When Fleece Performance released their Intake and Grid Heater Kit for the 6.7L Cummins, some RAM owners wondered if it was finally a true competitor to the Banks Monster-Ram.

It isn’t.

Yes, both products eliminate the factory grid heater failure problem. But once you look beyond that single feature, the engineering differences become impossible to ignore.

The Problem Every 6.7L Cummins Owner Knows

The factory grid heater used on 2007–2024 RAM 2500/3500 trucks is a known failure point. Heat cycles and engine vibration loosen the retaining nut that secures the heater bus bar. Once loosened, electrical arcing superheats the hardware until the nut breaks free and falls into the engine.

Because of the Cummins engine angle, the debris typically enters cylinder #6 — often destroying valves, pistons, and cylinder heads.

Both Banks and Fleece address this issue.

That’s where the similarities end.

The Fuel Line Problem Nobody Else Solved

Every other replacement intake elbow for the 6.7L Cummins — including the Fleece unit — must work around the factory No. 1 high-pressure fuel line that passes directly through the intake airflow path.

That factory fuel line dictates the geometry of the intake outlet. If you retain the OEM fuel line location, the outlet of the intake elbow must remain nearly stock in size and shape. In other words, the airflow bottleneck stays in place.

That’s why Fleece describes their intake as “factory appearing.” It has to be. The stock fuel line packaging limits how much airflow improvement is physically possible.

Banks solved the problem differently.

The Monster-Ram® includes a proprietary engineered No. 1 fuel line that relocates the obstruction entirely, allowing us to redesign the outlet section of the intake for dramatically higher airflow.

The result is measurable:

Stock intake airflow: 38.6 lbs/min
Banks Monster-Ram® airflow: 72.7 lbs/min
Improvement: 88.3% over stock

Fleece publishes no airflow numbers, no mass airflow figures, and no pressure-drop data. Because without relocating the fuel line obstruction, the intake outlet remains fundamentally constrained by stock geometry.

So what are you really buying?

A replacement intake elbow that solves the grid heater issue — while delivering airflow characteristics that remain near stock.

That’s a lot of hardware for stock-level airflow.

Real Engineering Means Real Testing

To our knowledge, Banks Power was the first company to publicly publish cold-start temperature data directly correlated to intake heater wattage on the 6.7L Cummins platform.

And we didn’t estimate those numbers.

We rented an OEM-grade climate chamber used for extreme temperature vehicle validation and spent nearly $50,000 conducting controlled sub-zero testing on a 2024 RAM 2500. The truck was cold-soaked for 12+ hours between tests while engineers monitored intake temperatures, battery voltage, cranking RPM, fuel pressure, amperage, and starting behavior in real time.

We tested:

750W single-heater configurations
1,500W dual-heater configurations
2,250W triple-heater configurations
With and without block heat
Down to temperatures as low as -40°F

This wasn’t theoretical.

It wasn’t anecdotal.

It wasn’t based on customer stories from cold climates.

It was instrumented, repeatable, controlled testing.

Cold-Start Claims Require Proof

Recently, competitors have begun publishing cold-start temperature claims tied to intake heater wattage.

But where is the validation?

We have not seen evidence of equivalent climate chamber testing, instrumentation data, or documented engineering methodology supporting those claims.

Cold-start performance is not something you infer from assumptions. Variables like:

battery voltage collapse
oil viscosity
fuel gelling
cranking RPM
intake manifold air temperature
compression temperature

These all interact in complex ways that require controlled testing to evaluate accurately.

So when you see advertised cold-start temperatures, ask the important question:

Were those numbers validated in a calibrated climate chamber under repeatable conditions?

Or are they simply derived from Banks’ published findings?

That distinction matters.

The Bottom Line

The Fleece intake addresses the factory grid heater failure problem.

The Banks Monster-Ram does far more... and it's 50-state emissions compliant.

Banks engineered around the factory airflow restriction that competitors left in place. The Monster-Ram® delivers documented airflow gains, scalable intake heating, multiple sensor ports, proprietary fuel-line routing, and validated cold-weather performance backed by real climate chamber testing.

If your goal is simply replacing a problematic factory heater, there are options.

If your goal is maximum airflow, measurable performance, and engineering backed by real data, the Banks Monster-Ram stands alone.