before you put the new one if make sure any of the coolers are flushed really good before you put the new tranny in.

 

The sentence you're looking for is; "I knew when I bought the truck the transmission had problems, and instead of taking it easy, I performed numerous 0-60 runs, races against my brothers truck, and burnout/pealouts, which lead to the final demise of my transmission."

That's what everyone is trying to get you to admit. Stop repeating that your driving habits had nothing to do with the transmission going. Even if your transmission was 90% gone when you got the truck, you ruined the other 10%. People on this forum have proven that with proper care and driving, transmissions can handle large tires and improper gearing.

 

That's hard to say, because we don't know how much you would like it to stick out. But I would say 3.5-4.5 would look good. 4.5 would put you an inch further out than your current wheels. 3.5 would put it 2" further out than your stock rims. Why don't you find rims you like and then see what sized backspacing they come in. Because not all rims are made with various amounts of backspacing.

 

There is usually two states to the transmision. It is either done and needs a rebuild or it's not and it drives fine. The only way that your going to know if it will last longer is by driving it until it stops going forward. If you drive until it stops going forward and you ruin the hard parts you won't get a core on it and you can add another grand to a new tranny. Whats going on is there is alot of clutches in the auto tranny and if one goes out then you replace them all. It's as simple as that. If there are no hard parts damage then a new tranny will only cost around 2 grand not including install and fluid. The install is really really easy. The hardest part is making sure that you don't squish yourself with the tranny.

 

I don't think you are an idiot at all and not trying to make you sound like one. If I do sorry. How far do your fender flares stick out the side? I don't know what back spacing you need to make it stick out past those.

As for the lift and tires I agree if you don't do a whole lof of offroading or want it for the look there is really no reason to have it. For what you are wanting to do it probably would be best to put it back to stock height. I was just saying not all lifts are that bad. Not saying you should go with another one as it doesn't sound like you need a lift just letting others know not all of them are as bad as you are making them sound. If it was me I'd for sure take that lift off even if I did want a lift. If I really wanted one I'd put something else on there but I'd get those spacers off without putting other parts in there too.


If you got 106k out of it I'd say you did well. Mine started acting up at 97k and I put money into it trying to make it last and milked it but it got really bad at slightly over 99k so I got tired of dumping money into it and replaced it. Almost all the shops I talked to said they all seemed to go out on these trucks around 100k miles so if you got that I'd say you did about average. Several different shops told me I probably wouldn't get much more than that out of one of these trannys in stock form and a lot of them don't last this long. I hear of some people having stock ones go out in 30-50k miles. I'd say you did alright and got about normal. I doubt the tires made it wear out super fast since you got the milage most get out of them anyway. It might have slightly sped it up but I don't think it was a ton if you still got 106k out of it. The stock trannys in these things just have several flaws. I wouldn't put another stock or rebuilt one in as you are just asking to have these same issues again.