For offroaders they need to install a skid plate.
In your case won't insurance cover it.

 

They just need to put an aluminum oil pan on there. A 1/4 inch piece of plastic is just stupid.

I won't turn it into insurance as the part is relatively cheap and I'll install it myself. My deductible would be more than the parts anyways.

I am just really disappointed and needed to vent.

 

I have asked at 2 different dealers about a skid plate. None available. One said an aftermarket will probably be available soon I think I'll go to a welding shop & have one made.

 

Crazy.... good to know thanks.

 

A skid plate would help but its gonna drop below the crossover pipe for the exhaust and make ground clearence worse. It simply needs a metal pan.

 

I wonder if by installing a skid plate, may lead to excessive heat build up within the transmission & pan area, being that the exhaust cross`s over under the trans pan. (and wow is it close to that trans pan...!) What were they thinkin with that idea... BIG DUHHH on the engineers on that deal. Steel pan = AGREED...!!!!

On a side note... true duals WITH a skid plate would be the real answer.
Wait till they remove that exhaust to change the trans oil... DOHHHHHHHH

To the OP, it sucks, but it is what it is.
I`m sure we`ll see an aftermarket company build a kit... they always do.

 

The transmission pan is made of a composite material the is "suppose" to be stronger than equivalent density steel with better heat dispersing/distributing properties. There are several threads on this topic.

How do you know that the results would have been different if the same rock hit a metal cover? I once hit a rock off-roading that crushed a skid plate and cracked the oil pan. Both were metal.

The cliché that nothing is made as good as it use to be... has some truth, but the reality is that more alternative (non-steel) materials will be used due to reduced weight and improve fuel efficiency. If you sell your Ram, you'll find similar "issues" with other brands. Maybe not the transmission pan, but some other critical part(s)...

 

^^^^agreed......Was the "hit" a rock flipping up, or driving over one that was too high? Although you have a significant point that the pan should be metal, its impossible to know what that same impact would have done to a metal one.

 

If the engineers say the composite is stronger I'll take their word for it. I'm guessing your metal pan would have been screwed too. Almost every metal trans pan here in the north where roads are salted rusts out in 100,000 miles. S I welcome the move to composite.

When mountain bikes first started moving from aluminum to carbon fiber people had the same reaction. Even though the engineers said the carbon fiber was much stronger, people wouldn't accept it. He's a great video of some of the engineers doing some testing between frames that are identical except one is aluminum and one is carbon fiber. The carbon fiber out performs the aluminum by a huge margin.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xreZdUBqpJs

 

The piece that broke off was about the size of a fifty cent piece. I placed it on a concrete pad, hit it with a hammer and it chattered into 3 pieces. I seriously doubt steel would have done that. I hear engineers say composite polymer and I think cheap fix because they didn't want to use quality pieces that MIGHT have cost 100 bux more. And a skid plate there would undoubtedly creat a heat trap against this composite polymer garbage.

I am just bitter because the well paid engineers thought the crossover pipe for the exhaust was sufficient to protect a cheap plastic oil pan.

I guess I should have paid more attention to the utility of the truck before I bought it.

 

I get what you`re saying, but i sometimes wonder if it was just a freak thing what happened to you. I have to agree with some of the other guys here too, about a metal pan, would a metal pan have changed the outcome, dunno. I`m more concerned that one day, with an over heated crossover pipe under that plastic pan makes me wonder if we`re going to see some fires caused due to a plastic pan getting melted (or cracked...!) and trans oil starts pouring out onto hot exhaust...hmmmmm, i smell a future recall... or maybe some overheated transmission during towing, hot trans, hot exhaust, might be a bad scenario. Time will tell i guess. Anyway, fix your truck my friend, these trucks are the lesser of the 3 evil`s out there for right now.

Ummmm yeahhhh, i work with engineers everyday at my job, i wish they would learn some common sense... long story short, they`re NOT the brightest crayon in the box, and thats just putting it nicely.

 

one of the first thing i want to do is get some skid plates for the sport. guess if i go off road in the mean time, i'll have to be careful.

