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Old 01-31-2022, 07:52 AM   #1
rjrelander
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Transmission Failure

Transmission on the 2012 GMC Sierra 1500 gave up on us 200 miles from home over the weekend. About 145K miles on the truck, not towing during the trip, just running to pick up some stuff. Transmission and differentials were serviced a couple years ago at 110K miles. Just the 1750RD (4400 GVWR) towing during the summer. Weekends and a few long trips here and there. No transmission issues before.

The six-speed 6L80 started having trouble shifting on the high end and I had to baby it getting back up to speed after slowing down through towns. Seemed fine when it finally got up to speed. Used the throttle to keep the engine from over-revving and limped the few remaining miles to the BIL's house. According to the digital transmission temperature readings, it wasn't overheating or anything, about 130F with occasional spikes to 160F when it was struggling. Checked the fluid and the level was good, a little on the brown side but nothing alarming. No shavings on the dipstick.

Stayed overnight and tried it again in the morning. Got a little movement in drive and reverse and then nothing. Borrowed the sister in-law's F150 for the trip home. Called the local GMC dealer (local to where we left it) this morning to get on the service schedule and towed to their lot. Probably won't learn more for a couple days. Was checking online and they do have some nice, low mileage, used 3/4 tons on the lot.
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Old 01-31-2022, 11:25 AM   #2
jsb5717
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Well...bummer. It's hard to estimate when a tranny rebuild will be needed. My 2000 Ford diesel needed it at about 200k. My friend's 2004 RAM diesel needed it recently at about 70k. My 2012 RAM with 110K still seems fine but I fully expect to need a tranny one of these days. The hope is always to get a heads up so you can get the work done before you're 200 miles from home. Or worse...pulling your trailer out in the middle of nowhere. Sorry for the hassle.
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Old 02-02-2022, 07:02 PM   #3
rjrelander
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Well, got the call this morning. Transmission took enough internal damage that it's going to cost just as much to rebuild as it is to replace. Not going to put half the blue book value into fixing a high mileage ten-year-old half ton with low gear ratio and minimal payload.

Have a lead on a nice 2016 Super Duty F-350 SRW. Hopefully be able to change my signature soon. Unfortunately, with all this nonsense, it might be a while before we're able to upgrade the trailer to take advantage of it.
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Old 02-03-2022, 06:19 AM   #4
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With the price of both trucks and campers going nuts right now, if you get the new truck, you might want to wait until the bubble on prices for campers bursts in the near future. Hopefully you have another vehicle to get around in if the 1/2 ton isn't worth fixing.
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Old 02-03-2022, 03:33 PM   #5
rjrelander
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Originally Posted by wiredgeorge View Post
With the price of both trucks and campers going nuts right now, if you get the new truck, you might want to wait until the bubble on prices for campers bursts in the near future. Hopefully you have another vehicle to get around in if the 1/2 ton isn't worth fixing.
Yeah, luckily the sister-in-law just had her F-150 sitting in the garage for the winter and she's letting us use it until we get things sorted out. Needed an oil change so we did that for her this afternoon. We were thinking of upgrading to a medium sized toy hauler of some sort after the price/availability bubble bursts. Have to wait and see.

With the 3900# payload on the new (to us) F-350, we can probably keep using the little trailer for now and just ramp an ATV up into the back of the truck. It's an SRW with crew cab and the 6.7L power stroke V8 diesel so it doesn't have great payload but it's a lot better than the #1500 or so payload on the half ton with its ridiculous 3.08 grocery cart gear ratio. We bought that one before we even thought about getting a trailer. Luckily we found the 1750RD, that's about the only thing that truck could handle.
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Old 02-03-2022, 04:19 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by rjrelander View Post
Yeah, luckily the sister-in-law just had her F-150 sitting in the garage for the winter and she's letting us use it until we get things sorted out. Needed an oil change so we did that for her this afternoon. We were thinking of upgrading to a medium sized toy hauler of some sort after the price/availability bubble bursts. Have to wait and see.

With the 3900# payload on the new (to us) F-350, we can probably keep using the little trailer for now and just ramp an ATV up into the back of the truck. It's an SRW with crew cab and the 6.7L power stroke V8 diesel so it doesn't have great payload but it's a lot better than the #1500 or so payload on the half ton with its ridiculous 3.08 grocery cart gear ratio. We bought that one before we even thought about getting a trailer. Luckily we found the 1750RD, that's about the only thing that truck could handle.
Do some good measurements before you make any final decisions. If the F350 is a "standard bed" you'll only have 81.8" to play with. About an inch of that can be "eaten up by the front wall overhang" and about 2" is eaten up by the "stripper pole housing" (if the tailgate has the built in step), so just taking it for granted that you can fit a 81" ATV and close the tailgate doesn't always work in every application.

I wouldn't want to remove the tailgate to tow and have ramps, etc sliding around in the bed under the ATV and you can't tow a trailer with the tailgate down because of the tongue jack....

Loading a 75" ATV is no problem, but some of the larger ones with front/rear bumpers or light bars can eat up that 81.8" minus "bed incursions" real fast.

A "long bed truck" has a 98" bed length, but you're still going to lose a couple inches in that front wall lip and the stripper pole housing...
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Old 02-03-2022, 04:34 PM   #7
rjrelander
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Do some good measurements before you make any final decisions. If the F350 is a "standard bed" you'll only have 81.8" to play with. About an inch of that can be "eaten up by the front wall overhang" and about 2" is eaten up by the "stripper pole housing" (if the tailgate has the built in step), so just taking it for granted that you can fit a 81" ATV and close the tailgate doesn't always work in every application.
Good point. Toys always end up getting bigger the closer you get to finding the one you want, just like trucks and trailers. Maybe we can tow an ATV and toss the 1750RD in the back of the truck.
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