How fleets can save money with reman transmissions
A continuing trend for transmissions is the automated manual transmission (AMT), which is seeing exponential growth, gobbling up most of the transmission market. With that being the case, it’s no surprise that AMTs are available in reman form as well.
“Reman automated manual transmissions have been in the marketplace for about 10 years,”says Scott Pond, a product manager for Navistar. “We expect the market to continue to move away from the standard manual transmission to AMTs in the coming years due to its performance benefits.”
“As market acceptance for new automated manual transmissions continues to grow, so have the sales of our reman AMT models,” says Bill Fouch, aftermarket marketing manager for NAFTA with Eaton. “Right now we have more than 70 different AMT models ready to ship.”
So how does remanufacturing an AMT differ from the process for a manual? Navistar’s Pond explains that AMTs contain several electronic components not typically found in a standard manual transmission. Therefore, in addition to the replacement of typical wear parts like bearings, seals and gears, the circuit boards and wiring harnesses also require review.
“It’s a whole different level with AMTs, where we of course also address the base box, but we also remanufacture ECUs with their circuit boards, wiring harnesses and anything unique to our AMT portfolio,” Eaton’s Fouch says. “We continue to look into additional opportunities like our Flex reman program that gives our customers better access to our transmissions for quick turnaround times, and our Eaton Authorized Rebuilder program that gives fleets and independent drivers a new option to purchase locally rebuilt transmissions with 100% Eaton components.”
Other reman transmission manufacturers include Volvo, Mack and Detroit.
Automatic options
Fully automatic transmission reman options are also available from Allison Transmission thanks to its ReTran program.
“Every Allison ReTran transmission starts with our commitment to quality and plays out in our ability to bring that transmission back to life using exclusively Allison genuine parts and our original factory build specs,” says Ramon Aguillon, aftermarket sales manager for Allison Transmission. “Transmissions are disassembled part by part to clean, qualify and test each component to screen for the possibility of reuse. Those components that cannot be reused are discarded and new components are used which are always brand new, exclusively Allison genuine parts. Quality inside means you get a more reliable, dependable remanufactured transmission.”
An Allison ReTran product has a standard limited warranty of two years/unlimited miles and 100% parts and labor, Aguillon shares. Extended Transmission Coverage (ETC) is available for two additional years, for a total of four years of coverage. However, their standard warranty and ETC does not include remove and replace labor for units not installed at an authorized Allison Transmission distributor or dealer location.