Hi All,

Talk about a bad Monday......

Wife and I were in transit between WV and VA on I64 EB when climbing

a grade I noticed an RPM slip while pulling hard.... uh oh.

Kept rolling thru some small rollers under power while thinking good thoughts.

Nope, next grade of any size, RPMs went up , speed went down.I had lost third

and fourth. Aimed for a relatively level area ahead and made preparation to

arrange a tow. Called Coach-Net and discussed tow. Took longer to find a

good transmission shop for the truck and a campground for the coach than

to actually get the tow done.

Anyway got truck squared away and coach to campground, now we wait to

get new tranny in.

Wish us luck!

Randy

 

Randy,
I am sorry to hear your bad luck! But I am scare for you having some unknown shop rebuild your trans. And if they just do a stock rebuild you might be in for more touble down the road.
Some of the biggest things that need to be improved on stock 4r100 is
*torque converter to 3 disc billet t.c.
* upgraded center support & shims
* increase in clutch count from 2 to 3 clutchs in the coast clutch
* replace stock cooler

There are actually many other upgrades that can be done. But these are almost a must if you want this 4r100 to handle towing your camper. So I would call them and ask about these upgrades. If they don't have have a clue about these upgrades you might be in trouble. I could send you links you could send to them if needed. Also make sure that they are at least cleaning cooler.

Good luck and keep use posted! ED

 

Were in VA did you end up? I AM from the Richmond area. Like baddog said. Be informed. There is a What ever it takes dealer in Richmond. Cheaper than Dacco. I can tell you Dacco does not have the all the parts baddog speaks of.
Good luck with your rebuild

 

Sorry to hear about this. Worries me everytime i pull out of the driveway with my 5th wheel. Keep us posted.

I also have coach net. I have never used them, how was your experience with them?

 

BadDog,

Thanks for the info.

Out of this list, I already have a 31 row 6.0 cooler.

I had this rebuild set to a point in the future but it crept up on me fast.

I know better than to go with a local rebuild, too many people getting

substandard transmissions. I had researched all of the big names, ATS,

BTS, John Wood and Suncoast to name a few.

When I called around the only one to answer on the first try was BTS.

I spoke with Tina and she said that Brian was booked thru December, then

she told me to hang on, when she came back on line she said they had a

opening next Tuesday! Later I found out that Brian was working me in

between jobs to help return us to the road.

This ladies and gentlemen is the very essence of customer service and shows

you what high character Brian has. He didn't know me from Adam but

stepped up when asked, that is high class.

Based on this terrific display of compassion, the overwhelming choice was

BTS.

I talked with Brian about my build and got the ball rolling, the unit should ship

out tomorrow.

I do NOT recommend that you wait until you have a failure,

please plan ahead and get it taken care of before it fails outright.

My wife and I full time so this is more than our trailer and truck, it's our

home.

I can't praise Brian and his staff enough for stepping up, it's a very

humbling experience and one day hope to pay it forward.

God Bless Brian and his staff, I can't say enough good about them.

 

Well Randy I am very happy for you and with a BTS you will be set for life NOW! And the piece of mind knowing that you have one the best 4r100 out there is "Priceless" Now just need to make sure it is installed correctly and they do a good job flushing your 6.0 cooler out. Now the only problem you are going to have is tuning with your new custom build trans. Well let us know when you are back on the road.

 

DisasterDan - Staunton, VA

Danskool - Our experience with Coachnet was very good. They responded

promptly to our claim and was handled very professionally. We had to find

where to take the truck and then where to take the coach. This took quite a

bit of time due to not knowing a good vendor to swap the transmission and

a campground to set up in for a indeterminate amount of time. Part of the

issue is a very busy Halloween weekend series with a lot of campgrounds

being booked out. We got lucky and got a monthly site for the duration. Also,

not knowing the area we did a lot of brain picking to find a good local shop.

When the wrecker driver came to recover our truck he asked where we were

taking it, when I told him, he said that he was the best tranny guy in 100

miles without any prompting.

 

BadDog,

Spoke with Brian about my DP Tuner and he said as long as I didn't have any

downshift strategies loaded in my tunes I was golden.

I'm running a 40hp bump while pulling my fifth wheel.

stock, 60e, 80e, 80em, decel, 40t, 60t, hi idle, drive thru and 120r

 

Randy that is great news. But I am a little unclear what he means by downshift strategies?? And what tune does Jody have that has a downshift strategies?? But I know you will be really happy with your decel tune with the BTS since brian uses a 3 clutch coast drum clutch actually he might have a 4 clutch coast clutch drum I don't know for sure. Maybe you can ask him and post up what he says. Because stock is a 2 clutch coast drum and on big grades the decel will burn up the coast clutchs.