Tranny Numbers?

[Guest]

Hi All,

In the process of looking for a truck, I have seen many listings for the transmission type.

I'm really having trouble identifying which is which. RTLO-16913A, RMX10-165A, FRO-15210B, FRO-14210C, RT14710B, MO-16F10C-M......

I can guess that a "10" or a "13" in the number relates to the speeds, but other than that, I'm clueless.

How do you spot a Super 10 or a Eaton auto-shifter, or even a Meritor Freedom?

Are there others that are desirable or ones to avoid?

How can I learn more about this?

Thanks
Bo

 

[Doug-TC]

Well, the first thing to do is to go to the Roadranger page (www.roadranger.com) and follow the links for transmissions. The letters have to do with the basic class of the tranny (overdrive or not, etc); the first two digits are roughly the torque rating/1000, the third digit is the series (upgrades, so a "9" has some level of improvement over a "6", and the last 2 digits are the number of forward gears (more or less, since the hardcore off road trannies have some creeper gears that aren't counted in that). So, let's say what you see is an RTO18913 - that will be a 13 speed overdrive with an 1850 foot pound capacity, of pretty much the latest technology. (This is a CRUDE description - use the website and look at the various descriptions if you want to be correct!) The letter prefixes are important in terms of the general nature of the technology (such as differentiating the Lightnings from the standard OD trannies; the numbers in terms of capacity and # of forward gears).