What's the best transmission for a dump truck?

02, Jul. 2024

 

7 things to consider when spec'ing a dump truck transmission

The challenge for many dump truck applications is they need to get up to highway speeds but also operate around a jobsite with complete control. That means you need a transmission with good slow-speed maneuverability. For example, with Eaton's automated manual transmissions, you could start at the UltraShift PLUS VCS with 10 forward and 3 reverse speeds for fl eets needing basic dump operations, or you can move all the way up to the UltraShift PLUS MXP with 18 forward and 4 reverse speeds. And for super-slow maneuverability, consider the UltraShift PLUS VMS. It has the highest starting gear ratio available.

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best engine/transmission choice for a dump truck - 26-33k ...

Ideally I'd steer ya towards something with a 10spd which also means air brakes, but also means you can pull more with a trailer, but you will need a CDL.
Otherwise any 5+2 combo works good, especially with more modern axle shifting mechanisms (if its electric make sure the housing is more square, and doesn't have a little starter motor sticking out the top... these all have issues, and is one of the reasons the DOT frowns on folks shifting gears over railroad tracks...)

Any Cat engine will be a good engine, though having ran a in a 10yrd tandem truck... it wasn't exactly winning any races but it was very very hard to kill, and still ran like a top as the rest of the truck rotted around it. Only problem is finding Cat engines in newer trucks, as cat decided they simply are not going to play the emissions game. Also the 's are getting hard to source parts for, not impossible, but difficult and expensive.

Older Cummins engines are skookum, any of the NTS big cam stuff, and the 5.9/8.3 family of stuff is rock solid, some of the newer stuff has the usually sensor gremlins that plague everything (see why cat bailed out) but they are all more or less based on tried and true internals.

International DT466/540 are skookum choochers too, not the most powerful but more then enough for a 33K truck

As for Destroit (detroit/gm) while they sound cool, and parts are literally everywhere, probably even walmerch... they piss oil, and make more noise then they do power, but will eat ether for decades to keep running if they have too, the newer (silver?) 4 stroke Destroits have a decent rep with the OTR trucks, but only because like all GM stuff, the parts are cheap.

if you find one the ford branded diesels, other then the 6.9/7.3(which are really IH) stuff the inline 6 are good motors too, a PITA to prime if you run em out of fuel, but good strong motors.

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