My recent post "Blown you Blumenthals NV4500 lately" taught me a lesson.
It taught me to watch out what I post on a public forum until I am sure what happened.
I was SURE that the trans was blown.
I was wrong.
I was royaly ****** off and did not have money to fix the truck. I posted with Blumenthals name in the title and now I cannot take it back.
It was the clutch. Tore the center right out of it.
I felt sheepish. I still do
I started to do a search on South Bend. TDR is the BEST place to find out what is going on.
I am loyal to no one, except my dog. (Well, maybe the wife and kids too
)
But I saw something that really bugged me. In reading other experiences, I saw someone mention that because he had seen Peters name being mentioned and praised for his customer service so many times, his products must have a whole lot of trouble.
This will be the third South Bend clutch in my truck and I would argue that point.
I would have to point out the twelve people I know personally who have one of Peters clutches putting thier power to the road flawlessly. Put it in and forget it is the norm. Every one of these trucks is in the 400-600 HP range.
After talking with Peter, I realized that I was on the hairy edge, if not over, the TQ level of my clutch's abilities.
There is a fresh 13" OFE on its way to CT overnight...and he treated me MORE than fairly! In fact, he didn't even make me twist his arm about it, he just offered an EXTREMELY good solution and I accepted. That was it. Took about six minutes.
My nose isn't brown. I don't even know Peters last name. It does not matter. He sold me a clutch. It broke. He is taking care of it.
As for seeing someones name here a whole bunch and letting it worry you about thier product...here comes my little "2 cents"
We drive vehicles that make dragster-levels of TQ.
I dont know too many TDR members who can resist a "ghetto piped" civic getting a thrashing/smoking/lesson when they get out of line.
What about a year ago (and this is just ONE of the examples) when a member posted that his tranny took out his clutch? A call to South Bend and a new one was on its way to the fellow. Reason for failure:his brother had "tried it out", slammed a gear under heavy throttle and shocked the snot out of the input shaft. Was this Peters fault? Nope, but he took care of it. Just like he took care of me.
The next time you see a bunch of posts on a good vendor, think about where you are. You are on a website that caters to diesel junkies who push the envelope.
Think about the tranny wars on this site. All the grown men, acting like children cause Sam likes DTT and Bob likes ATS...
You think this level of maturity governs itself when it comes to throttle application?
You will not hear from the twelve guys I know who had thier clutches installed and never had an issue. They won't tell you how they pull 18,000 pound trailers regularly or how they wind it up and dump it in third gear after too much Jose Cuervo...and it doesn't break.
You only hear when there is a problem. Even then, I would bet that 2/3's of the clutches Peter replaced were destroyed under "crazy" circumstances.
I would watch out more for the post that said, "the rotten... would not talk to me"... or: "XXXX never returned my call" or: "they sent me to four different people to deal with and I was on hold for half an hour"
Those are the calls that can bite you in the ***.
Being able to talk to the guy who makes the decision on your first phone call is getting more and more scarce these days. Talking to someone who takes care of thier customers is even more scarce.
When I build my camper-van with the 4B this summer, it will be getting a South Bend Clutch bolted in it.
Without question.
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