BD Tapshifter 48RE Review

I have had this transmission for a little over a year now, and put about 20K on it, including towing through the CO mountains (Monument, CO to Zion NP and back) and thought I would write up a review/summary in case anyone else is thinking of this transmission. This is a bit lengthy/wordy so be warned!

Why?

To be completely frank, I did not need a new transmission, I wanted a new transmission! I had 188K trouble free miles on my original trans and have owned the truck since new. When towing, I often found it would stay in 4th/OD too long and EGTs would start going up (based on my tuning and BBi Stage 1s, I try to keep it below 1200deg) and it wouldn’t downshift (mostly on slight inclines/long gradual hills) so I would resort to the tow/haul button and force a downshift by going to OD off (always drove in Tow/Haul Mode when towing my trailer), and then when I wanted to get back to “normal” after the hill, I would have to hit the button twice (once for normal mode, once again for Tow/Haul) and it became a pain/annoying – often times I found that when I hit the T/H button, it would drop back to 4th/OD and then when I hit the button again (to enter T/H mode), it would drop to 3rd and the RPMs would jump and then it would shift again. Like I said… a little annoying. I had read about BD’s tapshifter and this was of interest to me as it would allow me to control the gears manually (manu-matic as it were). Also, since I had recently decided to keep my truck until the wheels fall off! I decided to splurge and upgrade the transmission.

How?

A few years ago I started looking at transmission options and based on what I read here on the TDR, I decided that Goerend was the way to go, and I started down that path, even though I would not have the manual control feature. “Started down that path” – what I mean is I contacted Goerend about my needs, found out where their installer was in my area, started building a parts list, and began putting money aside (aka “hiding it from the wife!”). I had talked to the shop near me and confirmed they could do the work. Then I got cold feet and sat on the idea for a few years. Fast forward to summer of ’22 and on a trip up to Grand Teton, I had a couple of incidents with my truck (blew a rear main seal, and then got a hole in external trans cooler line – both very messy but no lasting problems – my trailer got the worst of it – first being covered in oil, then trans fluid) which didn’t significantly impact my trip, thanks to a great shop in Casper, WY, but it got me thinking about a new truck. Plus, you guys are always posting pictures of your new rigs and MAN! do I have truck envy!! But then I looked at prices, including used trucks, and promptly fainted (ok, slight exaggeration)! Once I recovered, I made the decision to stick with my current ride, which is still in outstanding condition. I was also having an ongoing leak from the 8-pin plug and would have to pull the VB to fix and this gave me the excuse I was looking for, so I got serious about the transmission upgrade. By this time, there were no Goerend recommended (I think that is the right term) shops anywhere near me. I still liked the idea of the tapshifter, and then I read a post by Ozy about (as I remember it anyway, apologies if I “mischaracterize” you!) the potential advantages of a fully built-in-a-factory trans vs having a local shop do it and started looking at BD’s website again, since they offered fully built, turnkey, transmissions – although ATS is close by, I just read too many bad reviews – justified or unjustified, I do not judge. BD offered a full transmission with triple disc converter (they call it “multi-disc” now, but when I ordered it said triple disc), billet input, and tapshifter VB and there was a shop (“diamond installer” I think they call it) near me, in Castle Rock, CO. I looked up the shop (Tombstone Diesel) and they had good reviews, so I set up an appointment and went and met Travis, the owner. Travis is knowledgeable, experienced, and not pushy and we talked about my goals, desires, and interests. Travis also showed me his truck (IIRC it was a 3rd Gen diesel that is totally “built”) – holy cow! Travis knows these trucks very well. I placed an order for the BD 48RE and Tombstone did the installation in Nov or Dec of 2022. As an aside, I now take my truck to Tombstone for everything now based on my experience with them. Since then, I have used my truck as a daily driver, and towed my trailer a few times, with the longest trip being to Zion NP and back last summer.

Review

Overall, I am really very happy with the transmission. Super upgrade. I love how I can control the gears and no longer have to do the T/H button “shuffle”. I can also use the higher setting on my Smarty Touch (both box tunes and custom tunes) without worrying about detonating the trans – and WOW! can the truck move out! I usually keep it on the lower settings as I tend to baby my truck, but it takes a couple of days for the grin to go away after using the high-power settings!

The Bad

· Right off the bat, there were some issues with quality control from BD. A few days after I got it home, I started experiencing some leaking from the 8-pin plug as well as where the tapshifter electronics entered the pan. Took it back to Travis and he worked with BD to get the 8-pin plug replaced under warranty as well as the plug where the electronics entered the pan. That pretty much, but not totally, fixed the issue. No drips on my floor, but I can still see fluid outside the case. I have not had to add any fluid to date, so it is very minor.

· The shifting can also be somewhat harsh at times. Not all the time, and this is something that Goerend warned me about when I asked about hard shifting with a triple disc (they said their VB is set up to reduce/eliminate the hard shifting). But it is not annoying, and doesn’t happen all the time, but does happen from time to time. I am not worried about it, especially with the billet input, but thought I should point it out.

· Shift hunting: 1-2, and sometimes 2-3, shift hunting also happens occasionally at low speed, but this is not much of an issue because when it occurs, I just manually drop down to 1 or 2 and manually shift the trans until I speed back up. Not a prob, just something to be aware of.

