Our company runs a fleet of trucks mainly throughout the southeast. Five (5) of those trucks are Dodge 3500 Ton Cummings Diesel trucks with a 5-speed manual transmission.
We have had to replace or rebuild the transmissions in each of these trucks, some more than once. We have also replaced several clutches as well. The average mileage at the time has been around 50,000. One truck only had around 28,000 miles when the transmission fell apart in it.
From what we can gather, we are not the only ones having this problem in this truck. Dodge / Chrysler has not done a lot to rectify this situation. The local Dodge dealer simply said our crews were too rough on these trucks, but we are not hauling much of a load on these trucks.
Now it seems they have come out with a new 6-speed manual transmission. If they are not having trouble, why come out with a larger transmission?
We have been left stranded on the roadside all over the Southeast! I have had to be without trucks due to the time it takes to get one fixed which puts me in a bind. Also, the amount of time our employees are spending either waiting on a replacement truck, re-loading trucks, or the amount of time spent riding back to Aberdeen in a tow truck.
