General Motors has a winning formula in its Heavy Duty 3/4-ton 2500 and full-ton 3500 pickups, outperforming its rivals from Ram and Ford in the latest comparison tests. A lot of credit can go to the Allison transmissions mated to the 6.6-liter Duramax diesel engines under the hood. These titanic transmissions are responsible for seamlessly transferring 395 horsepower, and 765 pound-feet of torque to the wheels, and must sometimes do so with 23,000 pounds in tow, or 7,215 pounds in the bed. Moreover, they must be dependable and handle years and years of abuse. So far, Allison has seemed to live up to its stalwart reputation, and looks to build on it with a new transmission, the Allison 1350.
Designed for Class 4 and 5 medium-duty pickup trucks, the 1350 can handle an astonishing Gross Combined Weight Rating of 30,000 pounds. The current Allison 1000 found in GM’s 2500 and 3500 trucks is rated at a lesser 26,000 pounds. In addition, the 1350 comes with the Allison Optimized package. This includes Shift Energy Management (SEM), Low Range Torque Protection (LRTP), Load Based Shift Scheduling (LBSS), and Prognostics, all of which is designed to help conserve fuel, provide better acceleration, and carry loads in a more efficient manner.
Initially, the 1350 will be exclusively found in the International TerraStar medium-duty truck, but considering the healthy relationship between Allison and GM, along with several tips from our sources, it’s pretty obvious what’s going to happen. We can hear turbodiesels whirring with joy…
Comments
y hope gm use Isuzu d-max in the Colorado….for one gm do something right…the big hd diesel is too much money for some people..try to justified a 70,000 truck to your wife..
I hope they advertise the new medium dty line in this year.
I own a 3500HD 2006 with the Allison 1000 combined with 8.1L, but I will take the Allison1350 and turbo diesel. I hope everything will be in place when I order my 2013.
I don’t get it if Allison was such a successful division why did gm spin it off?
GM was hurting so badly that they had to sell whatever they had that was worth anything. Allison was literally bringing in billions to the General, but theywere sucking it all up because they were bleeding so badly. This really crimped Allison because GM would not let them spend any of those billions on R&D. Eventually things got so bad at GM that they sold Allison for upwards of 5 BILLION, which Allison would have brought in in a matter of just a few short years. This shows how poorly GM was being (and probably still is being) managed.
It was a happy day in the summer of 2007 for Allison when the sale was finally announced! Allison has since been freed from the shackels of the General, and has once again resumed developing new products which we will begin to see soon. Allison is a powerhouse, and actually I must say one of, if not the absolute best company I have ever had the pleasure to work with. You see, I became a fully certified Allison trainer (distributor trainer), and spent many a day at the Indianapolis HQ training center being schooled. After over 30 years, and having worked firectly for more than 7 different auto manufacturers, I can unequivocally state that by far, Allison is the absolute best! NO ONE does automatics better than Allison, and no single company has done more for the automatic transmission than anyone else on the face of this planet. GM actually held Allison back, and now that they have broken free, just wait to see what they come up with next. It doesn’t get any better than Allison!
(Sorry about the typos – fat fingers!)
You may wonder why you only see tha Allison in the GM pickups – another one of the General’s shackels! GM made Allison sign a “No Compete” contract as a condition to funding the development of the 1K/2K series transmissions. GM wanted the exclusive on this unit, and the forced Allison into a corner, so if they expected development funding, they could only get it if they agreed to only offer it to GM, and no one else for the pickup truck market. If fact, the reason the 1K in the GM pickup was only introduced as a five-speed, is because of the inferior driveline GM put behind it. The gearbox has the same internals as the six speed, but the valve body and the electronics just didn’t allow it to shift to 6th. That’s why places like SunCoast were able to modify the controls to give you the sixth range. Funny how one company can hold another back like that. God bless the guys at Allison though. They never gave up, and not they are back with a vengance under new ownership since the summer of ’07.
It sounds like these tranny’s have made a number of changes over the years. I’m looking to possibly purchase a newer (to me) GMC K3500 crewcab dually 4×4. It’s a 2006 with 40K miles on it. Is this a good one or have enough changes and improvements been made that it would be better for me to look at a newer year, and if so what year would be best.
Thanks to any that can help answer my question.
The HD trucks were overhauled for the 2011 model year. Have you considered those yet?
As it happens my wife and I just looked at both a 2011 and 2008 two days ago. The 2011 was a Chevy and the 2008 was a GMC, both were 4X4 crewcab dually’s with between 30K and 40K miles. Neither had a load in the bed and there didn’t seem to be any noticeable difference in ride or power. My wife was along because the ride comfort is very important to her. Our old 1994 GMC K3500 crewcab dually 4X4 with captains cloth seats (with a 454 and only 70K miles) is very comfortable and she can ride all day, but the newer with harder leather seats pains her back after awhile.
Back the subject, we plan to carry a heavy slide-in-camper ( around 4,500 lbs. wet weight, more with food and all our gear ). According to the posted spec’s our 1994 won’t carry that kind of load. I believe some of the newer ones will and with a diesel and Allison tranny it should also give me the added power I’d like to have. We are today going to look at a GMC like the one we drove except it’s a 2006, and the seller also has the type of camper we’re interested in, they’d like to sell the total package. I know we’d like a brand new truck but it would cost as much as the seller wants for the package.
We’re not in a major hurry but this could be what we’d like to have. I just don’t want to make a mistake and be sorry for it later. This truck has approx. 36K miles and is equipped with the Regency package.
Any thoughts, insights or suggestions would be most appreciated, we’ve never had a diesel before.
I bought 2012 gmc 3500 Denali Daully duramax Allison 25.000 miles on it now when it was new put in revers gos in gear perfect. Problem is when you put in drive its like it has a t stage engagement. You feel it lightly engage 1/2second delay then fully lock have had it to two dealers thay say nothing rong. I don’t have a lot of faith in most dealer mechanics from past experiences talk to outside trans shops they say sounds like pressure problem. Also dealer ran update still same problem what good is warranty if no mechanic to fix it. What should I do