[69-350]

what I need is a tranny that's meant for a DD, but won't slip and ruin the clutch packs again. I might be able to do the tranny myself, also. One of my buddies has a shop, needs some work, but I could use it if we cleaned some of his family's stuff out of there (believe me, anybody here would have a hayday there, motors, trannies, carbs, books, woodworking stuff, metal working stuff, pipebender, tools, tools, tools, more tools, some more tools, lots more tools, did I mention tools?, sure I didn't mention tools?, cool stuff stashed everywhere) and just cleaned the main area a bit, drilled into the concrete and bolted the lift down, fixed the one garage door and set it up. Not a lot of stuff, just easy and slightly-time consuming, and I know he has every tool imaginable to do almost every job on any truck or car.

So now I just need to figure out what to put in the tranny, or whether I should just go crying to mom and dad to pay for a generic reman from the local tranny shop. This thing will be my DD, but my DD is also my play/work truck, when I need it to be. It sees quite a bit of offroad time, especially in the summer, and during hunting season. It also sees what work I need to do, although it's not often that I have to haul anything around (it started it's life as a camper truck, that could be one reason for the tranny going this early). But it does see some main-street powerhousing, so it's gotta be something that'll withstand:

a) a hard trail; steep hills; thick, slick, and s**t mud; snow, etc.
b) a good load, car trailer w/ two ton car on it (although it'll rarely ever see that, due to the suspension
c) the almost daily main drag hardships of seeing a rice-mobile and putting those 265 ponies successfully into making both wheels spin out back

this thing will see more than it's share of stress, I'm sure, so it's gotta hold it, plus it's gotta shift decently smooth, not hard to snap my neck EVERYtime, but not so smoothly that it slips the clutches. I'm not a tranny guy, but I know some of you people are, so what's your advice?