Allison autos

[FFutch]

I know there are some people out there that think Allison=perfect and non-problematic. Take it from a guy who used to work for Detroit diesel/Allison they're not. Now granted I didn't work in the transmission side(I'm a truck mechanic)but there were always a pile of transmissions there that needed rebuilt. I also talked to the trans. techs quite a bit. Asked them about autos behind diesels. Their answer was "nobody builds an automatic that will withstand the constant abuse that a high horsepower-high torque engine dishes out that will last for an extended period of time pulling heavy loads. "This is the main reason you don't see a true automatic in class 8 trucks. Now granted an Allison maybe somewhat better than what we got. But I think down the road there's still going to be problems. I know for a fact that Phord autos are junk. The one we have at work has been out 4 times at 80,000 miles. I also think that the Chrysler 727 was one of the toughest transmissions out there when it was behind a Big block. The one in my charger took a lot of abuse(nuetral drops,power brakes,and even shifted thru N into R a couple of times . )But a diesel is a different animal. especially one that puts out 1000 lb. ft. of torque . Doug p. s. D. T. T. fans don't take offense to the high h. p. /high tq. statement. I don't know a whole lot about their autos ,but from what I've read they could be the exception to the rule

 

[RobG]

Suddenly I feel a whole lot better about having a 6-speed, even though I miss having an auto in the truck.



Rob

 

[Bob Wagner]

check out the dieselpage

Dmax/Allison combo is no match made in heaven



There are plenty Dmax owners *****ing about the shifting problems.



IMHO under 350HP the DTT combo is pretty bulletproof



I'm still in love after 8 months

 

[Pit Bull]

You guys think my auto will hold-up? broke-in on some good pulls, about half the weight that it is rated at (gets around 20 mpg highway and 16. 5 mpg around town). Now it will be a daily driver, drive it 30 miles round trip to the gym to workout, sometimes I'll be hauling my lawnmower, and a couple of 50# bags of dog food. I may have to haul some boxes, total weight of around 700#. I bought the truck because I love the looks and the Cummins engine. I know most of you buy these trucks because you want to use them for what they are built for, but there are some crazy guys like me that just love the "Truck" and what it is

Denny

 

[WCrovo]

No offense to any one but I will never own another auto PERIOD. I don't care if GOD engineered it. I love the cogs. I am not singleing out any auto in paticular they are all weak in the long run. IMNSHO

 

[Bob Wagner]

D Latimer

You will be fine. Just keep up on the periodic maintenance.



Amsoil Universal ATF would be good to use too.





As Bill K. says "the Dodge transmission gets a bad rap"

 

[WyoJim]

Our UPS pick up driver pulled in the other day with a new diesel truck. A Cummins/Allison. I asked him how it was working out. He said his was OK so far, but the other guys that had them were having a lot of trouble with the Allison Trannsmission.

 

[TRodney]

I talked to a guy yesterday in a parking lot with a Chevy Duramax/allison pulling an eight horse trailer. Empty he is pulling 11,000 lbs, loaded he is pulling over 20,000lbs. He had 25K miles on the truck and didn't have anything bad to say about it. He previously had a Ford Powerstroke and said this was a lot better. But, he has never had a Dodge/Cummins.



Later,

Tim

 

[Wayne M.]

I really think Allison made a mistake in going into light duty transmissions- or at least putting their name on one, they are not the same as Heavy allisons. My Municipality has over 3000 class 7-8 collection trucks of which 98% are Allison equipped. The remainder are ZF equipped. When you factor in clutch replacments/ problems, I firmly believe the Allison is superior in terms of being able to take abuse. As long as there are shift inhibitors and temperature monitoring the average transmission goes cradle to grave in our fleet. I am takling about a rowdy bunch of operators who sometimes don't want to drive their trucks and will do anything to put one down.

I've seen driveshafts shredded, yokes snapped, axles snapped, and torn out motor mounts- but never see so much as burned fluid (not often anyway) in these units. Oh and we plow snow with these trucks too. They aren't without failure- we get some now and again, usually valve body and clutch pack problems.

As to why they arent popular with OTR tractors is beyond me- I guess it's the control and ratio selection and tradition. If you have a fleet of vehicles that have to be operated by almost anyone- automatics can't be beat.

 

[tgbol]

After 25 years as a mechanic for the City of Los Angeles I have seen my share of Allison transmissions. Overall they have been pretty reliable. I have had some troubles with the newer electronic controlled units, but, most of the problems are in the interface between the chassis and the trans.

The Allison World 1000, the unit GM is putting in their trucks, has had some teething problems but not many. Mostly shift point control and harshness.

Both Freightliner and Workhorse (bought out GM's StepVan & motohome chassis unit) offer the Cummins 3. 9B with an Allison transmission in their models.

 

[dodger22]

Spoke with a friend yesterday who's son is a GM mechanic. I asked him about the DuraMaxi and what problems he had encountered. Basically he said no problems with the engine but the Allison is another matter!! His son ordered a replacement trans. online from the GM warehouse in Woodstock Ontario which is the main distribution point for Canada. He was able to tell from the computer that to date, the warehouse had shipped out 2,300 auto trans to Canadian customers