I had to have another transmission put in my f350 last August ( ford rebuilt out of the box with 3 year or 100000k warranty so I won't have to pay to fix it for next couple of years) It is screwing up by sometimes not moving in drive or second when I come out of reverse. I am concerned as to whether I will have transmission problems again once I get this fixed. I have considered buying a used 2011 f250 with the 6.7 so I can have the better towing transmission. Really should not be considering this because of the money but I am fighting with myself over this. Drew( my service guy) said that once he got a hold of the tranny that it would be in better shape that it was out of the box and I should not have anymore problems.My truck is a cherry and I like it except for the tranny. I hate it when I pull my fifth wheel and have to run with the overdrive off. Leaving it on is what fried the original tranny. Off forces me to drive at the higher rpms. So, what do you think?

 

BTS or John Woods is alot cheaper than a used 6.7. I don't have one but I hear alot about them

 

I would love a new truck too, but the money holds me back also. I look at the point that i dont haul as much as i used to so it isnt cost effective to get a larger payment. If you get the tranny built by somebody who knows what they are doing you should have a bullet proof truck. I don't like towing with the overdrive off either, but the 7.3 is a proven motor, that gives people hundreds of thousands miles, not saying the 6.7 will not. You know your truck and how it has been maintained, and is much cheaper to repair, along with easier to work on. The bottom line it is up to how much you want to spend and how attached you are to your truck. I would finish bulletproofing the one you have, but that's me.

 

bts transmission....search them out.... as stated, a lot of good things about them.... saving up now for when mine goes.....

 

Welcome to FTE !!! Where are you located? You can get a John Wood or BTS tranny for a little over $4K and you will never have a pulling problem with your fiver again. I would definitively vote against the new truck. Call John if you are out west, or BTS if you are in the east. If you are in the Reno, NV area I will gladly show you what one of these trannies can do and the peace of mind they can give you hauling heavy. Get the replacement warranty transmission, tell them you want to install yourself...Sell that tranny for $2000 and use that as the down-payment on the last tranny you will need.

 

I have an '08 with the 5-speed torq-shift transmission that was suppose to be a lot better for towing than my '99 with the 4R100. Granted my old trans wasn't stock nor was my truck, but I'm still trying to get my new truck to pull as well as my '99 did.

Keep the truck!! Spend the money on a BTS or JW trans and then look for a good tuner to make the trans shift like it should for towing. I had Tony Wildman do my tunes and he made it into a sweet towing machine. The trans shifted exactly how I wanted, when I wanted. When I went to the 'newer and better' 5 speed, I wasn't impressed, Tony had my 4R100 doing everything the new torqshifts were(downshifts as you slow down). The "tow/haul" mode doesn't lock it out of 5th gear, so when I go up and down hills, it would downshift (sometimes to 3rd) to get up the hill, but then go back up to 5th gear coasting down it. It would shift gears back and forth, up and down the hills. That's the worst thing for the trans! I run KEM tunes on the '08 so now when I go to tow/haul mode it locks it out of 5th, and it tows so much better.


Towing in overdrive shouldn't ruin a tranny, unless it was shifting gears all the time, or lugging the tar out of it, but that's harder on the motor. If you're pulling a 5ver, I'm assuming your doing 60-70mph, you "should" be able to tow no problem in overdrive. When you get a new trans, get some gauges so you can keep an eye on your temps. Even though you shouldn't have issues with a brand new one, it's good to know what's going on. And if you do a lot of towing, consider a 6.0L trans cooler to replace the factory one on your truck.

 

Check out the two links below.

Ford Super Duty 4R100 Transmission - Four Wheeler Magazine

http://www.yourcovers.com/misc_image...sd_article.pdf

 

Blasphemy!!!

But in all seriousness...as stated, fixing up the 2003 with a JW or BTS tranny would still be far cheaper than selling your 2003 and buying newer used truck. The 7.3L trucks are highly sought after for good reasons. And with a BTS or JW, I can guarantee there is not a Ford OEM transmission out there that can compete, no matter what model year. The warranty on your BTS or JW will outlive whatever Ford offers you.

And, since you are buying a used truck, you will still have "used vehicle" issues, regardless of the year. If you go with a 2011, do you really want to put up with the emissions fluid BS too? If you're not familiar with it, you have to buy a special fluid from the stealership to meet the emissions regulations, and if you run out of fluid, the truck won't run until you fill it up. Tampering with the system to turn that off is supposedly a prosecutable violation (don't know WHO would...but that's irrelevant).

 

You now can buy BleuDEF at Walmart (saw it yesterday...think it was $12 for a 2.5 gallon container). I occasionally drive a heavy truck which uses urea fluid and it just begins to slowly lose power (I have been told by an idiot driver who let it go empty) each hour it is operated w/o BlueDEF. A pretty nice light show on the dashboard too, so says the idiot.