Broke the BTS

m j · May 17, 2015

hopefully I can

lariat 7.3 · May 17, 2015

How the heck did golfing get brought up lol

pilot4life · May 18, 2015

cbf9703 said:
Wow.... 30k over 6 years... that's what I put on my truck in an average year. Must be nice!

Not really. Means a lot of time spent away from my wife and kids

lariat 7.3 · May 18, 2015

pilot4life said:
Not really. Means a lot of time spent away from my wife and kids

You fly?

Obsledpuller · May 18, 2015

I can only speak to my experiences with BTS so I'm just going to preface this with that. I have an E40D in my OBS and a 4R in my DD both BTS' I recently blew a front drive shaft and broke my E40D case and luckily was headed to BTS to get.my 4R Done in my DD when I called (very rarely do I get Brian on the first try) he called back and told me that if I brought my new case along he would transfer all parts to the new case. When I arrived the day before my appointment they offloaded my cases and told me they'd see me tomorrow. When I got there the next day for my appointment my E40D was already done and they did their thing on my DD. I have had many phone calls since then involving various things and while he is hard to get on the phone(usually under a truck doing another trans) if you call a few times you can usually get a hold of him. Just my experience with BTS has overall been good. Although I've never had to ship anything back and forth so I can't speak to that end of things. I haven't had any problems with either of my transmissions burning up or anything that has been mentioned.

TARM · May 19, 2015

While shipping cost is something we have to deal with if not local that is really on us but its still an expense no doubt. But yes if you have to go back and forth for poor workmanship or defective parts that makes it that much worse no doubt about it.

Not playing devils advocate here as it seems to be a jump on but I know just from the conversation I have been privy to BTS has had a ton of abuses of the warranty he gives. A good number of people were selling off well used/abused BTS and the new customer we sending it in the be rebuilt as if he was the original. I know of at least 10 personally so you have to figure the number is likely 10x+ at least and over the years I would guess alot but still a fraction of total sales I would think. I know they finally got a handle on it. I do know they are/were swamped and that was a couple years ago and it only got worse.

I bought one used and that had broken the front pump after being behind 600-700 HP in a couple motors for likely 100K and it was seriously abused in that time. I was completely up front with Brian as was the previous owner that sold it to me. Brian said he would rebuild the whole thing new TQ and all and would deeply discount the work to me. He was up front and said it would take 6 month and seeing as it was not in my truck I had no issues at all given the deal. When I went to setup return which was maybe a week past that quoted time I had been talking with Tina we had discussed everything and what I had paid and how many other things I ending up having to replace etc. Well I get a call back from Brian maybe a hour later. His comment to me was something to the effect of "man you have really had it bad on all the costs. Tell ya what just pay for the electronic as I have to buy that just like you (which was maybe $300 I think) and we will call it even.

Again I am not discounting anyone s bad experiences either and yes I did have a 6m wait but I was informed of it upfront. I know the issue Ty has had as we have talked about before in private and I completely understand and respect his opinion as I would likely feel no different in that situation.

But as for me so far I have had nothing but good from Brian. From the little I personally know of the man, as I have not had him over for dinner, he is a stand up guy and my belief is the demand is way way way past what he can handle. Taking trans in for unlimted warranty time and the ways some of these are used along with new build the two have joined and my thought is its caused almost a geometric increase and wham in no time he is flooded. I had something similar happen and before I knew I had a 2yr backlog unless things slowed down. He is also no spring chicken any more either. I know I can not put in the 100+ hard hours per week I regularly did in my 20s and close to that in my 30s. Maybe sitting at a desk but not the harsh dirt chewing manual labor anymore. Certainly not the way I humped it back then.

There are two sides to everything and no way most or possible any here actually knows both sides of any of this as a overall issue not something individual. Just saying.

lariat 7.3 · May 19, 2015

Oh don't take this as bashing him or anything. Im going to give him the benefit of the doubt and that he'll cover it. Him covering the warranty stuff is what made us put a tranny in both our trucks. Was just kinda peeved that it took a dump on a basically just tuned 7.3. Tranny is waiting to be dropped at the local diesel shop. I swapped both of them and for $90 they'll do it, which I will gladly pay hahaha

pilot4life · May 19, 2015

lariat 7.3 said:
You fly?

Yes

buschpoweredstroker · May 19, 2015

lariat 7.3 said:
You fly?

