Gentlemen,
I will be buying a new 06 or 07 2500 4x4, and I am deciding between either the automatic (5-speed 48 RE ?) or the 6-speed manual, and my decision will come down to required maintenance, since I put about 15K a year on a vehicle.

For those with the automatic, what is the maintenance schedule and recomendations? Is it change/flush at 30K or is band/belt adjustment also required?

Thanks for the help.

 

Do yourself a favor and go manual, My 06 just lost its tranny at 11,000 miles. Maybe I got a bad one but i have had several defective issues in the 8 months since I purchased this 38,000 dollar hole you dump money into. My best suggestion would be to purchase a rental car policy because you will need it.

Ram 1500 Quad cab4x4 w Tow
Thunder road edition with 20 inch tires
leather , full power and satalite stereo

 

I would go with the 5 speed automatic myself. I don't know what the maintenance schedule is on a 06 or 07. I do not want to be shifting all the time. Sounds like jackman got himself a bum tranny to start with. I have never had a problem. Red

 

The 545RFE tranny has been fine for me so far. Just do a pan off fluid change so they can get to both filters inside. I think Dodge recommends 30k miles. I usually try to go 15k miles on the first one and then 30k thereafter.
IMO a flush is useless without a filter change. They tell you some crap about it reverse flushing through the filters and cleaning them out. It does not! All a flush does is swap the fluid after it runs through the filters. The dirty filters are still inside and just as dirty as before you spent $100.
They did my flush at the radiator connections on my Jeep and told me there was no need to ever change the filters.

Whatever.....