 

cass, you might want to re-consider adding a skid plate under that 8-speed. If covered by skid plates, you might be blocking off much needed air flow to keep the pan cool. As i said earlier, the exhaust runs directly under that trans pan and its sitting very tight to the pan. The only way to do it justice is to add true dual front pipe`s, that will take the front pipe entirely away from the trans pan. And in also doing so, you could run a skid plate closer to the pan with the exhaust out of that area and not have any ground clearance issues with a skid plate hanging further down to clear an exhaust pipe. Think about it, an exhaust pipe almost touching that pan is definitely adding heat to that area already, closing it off from what little air flow even gets to that area, you`ll create yourself a huge problem i believe.

 

Anyone know if the 2013/2014 outdoorsman 8-speed has skid plates under the transmission pan...? If it does, could someone share some pics of it..? Be interesting to see if it does and how they`re placed under the trans pan.

 

On a side note... true duals WITH a skid plate would be the real answer.
Wait till they remove that exhaust to change the trans oil... DOHHHHHHHH



Actually the 8 speed apparantly never requires a fluid change, has lifetime transmission fluid in it. There is also no dipstick to check the fluid level, tranny is sealed for life. Lol

 

Yup, i`m aware of the lifetime no service on the 8-speed, BUT you should know as well as i do, somebody somewhere is going to have to remove an 8-speed pan for some unknown reason(s) to do service work on it. (like say a bad transmission/warranty) Just sayin...lol.

 

I posted the same concern as soon as I crawled under my truck for the first time also. BS they would use plastic. Worse that the protection group skid plates doesn't protect it! Don't forget the fuel tank is also plastic with no skid plates...
One well placed rock...who knows how stranded we will be....

 

Back in my former job, I designed and engineered one of those plastic tanks for a specialty vehicle. They have 7-8 separate layers of plastic with one of the center layers being a flexible plastic layer. They are remarkably strong. You will not put a rock through a plastic tank.
Composite materials are generally stronger, better at heat transfer, and generally MORE expensive than steel. The engineers aren't idiots. They know what they're doing.

 

So why do I have this thick metal skid plate protecting my composite fuel tank? Come to think about everything is metal with the fuel tank being the only non metal item under my truck, but i have an extensive metal skid plate system of plates and bars. If composite was better wouldn't the use it reducing weight?

The composite appears to deteriorate over time, I mean you may not be able to put a rock through it but I broke it accidental with my hand.

Give me metal or give me death.

And yes it would be a fatal flaw, no fluid, no move.

 

I agree and want to believe RAM engineered the material to be stronger than steel. Although I don't see any other posts discussing a rock going through a steel pan... it could happen to metal and could have been a freak thing with this instance, but regardless they should have put a skid plate over the pan (and the fuel tank) when you pay for a "protection package"...just my opinion!

 

The pan was designed for rear wheel drive European cars. Chrysler just bought it and threw it into a pickup truck.

 

My GF's '13 BMW X5 has the same ZF 8-speed trans; I climbed under the X5 and it too has a composite (not metal) pan on the transmission.

 

How is this a "fatal flaw" in the transmission design?

I see what you're getting at but let's not blow things out of proportion. If it had a metal pan then there is still no telling how thick it would be so the result may well have been the same, especially if it were aluminum.

 

I greatly agree with you Thunderhorse. "Fatal", this is not. Even if it was steel, it still would have crushed in and possibly caused damage to something else internally. Off-roading has it's risks no matter what bránd. It reminds me of a buddy who took me off-roading in his new 2006 Regular cab F150 and we came to a 3 foot tall dirt mound. He decided to jump it like the Dukes! We landed nicely but he blew his power steering out. Fluid all over the ground and we drove home like it was rack and pinion steering. "Fatal Flaw"? No. Just risks of off-roading.:smileup:

 

8 speed Jeeps have a steel transmission skid plate.

 

My 2011 F350 had a composite oil pan.

 

3 years later and still no aftermarket skid plate is available for the Ram 1500 transmission.

 

Also 3 years later, having now changed the fluid and pan/filter in my 8 speed, the pan is very thick plastic. I don't see an aluminum one being any stronger

 

TH: how did you drain all the fluid from the trans & convertor?

 

Good read, thanks for bringing this thread back from the dead.

Know the vehicle’s weaknesses/limitations before you start testing them, those “rocks” don’t just jump out of nowhere.