Nothing sucks more than having car trouble deep in the rough track. Towing already sucks, but when you are way out in it, getting towed takes exponentially longer and will usually cost far more. Unless you have a buddy with a Jeep Wrangler nearby, your fun outing just became quite a tedious and expensive adventure. Ben Hardy, a Utah-based YouTuber, learned the hard lesson after driving his 2021 Ram 1500 TRX as it spewed transmission fluid.

YouTuber decided to take Leaky 2021 Ram 1500 TRX to the shop himself instead of towing

The Drive reports that Hardy has a channel featuring him testing cars and talking to the internet about it. However, the lime-green TRX is his personal car. Hardy recently did a video where he took his green truck out in the Utah desert and had a romp. Although the Ram TRX is supposed to be made for this sort of business, the YoutTube person ran into problems with his TRX after only 2,184 miles. 

While on an off-road course in Utah, Hardy was putting his foot in it on a high-speed part of the track, and all of a sudden, the revs dropped, the dash lit up, and fluid was leaking from underneath the TRX. Without knowing what the problem was at the time, Hardy and a friend got pulled off the trail by the TRX’s rival, a Ford Raptor. 

What happened? 

As I have admitted many times before, I am no mechanic, but it seems daily clear that the problem with the transmission of the TRX. Between the erratic revs and leaking fluid, it should have been an easy decision to shut off the truck and wait for a tow. However, the YouTuber decided since the tow truck might take a day or two to get the truck out and to the shop, he didn’t want to leave his expensive truck out in the desert alone. So, he packed up and drove his ailing truck all the way back to the dealer.

The Drive notes that the viewers of the video diagnosed the problem, a blown transmission line. Of course, most people understand that when fluid is leaking, that means you will eventually run out. Any machinery that needs fluid to run will generally get very upset if it is made to run without said fluid. 

The YouTuber described the TRX and Driving “crazy” while on the way to the dealer. Well, I would imagine the transmission was doing all manner of slipping as it was drained of all its transmission fluid. 

What did Ram have to say about the situation? 

The Drive says that after someone from Ram caught wind of the video, they visited the dealership in person to check out what happened to the ill-fated TRX. The video had attracted plenty of Ram haters and bad press from the reliability of the new TRX. Ram had to see to that. 

It turned out that YouTube mechanics nailed it. The transmission line blew, and since the system is pressurized, it expelled all the transmission fluid from the gearbox by the time it hobbled into the dealership. To put it plainly, running a truck without transmission fluid is a one-way train that only goes one way, a dead transmission. 

Ram decided to fix the Ram TRX for the YouTuber to study what might have led to the low-mileage truck blowing a line. Although freak things happen, and even tough off-road trucks can succumb to breakage on the rough track, it is also smart to know when there is significant enough damage to throw in the towel. Seeing fluids pour from the bottom of your vehicle is usually a pretty clear indicator that driving it any further is usually not a great idea.