68RE or 48RE? Which should I look for?

[steved]

Well, probably going to break down and buy a newer quadcab 3500DRW in the next few months. The wife doesn't want another manual truck, so its going to be an auto. We have a real small 5vr now and I tow a 10k GVW trailer about twice a month... probably going with a bigger 5rv down the road. I owned a 99 with a 47RE, after four transmissions in 200k, I'm a little shy of the autos.



The next truck will likely NOT be modded the way my current truck sits... sometimes I wonder if the mods actually make more work than their worth.



I want to remember the 68 only comes behind the 6. 7L? What year was it intro'd? Is it holding up well for the most part? How much maintenance do they require? Is the maintenance something the home mechanic can do in the driveway?



Is the 48RE really that much better than the 47RE? As with the 68, do they require much maintenance?



For both of them, can they be "fixed" to prevent problems down the road? What kind of upgrade do they need? Complete rebuilds or just pieces? Again, I've been out of the automatics so long, I have no clue what is the current rage.

 

[cerberusiam]

68RFE - 07. 5+ 6. 7 trucks only



48RE - 5. 9 trucks only





The 68RFE is typical of the current crop of electronic controlled automatic transmissions, under clutched and over managed. They have about the same attributes as a 48RE; crappy TC, NVH setup and operation, etc.



Since they are fully electronic the controls are much better on shifting and the double OD makes a nice towing option. A 68RFE with 4. 10's and 33" tires is a very nice tow rig.



The 48 and 68 have about the same restrictions on power, add anything more than 30-40 HP and the accompanying TQ and its only a matter of time until there are problems.



For purely driving and towing applications there some good parts now available to address the OE shortcomings. Even more so than the 48, it seems to be critical that the transmissions get put together CORRECTLY or all the upgrades are just a waste. It just costs more to get them stable. These 3 planetary units are twitchy about builds and how you use them.



The 48RE upgrades and and short comings are easy to fix and well documented. Given a good transmisison to start with it costs no more than a manual to fix them to handle up to around 500 HP.



Really comes down to the question of what you want in a truck. Emissions vs no emissions, 4 gears vs 6 gears, newer electronics support vs aged ones, more luxury options and support on the newer ones as opposed to eventually we are gonna be SOL on the 5. 9 trucks.



Then there is the $$ equation and opportunity cost. If your only using it on every othee weekend and a week or two in the summer does it make sense to have a $40-60k sitting there as opposed to $20k one?



Good luck.

 

[steved]

Thanks for all that information... its not that the truck will be sitting, my 2004. 5 for example sits with 256k currently. I've slowed down a lot, but I still put miles on them.



I'm definitely looking for used... I bought my last new truck and dealt with the awesome DCX warranty, and denial thereof. I'm mainly trying to pick the lessor of the evils... they both have pro/cons as you've pointed out, and the engines are similar in that respect.



From what I gather, the 68RFE tows better but the 48RE is easier to build? Basically pick one, and live with it?

 

[cerberusiam]

From what I gather, the 68RFE tows better but the 48RE is easier to build? Basically pick one, and live with it?

That pretty much covers the bottom line.



All things equal, the 5. 9 and 48RE is going to be cheaper to build and maintain die to the simplicity and lack of enissions garbage.

 

[Grizzly]

Steved, have you considered a Cab & Chassis with a Aisin 6 speed auto?

 

[steved]

Unless I found one already setup with a bed installed, a C&C is probably not an option.

I'm leaning hard to a 48RE/5. 9L truck with 4. 10s... probably looking for a needle in the haystack, but... I probably would hate life without 4. 10s.

 

[RDeFayette]

4. 10's are gonna be TOUGH to find. To make the arena a little bigger (so long as you don't want duals) you could always look for a 2500 and 3500. That what I finally ended up doing to get my 2500. Looked for 3 months for a 3500 after my old 3500 was totaled. Gave up. Going to the 2500 more than doubled my choices and only took 2 weeks to find almost exactly what I wanted BUT it was a 2500. When I say looked I mean looked too!

Hell I was willing to go as far as Texas! Fly and drive it didn't matter anymore.

 

['strokeThis_'07]

How big a 5vr you looking at in the future?



My 07 has zero issue pulling in the 10-12k range. I mean that in terms of power and getting the load moving, a non-issue with 3. 73's. Granted I do have Smarty, but even stock it was just fine.



As far as transmission, when you upgrade the 48re (it likely will need it eventually, although it may not as well) make sure it's not setup too aggressive; mine is more "race" oriented and it sucks towing. Pulling over South Pass here in WY was a constant battle, with the transmission constantly wanting to downshift @70. Hello redline (before upgraded cam/pushrods/valvesprings and 4k tuning... )



For the 68, stock power is fine. But I don't think I'd own a 6. 7 with all the emissions in place. Deleted emissions=bump in power, which in turn equals a soon-to-be-dead 68. Yes, you can delete and maintain pretty much stock power.



I was completely sold on a nice 2010 Mega auto though; being able to shift with the button was pretty cool, especially with the exhaust brake.