Changing horsepower and effective torque to the tranny.......

A few Eaton Tranny's are up to the "top two" torque rating. As far as I know the programs for Cat come from Peroria mainframe

 

What I previously wrote concerning the uprate was what I was told while sitting in the office of LA machinery's service manager. I was in that same office when he called their Reserve home office, and spoke to the person whom would have written the program. This conversation was on speakerphone, as that person was explaining to me about bearing the cost of him writing the program.

 

Good for you Droy!!!!! A lot of us are a bit disenchanted with "Mother Cat" , the shops that will uprate are geting few & far between

 

What is it with them,they are the same over here its like you are only leasing the engine off them.
I'm seriously thinking of spending the money and offering a service to change ECM settings to what the customer wants.

 

Since 2004, when they inframed my 3406E, I have come to know the service manager, and a couple of techs pretty well, even being invited to a couple of after hours cookouts at their store. I have learned almost as much about Cat policy by listening, and NOT asking questions, as by asking. Whenever you inquire about something like getting more performance from an engine, you can almost feel them tense up. Three different techs, and the SM have all told me that "under NO circumstances will they jeopordize their jobs by bending or breaking Cat rules". I sometimes think that the "Cat Police" constantly check for unathorized changes.

Don't know this Cat employee very well, or his position, but he once informed me that two independent EX-Cat techs that left to open their own store operate under LA Machinery's "umbrella", and thus are also very limited to what mods they can perform. One of the independents verified this when I asked him. Talk about having a long arm.

This stuff may all be because of EPA, and Cat getting hammered for being not being within the parameters they set.

 

The uprate deal with CAT came from lawsuits. CAT went throught a phase where they would uprate any of their motors no matter what if the owner wanted it. Well you can guess what happened. Basically a bunch of inexperienced drivers and many broken transimissions and rearends. People came back on CAT for uprating the motor past the rate torque ratings and guess what...the courts ruled in favor of the people.

 

I can understand them being a little hesitant because of that. FWIW concerning my "uprating" dilemma dating back to my '96 3406E, the rearends were never an issue, I was told that they were capable of handling torque from any NORMALLY uprated engine. I think even 550 (RIP) had stock rears in his powerhouse.


I was quoted by a Kenworth dealer, and an International dealer that to uprate my 2004 bridge engine, would cost near $3000, then was told that a good portion of that was to go to EPA as a penalty for the added NOX that my uprated engine would be emitting.

 

Cat's (as well as other engine maker's) reluctancy to uprate beyond driveline ratings makes sense...sort of. However, for years there were the modified 12v71's and K-series Cummins in front of 1250 & 1450 torque transmissions without failure. I personally ran an IH 4070B cabover with an "uprated" big cam I in front of a RTO9513 and never had any problem. Heck, just about anyone who ran a big cam turned it up some fashion or another.

The mods of yesterday make the minor +100 or 200 lbs-ft upgrades of today seem irrevelant. ...even more so when you take a look at the parts manuals for the 1850 & 1650 torque Roadranger 18-speed transmissions. Those manuals, with the exception of the cover pages, are identical--part for part. Is the torque rating just a tag difference for warranty purposes? I'll attest that there sure is a difference in cost between the two when specing new!

BTW, looking at the 2050 torque version of the above-mentioned transmissions, it seems that the only iron change is the splitter gear. Go figure. I do concede that there are notable differences in the lower torque (1450 and below) transmissions, but it seems that Roadranger has created these "families" of transmissions that are technically identical, yet marketably different. Too bad you can't just uprate the transmission with the laptop as you can the engine.

 

I have had a 1850 transmission last with a 2050 rating behind it. Had a 1750 rating go up to 2050, clutch fried because it was installed wrong from the factory. The rest of the trans survived. The transmission manufactures underrate their tranmissions. I have driven trucks when the purpose of driving them is to test the transmissions. I have not seen a transmission failure as of today. Now I would not say for you to take a 1650 and run it up to a 2050 without expecting a shorter clutch life. the clutch is the weak link in it all.

 

Sportster i agree, we ran 14613's and 14715's with B model Cats Hot as we new how, and never had tranny problems.