FR33DOM
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Michael
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2019
- Threads
- 16
- Messages
- 268
- Reaction score
- 283
- Location
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Vehicle(s)
- 2011 Hyundai Veracruz & 2020 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon LE
100% agree!Believe me, I have felt the difference between stock setup, with 33's and now with 35's. with 3.73 gears it is a turd unless you have a power commander. But still struggles up hills. Just a couple more days until the 4.56's are installed. If you are happy with your setup then more power to you. All the data points to the 4.56 or 4.88 if you want to stay in the power band with 35's.
I have not heard a single person say they wish they would have geared taller (lower gear ratio) after getting theirs done so I speculate most people are overly cautious about going to the bigger numbers. Frankly after just a little driving on my 5.13s (on 37s) I could have gone to 5.38 and been just as happy. Running the numbers I wouldn't be afraid to put 35's on if I needed to do heavy towing more regularly.
Please forgive the following analysis. This is clearly more than the OP was requesting since he doesn't plan on going to 35 or 37 for a while. The ideas I came up with below are really answering the question of "I may regear in near future and want to run 35 or maybe 37 someday. Should I get 4.10 gears or something else (and oh, by the way I drive in CO)? ".
I ran a few scenarios on GrimJeeper's gear calculator. See what you think: gears.html
First off, here is stock 4.10 on 33" tires (31.5 in calculator). You can see at 70mph you're just over 2000 rpm in 8th gear. Great on flat land but any kind of hill I was downshifting to 7th or 6th more than I think reasonable in the mountains:
2nd: here is 4.10s on 37" tires (35.5" in calculator). This is where the thing was a dog when it comes to hills (even in Nebraska and SD and ND where we recently took a long trip)--way too much downshifting on ever tiny bump in the road. only held 8th on complete flats or downhill (and not enough torque to hold 80mph in 8th):
So here are some alternative scenarios I have (running at 5.13 and 37" tires--35.5" in calculation on left and 35" tires -- 33.5" for the calculator on right. not a huge difference at 70mph between the two but much more power and still in a happy place for these pentastar motors to cruise efficiently from what I have read.
Given my earlier thoughts for you I also ran it with 35" tires (33.5 in the calculator) with 4.56 on the left and 4.88 on the right. Note at 4.56 you've got just about 100rpm advantage over the 4.10/33" factory config in the first chart (which I think is slightly under powered in CO) and 4.88 puts you in a better power band on 35's in our area with the option of getting away with 37s in the future without giving up too much power:
SO my conclusions are as follows:
1. Knowing you're going to go to 35 or 37", I'd avoid 4.10 gears. If you know you'll stay with 35" my first recommendation would be to go with 4.88 if you want adequate power in the mountains AND you'll be able to go to 37" tires with efficient gearing for flatter terrain.
2. 2nd recommendation: go with 4.56 if you prefer slightly better flat land efficiency and don't plan on running 37's.
3. 3rd recommendation: if leaning more toward 37s, you may want to give strong consideration to 5.13 gears (which I believe but haven't personally experienced would run 35"s reasonably efficiently). Again we are only talking about 5% difference in RPMs so you're not going to kill your gas mileage and it may actually improve it over 4.88 depending on some factors.
Bottom line is before you regear, I think you need to clarify your intended tire size and use of the truck then you'll find the right scenario from the above ideas for your best use.
Sorry if this is TMI. I wanted to procrastinate doing real work, lol!
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