Well, at 130k miles the tranny in our ’04 2500 needs to be replaced. Discovered this when the tranny fluid was changed and a piece of the overdrive snap ring fell into the pan along with clutch material in the fluid.

My husband is considering putting in an Allison transmission but I’m not sold on the price. Does anyone have experience with an Allison in their Dodge or reasons why you would or would not put an Allison in your truck?

 

allison trans are supposed to be the caddilac of trans... never heard of one being fitted to the Cummins though... U might wanna consider some of the other aftermarket trans companies... (ie: ATS) What do you use the truck for? Towing ? grocery getter? Off-road... There are alot of companies that will custom build a trans for suspific driving conditions....

 

if you live in a cold climate (cold winters) allys don't like cold weather they tend to blow tranny cooler lines, when left parked and running. Last winter many chubbys were stuck due to broken tranny lines and there was a waiting list for replacements. Allys are ok, but a number of tranmission shops are offering build up kits just as they do for the Dodge trannys, makes ya wonder if they are as good as they say? My brother has a 05 3500 2wd drw auto, he hauls rvs cross the states and canada 250,000 miles on stock tranny no problems!?
I have 120,000 on my auto and no issues.
If he has a pile of cash burnin a hole in his pocket go for aftermarket built tranny as Quig19 said, ATS, Suncoast, Level10, Georend (sp) or NADP. He'll be looking at $3000 to $6000 for a tranny, the ally won't be any cheaper by the time you get the right adapters etc.


The "real" tranny experts advise against tranny flushes, best thing to do is simply drain the pan and replace the filter every 30k miles.

 

You can put an Allison behind it but your looking at $6k+. And then you still have a stock transmission behind it. Im not sold on the Allison, I dont like how it shifts. It feels oo "mushy" to me. Ive been thinking of putting one in a yet-to-be-acquired 1st-gen Dodge Cummins and custom tuning the shifts to get me the shift points I want. Its a clutch-on-clutch design, and it has to talk to the Duramax in order for it to work. Just hope it doesnt try to shift too fast; itll be in two gears at once and *poof* the "almighty" Allisons toast.

Destroked.com has all the parts youd need to do the swap. Now I have never run this, and dont know anybody that does. In theory their parts shoulkd work, but in reality do they? Theres more than one truck out there running their stuff, so thats who Id go with.

That being said, Id recommend building the stocker. The trans you have isnt necessarily bad, just isnt in top form from the factory. Seriously, would a bad transmission hold 1400hp at the tires? No. Obviously its an aftermarket unit, but nothing from the factory is built top-of-the-line...

I have over $7k in my transmission, but I have a full-race unit. You can get a mildly built trans for around $3500. My personal choice is HTS, many of the highest-horsepower trucks out there run an HTS, and theyll help you out if you have any issues. Other good builders are Suncoast, Goerend, and NADP. Skip ATS.

 

Hey guys, thanks for your input. I wanted to give you an update; an Allison rep let us know that the electronic components will not match up to our Dodge and suggested we go to Isuzu for a modified Allison. Not something I want to do... So, we’re just going to work with a local tranny shop to build what we need. It’s a work truck and we only tow a few times a year so we don’t need much. But, we’d like to add an exhaust brake when we start towing more frequently.

Thanks again!

 

Well, that Allison rep is wrong. It can and has been done. You just gotta trick the TCM into thinking the trans is still behind a Duramax...

But I think your better off beefing the stocker you have. Definately get a torque convertor and a valvebody. Trust me, its like night and day difference over the stock unit. Good luck

 

the allison rep probably doesnt know every type of application that is available. an allison 1k/2k transmission like what is in the d-max can be mounted directly to a cummins motor, i used to work for an allison factory authorized rebuilder and we used to see them come in on the UPS box trucks. there is a diffrent bellhousing that you need for your motor and transmission. i cant remember the detales of this combo right now but if you really want this combo i recomend you contact acme truck shop http://www.acmetpe.com/ and talk to bob, he knows his stuff and he can probably tell you what you need.

 

well i can tell you the stearling bullet truck (that is the rams sister truck) has the same cummins motor and has a allison trans. no, i dont know if your older cummins is the same as the one on the stearling because the one in the stearling is probably a 6.7 and your o4' is probably a 5.9

 

Sterling Bullet DOES NOT have an Allison. It has the same Aisin 6 speed auto that the Dodge Chassis Cab does. From what Ive heard, its a better trans than the Allison, as is the 68RFE in the new pickups

 

Question for you Scatpack........ I have quite a few freinds that have GM trucks with the allison tranny. I have yet to see one go out on a stock truck. On the contrary I had to rebuild my tranny at 120,000 mi. I know several other dodge owners that had to do the same at simialar miles.

IMO from what I have seen the allisons are better that a stock 48RE. Ask any transmission shop and I'm sure you will find they rebuild many more didge tranny's than allisons. Of course if your pulling or racing your truck and making lots of power, any factory transmission will fail, which is why you can buy beefed up allison trannys. As far as the new dodge tranny's, only time will tell. So far I have heard very little, good or bad

I would not consider putting an allison in a dodge truck either, as the price does not justify it. For between 3-4K you can rebuild a 48RE to hold what most people will do with their trucks.

Just my 2 cents.