kurek
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2019
- Posts
- 2,498
- Reaction score
- 3,440
- Location
- Northwest
- Ram Year
- 2015
- Engine
- Hemi 5.7
Time's come for the first service on my RFE transmission. I had a Jeep with the same trans years ago and serviced it routinely by dropping the pan, messy but I'm totally comfortable with the work.
My question is are there any advantages to a cast aluminum aftermarket pan other than the drain plug and potentially improved cooling?
The drain plug seems cool but the fact is if I'm replacing filters I still need to drop the pan so the only thing the drain really would do is let me pre-empty the pan before dropping it. So it might save me some spillage. I'm going to have at most maybe 5 or 6 such service intervals in the life of the truck and I'm not sure $350ish to maybe prevent a ruined t-shirt or a stain in my already stained driveway is a good value.
The cooling factor also seems cool (heh) except... my RFE never warms up anyway. Not even while towing in the southwest in summer. Probably a combination of how the RCSB weighs less than 140" and 149" WB trucks, the tradesman trim doesn't have grill shutters, I'm totally satisfied with 33" tires... whatever combination of factors this transmission doesn't see heat so... again not sure a cooling solution is a good value.
That leaves me wondering if I should bother buying an aftermarket pan at all. The money's not a big deal, I can afford it without cutting into anything else I was going to do really but that doesn't mean I want to just spend it to spend it. You know what I'm getting at here.
So talk me into it, or out of it. What are your experiences?
My question is are there any advantages to a cast aluminum aftermarket pan other than the drain plug and potentially improved cooling?
The drain plug seems cool but the fact is if I'm replacing filters I still need to drop the pan so the only thing the drain really would do is let me pre-empty the pan before dropping it. So it might save me some spillage. I'm going to have at most maybe 5 or 6 such service intervals in the life of the truck and I'm not sure $350ish to maybe prevent a ruined t-shirt or a stain in my already stained driveway is a good value.
The cooling factor also seems cool (heh) except... my RFE never warms up anyway. Not even while towing in the southwest in summer. Probably a combination of how the RCSB weighs less than 140" and 149" WB trucks, the tradesman trim doesn't have grill shutters, I'm totally satisfied with 33" tires... whatever combination of factors this transmission doesn't see heat so... again not sure a cooling solution is a good value.
That leaves me wondering if I should bother buying an aftermarket pan at all. The money's not a big deal, I can afford it without cutting into anything else I was going to do really but that doesn't mean I want to just spend it to spend it. You know what I'm getting at here.
So talk me into it, or out of it. What are your experiences?