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Is the 68RFE any better than before?

Lokomotive

Lokomotive

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I just upgraded from a 2007 Ram 3500 to a 2023 Ram 2500 Cummins HD tradesman. I had problems with my 68 RFE in the old beast and I'm just wondering if they've improved the 68 RFE since then. I tow a 7800 pound travel trailer perhaps 10,000 miles a year and I don't want to have any trans problems. Any experiential or historical data on this model year for the 68RFE? Any advice or recommendations? Thanks up front.....
 
They upgraded the vavlebody in the newer versions. It's a good transmission in stock form, if you tune and crank up the HP all bets are off though.


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Service it every 60k (overnight drain with filters off), and it’ll live a long & happy life at stock power levels.
 
H3LZSN1P3R said:
With a good trans tune it can hold 550HP reliably aslong as you dont tow at max power
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Thanks. I don't tune for power or drive hard. I do tow a 7500lb travel trailer. I try to avoid 5th/6th gears/ overdrive under heavy load. I watch trans temp & try to keep it 165-180. Overheating kills!! Many guys say you MUST swap out the factory thermal warm up device (get stuck open?) for a complete thermal bypass (revmax, etc) but I think I'll wait and see- I haven't seen any factual evidence for this, just claims it is necessary. Not sure what to think about that.
 
Lokomotive said:
Many guys say you MUST swap out the factory thermal warm up device (get stuck open?) for a complete thermal bypass (revmax, etc) but I think I'll wait and see- I haven't seen any factual evidence for this, just claims it is necessary. Not sure what to think about that.
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I've heard the same about it being a must-do mod. But my tranny temps stay down even pulling my trailer through the Rockies. And reading these forums pretty much every day, I don't see any rash of tranny issues because the mod was not done. So I'm leaving mine stock.
 
Lokomotive said:
Thanks. I don't tune for power or drive hard. I do tow a 7500lb travel trailer. I try to avoid 5th/6th gears/ overdrive under heavy load. I watch trans temp & try to keep it 165-180. Overheating kills!! Many guys say you MUST swap out the factory thermal warm up device (get stuck open?) for a complete thermal bypass (revmax, etc) but I think I'll wait and see- I haven't seen any factual evidence for this, just claims it is necessary. Not sure what to think about that.
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You can lock gears out if the trans is hunting or shifting too much from rolling hills, but otherwise there is no reason to avoid towing in 5th or 6th.

The thermal bypass device is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. It will also prevent your transmission from getting up to temp, which has its issues as well.
 
I believe there have been upgrades to the valve body for the 19+ models. However, I still read quite a few threads on here and FB relating to valve body issues (accumulator plates/solenoid packs).

Tuning the 68s has its pros and cons. With increased line pressure you will see less clutch wear but increased line pressure can potentially lead to accumulator plate issues and cross bleeding as well. I much prefer how a tuned 68 drives compared to stock, if you are hard on it you will have issues but if you drive responsible your 68 will live a long life whether its tuned or not.

The thermal bypasses in my opinion only belong on full out race trucks. The transmission is designed to operate at a specific temperature and a thermal bypass delete will not allow your transmission to reach operating temperatures. To my knowledges the 68s run cool in stock configuration. I generally see 160-170 and compared to my previous Fords I am extremely happy, if it aint broke don't fix it!
 
Lokomotive said:
Thanks. I don't tune for power or drive hard. I do tow a 7500lb travel trailer. I try to avoid 5th/6th gears/ overdrive under heavy load. I watch trans temp & try to keep it 165-180. Overheating kills!! Many guys say you MUST swap out the factory thermal warm up device (get stuck open?) for a complete thermal bypass (revmax, etc) but I think I'll wait and see- I haven't seen any factual evidence for this, just claims it is necessary. Not sure what to think about that.
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Even if you don't tune for power a trans tune is great to change the shift points as the factory shift points are far to low in my opinion
 
I have a 22’ with the 68rfe and towing this past summer with temps over 100 degrees with a TT in the same weight range as yours, the transmission temperature never got over 170. I think a trans tune would help my truck because the converter locks at the same time it shifts to 4th and has a large rpm drop. But even with that, it tows fantastically. Mine is completely stock, thermal bypass and all.
 
OLEJOE said:
I have a 22’ with the 68rfe and towing this past summer with temps over 100 degrees with a TT in the same weight range as yours, the transmission temperature never got over 170. I think a trans tune would help my truck because the converter locks at the same time it shifts to 4th and has a large rpm drop. But even with that, it tows fantastically. Mine is completely stock, thermal bypass and all.
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That large rpm drop going into 4th and the subsequent rpm fluctuations at light throttle concerned me there for a while but the more I’ve read about it, seems to be normal. I will note however that under a decent acceleration it shifts from 3rd to 4th like the rest of the gears.
 
MtnRider said:
They upgraded the vavlebody in the newer versions. It's a good transmission in stock form, if you tune and crank up the HP all bets are off though.


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Click to expand...
Do you know which year the upgrade was implemented, or a document covering these and other upgrades.
 
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