Which clutch now?

[Drewhenry]

I recently added SMARTY. I do not wish to destroy my truck. Which clutch would be recommended by anyone with similar mods? I do not plan on racing, sled pulling, or towing heavy. I may occaissionally try to "smoke" the competition or an unruly mustang. I will also be spending much time in 4wd on the beach. I am having difficulty deciding whether the Southbend OFE or FE will work best for my applications.

Thanks.

 

[duraman03]

I have a Con Ofe in my 06'. I have had it for about seven months. It has been a good clutch until I towed my toy hauler out on the beach. It slipped it pretty bad the last two times out on the sand while dragging the trailer. Could have been my inexperience on the sand. It seemed to recover well after that so I thought it was ok. I tow with SW3 mild tq. Then just last weekend it lasted one run at the track. The second run it slipped real bad on SW9 wild tq. So I called Peter at Southbend and he has talked me into upgrading to a dual disk. He said I wont slip this one. I guess what I am trying to say is I wish I had just spent the extra money in the first place for the dual disk. Peter said the pedal pressure would be about the same as my Ofe and make about the same amount of noise. I did make 501hp and 952tq on the dyno with my Ofe. If you don't plan on running any more power than the Smarty or do ANY racing you might be ok.

 

[WOT]

I also have the Ofe (seem to be following duraman03 threads lately ). So far it has held up ok for me (1 year now), tow the 5th wheel on #3 and so far hasn't slipped. I only run #9 empty but do beat it on a somewhat regular basis :-laf. Now that being said if I want to pump more power then just the smarty, which I have thought about doing (read as add drugs), I might be in trouble. Of course with the price of #2 I seem to be having more cash flow issues :{



FYI, the dyno run in my signature was with the beta software a while back, so I don't know what it does with the Revo #9 - will be able to tell you after the next local dyno day!

 

[MSchneider]

just had my 3250 sbdd installed to day nomore clutch slippage with smarty on #3 mild tq. a little noisy but not bad dont notice it with a low volume on the radio. peddle it a bit stiffer than stock. i tow a 15k 5er. havent towed it yet. trans semes to shift a little slower than stock clutch. ill see waht happens afer clutch breaks in.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

The Smarty can add a lot of power. In the higher settings, you probably will exceed the capabilities of the South Bend Con-ofe clutch, and will certainly exceed other capabilities such as your turbocharger. The ofe has organic facing on one side and feramic (an iron ceramic type material) on the other side. The organic side gives more smoothness of engagement, but does not hold as much torque as the feramic facing. Thus, the con-O has less torque capacity than the OFe which in turn has less torque capacity than the Con-Fe with feramic facings on both sides of the disk. The Con-Fe is more aggressive in engagement, in that it actually tries to engage fully whereas organic facings just seem to slip less and less, engaging very smoothly. Any organic facing, even the premium facings that South Bend uses, will be susceptible to glazing from heat (excess slippage such as riding the clutch). Once glazed, torque capacity is significantly reduced. The feramic facings are not subject to glazing. Tremendous heat is detrimental to any clutch, of course, causing de-tempering of springs, wear and hot-spots or even cracking of metal. Personally, I have happily accepted the somewhat more “positive” engagement of the Con-Fe as a minor (to me) detriment compared to its positive features of very long life, minimal wear of the flywheel and clutch over time, very high torque and power capacity, and resistance to glazing if I need to slip it moderately at any time.