· Tow-Haul mode issues: I noticed when I am in T/H mode there is some “weirdness” when in 3rd gear, with respect to the TC locking and unlocking. I noticed it during my Zion trip pulling hills in Utah – I would be in 3 (manually having selected it), and the TC would be locked, then suddenly unlock and then relock – first time it scared the &$*# out of me! This only occurs, in my experience, when in T/H mode and Tapshifter Mode 1 (explained in a bit). Over time I found that I do not need T/H mode anymore, since I can manually control the gears, and when not in T/H, I don’t have that issue.

I think that is all my complaints.

The Good

· Manual control: I love love love this feature. There are 3 (or 4?) modes – Mode 1 is manual shift. You can select the highest gear the transmission can go into, and it will do all the rest automatically. So, if I set 3 as the highest gear, it will shift up and down between 1-2-3 but will not go to 4. TC will lock and unlock as normal, just won’t shift higher than the gear you set. I use this a lot in traffic and really enjoy the ability to control the gear. Mode 2 transforms the T/H button to a TC Lock/Unlock button. Kind of like the “mystery switch” (I believe that is how people referred to it) that people sometimes add to their stock 48REs to allow manually-controlled TC locking. The gear shift controls work the same as Mode 1, and the TC unlocks and locks during shifts (or as normal) but you can manually lock the TC when you want – in this mode if you lock in 1st, and manually shift to 2nd, it will unlock during the shift, but immediately lock again, and keep doing this through the gear changes until you push the T/H button again. I noticed this greatly reduced my trans temps when towing. I also noticed that it is not a good idea to manually lock in 1st and then manually switch to 2nd when pulling hard! Turbo bark! Need to remember to unlock, switch gears, re-lock in this mode – or just not lock until you are up to cruise speed. I now only use Mode 2 when I am at speed and settled in for the long haul, pulling a steep hill slowly (in traffic), or coming down a mountain pass. Mode 3 is fully manual, and from what I gather this is for sled pulling or racing or something, but I will never use this. There may be a 4th mode but that would require me to read the instructions, and if I did, I would lose my “man card” I fear. Mode 1 and 2 are all I need.

· Towing: It is so much nicer to tow now as I use the manual function to control the gears as needed. The problem I mentioned at the start of this write up (long, gradual hills) has been solved, I just watch the RPMs and the EGTs, and then downshift at the optimal time (mostly felt by the seat of my pants) and then upshift when warranted. I can more easily keep the truck in the optimal RPM band.

· Traffic: CO Springs traffic is rapidly getting worse! There is a stretch of the highway (I-25) that is stop and go for quite a while and I like to drop down to 2 as I crawl along and the truck automatically shifts between 1 and 2 as needed. When the traffic thins out, I jump it up to 3 until I can get back up to speed and then set to 4 and I am back to “normal” full auto. I have also used it on snow/slick roads to manually control shifts to avoid wheel spin, and in conjunction with my EB to slow in traffic without using service brake – “downshift” to 3 and let the EB take over. Works great!



I have only had the transmission for, as I said, just over a year, but it has been performing well and I am happy with my purchase. I know there are a lot of 3rd gens that are getting long in the tooth (I just crossed the 200K threshold recently) and I often see treads on folks fixing, upgrading, or replacing their 48REs and wanted to let the group know about this option. In addition to the transmission and TC that I described above, I also had the BD billet flexplate installed (was discounted as part of the “package”). The cost was around $6850 for the parts and $1600 in labor (labor also covered the installation of a one-piece alum driveshaft that I had installed at the same time). The installed product includes the transmission and TC (of course!), an external filter that is mounted on the frame rail, and the OEM gearshift handle is changed out with a handle that has a +/- button (the T/H button remains - I believe the shift handle is OEM but from a later MY). There is also a display module that is mounted in the cab (I have it mounted on the steering column as shown in the picture). The display is normally blank unless you select the “-“, which causes it to show the current gear, and it displays the highest gear until you hit the “+” enough times to put it back in “normal” mode (I think BD calls it “turning the tapshifter off”). The install procedure uses quite a bit of trans fluid due to the requirement to flush everything, but Travis let me supply my own Amsoil fluid that I had purchased in vast quantities in preparation for the job.

If you have read this far, thanks, and I hope this helps someone. I checked the other day, and the cost seems to have gone up a little bit (just like everything else these days!). It is my opinion (whatever that is worth!) that this is worth considering if you need a new 48RE.


I will update this in the future if anything changes.

George

Pics of Transmission/components:
1. Display module that shows current mode and max set gear.

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2. External Filter
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3. Deep Pan - wire coming out the back is not temp probe, but rather control for the tapshifter solenoids.

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4. Image showing wiring connectors - connect to factory wiring harness.
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Edit
5. Pic of the new shifter
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Sweet! I have long wanted more control over my built 48RE.
I looked into this but finally decided to go with a full-manuel-valvebody.
Just got it going. I love it!
Concerns are family members driving and not down-shifting or forgetting to un-lock the TC...
I haven't towed yet.
Thanks for posting! Threads like this are so good, many of us can't pay for new trucks & stuff like this keeps the 3rd gen love strong.

 

Forgot to include pic of the new shifter, tried to edit orig post but it is not showing up, so here it is.
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Thanks for the Review, I looked hard into this but had to go a different way last fall because of availability.
Sweet that you can choose any gear you want like a manual.

 

Is the extra switch for exhaust brake?

 

Yes it is. I have the "factory" Jacobs EB