any of you guys change your gears from stock to lower gear while keeping stock tires? for me 3.73 to say 4.56. curious if any one has any done this. this will be with stock tires ~29" tires, 3.0 the beast of v6's.

if you kept your stock tires and increased your number please give a quick review.

my rearend was making noise and i took off my drum to look at brakes and they got decent life left so im thinking a bearing my be going out.

i figure if im doing all this ill swap out my 3.73 for 4.56. just because i always wanted too.
that and an auburn posi

the noise didnt last long but has me a little concerned. its the second time i heard it in the last year.

i have 2wd (well one wheel drive). just doing stuff to have fun with my truck. if i got to do work to it i usually change for the better or puts a smile on my face. not so much worried about gas mileage as i carpool and now and days only put 7,000 miles on it a year. fill up about every two to three weeks 23mpg on average.

i think 4.10 would not be worth my time and 5.13 i probably wouldnt get to 70 on the highway. i think 92 is my top speed. i also seen 4.88 the other day cant remember the site i was on.

 

ya... that is a HUGE change... if you do the tire calculators you will find 4.56 gears are best matched to 33" tires, actually slightly over geared for 33s as compared to factory gear/size ratio. i dont think your truck will be practical to drive at all.

 

I had 31" tires with 4.88's for a while, going over 60 was really getting the RPMs up. But now I have 33's and its a lot better. As far as 29's and 4.56 you will like the acceleration response it gives you but you wont like highways or you gas bill.

 

If you get on theRangerStation they have a chart that will tell you what rpm you will be at with any tire/gear combo.

 

yeah ive seen those charts. i dont know about you guys but my shift point is about 2500rpms. im not in 4th gear at 65. iv already shifted to 5th at 55mph. going from 3.73 to 4.56 is roughly 25%. assuming that translate to RPM increase across the board of 25 percent i will have change from 2500 to 3100rpms assuming i started shifting at 3100 instead of staying 2500.
so at my 55mph road i take to work when im in 5th gear around 2000 rpms now if i changed to 4.56 it would be around 2500rpms. And assuming what i have read over and over on these forums that the 3.0 is a work horse and can handle being in its peak hp rpm range all day and be reliable i dont see how this would hurt the truck. also remember i have no intentions of larger tires and my goal is not to compensate for larger tires. and gas being the other issue if it is linear with the 25% increase i have gone from 23mpg to 17. but who knows my bearing(s) may not be going bad and may have several years before they do go out.

 

And run out rpms really quick, unless there are other mods in the works.

Look at what you plan on doing, what tire size you plan on running now and in the future and determine from that the proper gear ratio for your performance level.

Check out this chart and go for it.

Gear Ratio Guide For Larger Tires

 

I agree, I do run out of RPM's faster than normal and i know that im over geared with 33's and 4.88's but I wanted them in case i go up to 34's or 35's and most of the time it is used for driving gravel roads and fields, hoping to get into more wheeling after i graduate in may.

 

4.88 with 33 may sound good and for trail work yes it is better to have a lower gear but remember you have 4 low in the transfer case that will make up for the little bit of gear when running 4.56s on 33s
4.56 although low for street gearing will be better for highway driving.

I too am going through the same situation.
I have 4.10 with 33s, ok but I do have the power on the highway, if and when the 5.0L goes in I will have enough power but for 4.10s but not sure if it will still load down the engine.
I plan on 4.56s was thinking 4.88 but the 4.56s will being the 3.0 back to where is should be and when the 5.0 goes in a should get really good performance out of it without over rev’g it on the highway.

Take some time to think it out, where you will do most of your travel and then remember the 4L for the extra power, you just have to use it.

Luck on your choice mine will be 4.56s/33 or maybe even 35s…

 

id suggest 4.30's or 4.10's. 4.56's on 33's are a very low gear ratio that pushed me up to 2500rpm on the highway on 33's. on 29" tires youll be much higher.

example.

you have 29" tires. in 4th your turning at 2800rpm. if you go to 4.56's, youll be at 3400rpm. thats 1.21% the previous amount. Now,you have a M5od-r1. the ratio is as follows. 3.72 / 2.20 / 1.50 / 1.00 / 0.79.

so if 4th is a 1:1 (why they use 4th to do easy calculations), and 5th is .79 you new numbers are 2200 at 65 in 4th, and 2680 in 5th.

So, at 55mph, in 5th with your current ratio, your doing 1861, and with your new ratio, your going to be doing 2267. So another 400rpm roughly.

if your looking for pep, you'll get it, but your going to be shifting quick and losing MPG.

 

With a V6 you need the ms and especially the 3.0 it doesn't come alive until you hit 2400 and up.
I think for DD 4.30 would work but can you get them for both the front and the back, 4.56s are available and the dofference will not be enough to make a big difference and if you go larger in tire size you can get away with 35s on 4.56.

krafcheck,
What tire size will you be using n the end ?
That is what you need to look at.

Luck

 

keeping my stock 29" also known as 235/75

i would only go up a larger size if i found one heck of deal but being i just bought new tires 3 weeks ago i dont plan on getting more tires unless they were given to me.

I only have rear wheel drive. i have not seen the 4.30's mentioned above.

im not sure what gears my neighbor has but his is geared low enough he doesnt even take off in 1st unless pulling something. one less shift i guess.

 

OK then 29 or 30” tire, we are back on track, so many replies that I got a little off track.

I had a 2x, 2.3L, 5-sp with 4.10 I was running stock tire, it was DD and I never got to change the tires before selling it.
I got better mpg in town than on the highway but I always averaged around the 24 mpg mark, so if I had 4.56s instead of the 4.10s I would think I would go down in mpg but up in power but with a 3.0L there isn’t much power there so you will as stated above run out of rpms and actually lose mpg.

IMHO… don’t go too deep in the gearing, 4.10s will give you an all around ride, decent take off and decent mpg.
Also, cost of the change, if you have to take it apart then I guess the only cost s the gearing and a rebuild kit plus some setup labor but if it doesn’t have to come apart then it is all money out for very little gain.