well , i pulled the gearvendor overdrive unit off my old ford, it's still in great shape and the folk at gearvendor tell me for $650 or so they can hook me up with a tailshaft addapter for my dodge. has anyone run one of these on a dodge auto. mine has the auto lock set up with a bd exhaust brake. hopin for your experiance before i go thru the trouble for nothing. thank's john

 

I think it depends on how you use your truck, how many miles you drive a year and what kind of abuse you put your truck through.

 

One of our work trucks, a '91 cab&chassis with an 11 ft utility bed and a 3 speed auto has been running one for about 150k miles. We had to get it replaced once, which ended up being mostly under warranty; basically, they're bulletproof unless you decelerate hard (exhaust brake or down shifting) in OD. As long as you shift the GV out of OD before you engine brake, it'll live a long life.

What year truck and trans do you have? As far as function, we absolutely love the one we've got, mostly for highway/freeway driving, the lower RPM cuts down on the road noise and it gets quite a bit better mileage. The few times we drive it in the mtns it's really nice to be able to split gears.

If you don't want it, I'll "get rid of it" for you!

 

I've had one on the '91.5 for going on three years now. Can't say enough good about it. That truck is a towing monster with 4.10 gears and the GVOD. Always have the right gear available at the flick of switch, no matter what the conditions. Probably less of an issue with an automatic.

 

my tranny has an od which disengages with a button on dash. that's why im wondering if the gearvendor is a practical ap for this year truck. overdrive the overdrive? anybody?

 

The gearvendor unit basically adds another OD gear onto the transmission, while at the same time providing "split" gears. It allows the transmission to shift in between the factory gears, giving you a better tranny response. IIRC, the factory OD is a 1:1 ratio, and the GV unit gives you a better ratio on top of that. It's been a while since I talked to them about it, so I can't remember their numbers off the top of my head, but if you call them up, they'll explain how it all works, and the gear splitting ratios. If you're running a 47RE, 1-3 and 4 is OD, the GV unit will give you 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and a higher overall OD. dunno if that helps at all, but maybe someone with one can explain it better than that.

 

thank you for your ideas . i think i will call gearvendor back and ask a few more questions.

 

47RE and 47RH gear ratios

1st: 2.45
2nd: 1.45
3rd: 1.00
4th: 0.69

here is a break down of how the GV unit changes the gear ratios for anyone wandering.

Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive Dodge/Dodge RAM Final Drive Ratios.