Nope, "pilot4life" just sounds like a cool name!!

ointlaugh:

OBSWIZ · May 20, 2015

elrodalexander73 said:
I think this is the biggest issue with BTS, and well I am prolly making an educated accusation coming from the buisiness as someone who has rebuilt several transmissions is that his demand has overcome his ability to supply.. This is just an opinion but when you have to build a 1000+ 4Rs/E4s right you run into how much will I have in a trans to make it right.. You tear it down, discover it has a junk planetary (planetarys are super duper expensive) and the customer demands the best for 5500 bones IIRC, but the billet shafts, clutches, converter, trick shift parts and machining and assembly time allow you to make profit when you have say 5000 invested.. So they buy cores, they use core transmissions as donors, EVERY MANAFACTURER DOES THIS INCLUDING CAT, CUMMINS, AND ALLISON, DETROIT BLAH BLAH BLAH.. So what do you do, call the customer and inform them, hey we are going to use genuine new BW parts to repair the transmisson right but your bill is now 7500 bucks... No they rob parts from other cores and peice it together, alot of people that build transmissions do this, I've done this for customers as well, it works, but is every single part isn't 100% some times, it's the risk you take. Clutches fail for a number of reason, planetarys get enough slop in them to cause binding issues during an unlocking event, low line pressure, warped cases, a shift valve that stuck after the break in period, it's hard to build a perfect transmission when you're adding 3500 bucks worth of Billet shafts and have say 1500 left for rebuilt parts and converter.. And now you take 500 for profit.. It's hard to sell it at what they really sell it for to make money and stay in buisiness.

You haven't a clue what Brian does, how he does it or how many trans he builds in a year or how many employees he has..

Here I fixed it for you:

I am not making an educated accusation.

TyCorr · May 20, 2015

Not picking a fight Cary but you dont necessarily know what "Elrodalexander" does either. To be fair.

How many bts have you alone sold? Guesstimate.

Jomax · May 20, 2015

My local builder is great. Does all the mods the big guys do. Runs a 3 disk road runner. Took the trans and upgraded the TC to a 4 disk and after 3 yrs, 30k miles, 30 track passes with 175 30s, also Towed heavy. The clutch material had barely if any wear. I'm super impressed. And he's local

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bluedge8 · May 20, 2015

Jomax said:
My local builder is great. Does all the mods the big guys do. Runs a 3 disk road runner. Took the trans and upgraded the TC to a 4 disk and after 3 yrs, 30k miles, 30 track passes with 175 30s, also Towed heavy. The clutch material had barely if any wear. I'm super impressed. And he's local

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What was ball park price on that trans if you don't mind.

OBSWIZ · May 21, 2015

TyCorr said:
Not picking a fight Cary but you dont necessarily know what "Elrodalexander" does either. To be fair.

How many bts have you alone sold? Guesstimate.

I, not picking one either.

I don't care about what he does or who he is as it doesn't pertain to his comments about BTS.

I sell about 10 or so BTS trans a year.

bad12jr · May 24, 2015

The only two complaints I have is not returning a call multiple times and saying roughly a month turn around and it being a little over 3 months. I would have been fine with a three month wait and would have planned more accordingly with a small beater truck to buy.

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Jomax · May 25, 2015

bluedge8 said:
What was ball park price on that trans if you don't mind.

2500$ install is 400$ so 2900 total. Also includes a billet input.

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elrodalexander73 · May 25, 2015

If this means anything, I've been an Allison builder at Clarke and an engine machinist for a few years, building a perfect performance trans and selling a 1000 of them is tough, I've gone through RD4500 Allisons that cost $12,000 to replace, and they have to hold up to guys taking cement mixers through swamps for crying out loud.. The reman buisiness has taken off over the years peicing transmissions together. Out of the 500 transmissions I've been inside of, alot of them require hard parts, parts that are very expensive, and to sell a top notch trans with everything right would cost prolly cost more than alot of these ole 7.3 pickups are worth.. Price out a new forward planetary and get back to me, or the billet shafts.. To build a 1000+ transmissions to the level of what people want these days is really hard and quality control is almost impossible, yet alone find builders to work for you and do exactly what you want them to do... Buy a book, buy some cores and see what I mean..

TrailerHauler · May 25, 2015

Have had great luck with mine so far, I bought one because of the excellent reputation he has built over the years. I spoke with him a few times when I was putting mine in my truck and setting it up with a PCS, he sent me files for the PCS and was more than helpful with getting everything going correctly. Don't like hearing about all these problems coming up lately but I suppose it was only a matter of time due to the large amount of business he has had, a screw up here and there is expected with the volume of work he does I guess. It sucks and I would be pissed about getting thrown under the rug and having to wait 6 months to get my trans back too, or having one crap on a lightly modded truck. Hopefully he comes through for those guys and gets the turn around time under control for warranty work.

lariat 7.3 · May 30, 2015

tranny has been shipped

DocBar · Jun 1, 2015

I've got close to 80K on my BTS at over 500RWHP with zero problems. I did have my OD light blink on me and my truck die, so I called BTS and, luckily, got Brian on the 1st call. I had scanned the PCM and it had several trans codes. His 1st reaction was shock, then he began to educate me on the board directly behind the fuse panel. He also offered to ship me the solenoid packs if I needed them. BTS is the only transmission I'll ever run in a Ford, regardless of year model.