Went out to a truck store in Byron to drive some stuff, what he had of interest:

97 reg cab 5 spd 4wd 79k mi

98 24v quad cab, 5spd 4wd 120k mi

01 HO 6spd quad cab 4wd 44k mi

my truck

All 3 trucks appeared to be stock, the 98 had a reflash recall notice under the hood.

There was a good sized hill (6% if not more) down the road a bit from them. So I drove them all up that, starting at 50mph at the bottom, in top gear. Floored them and got this:

01: 62mph
98: 60mph
97: 57mph
my truck: I let off at 80.

I was VERY disappointed in the 01, seemed to be much doggier than it should have been? Would it have been more fair to run it up the hill in 5th rather than 6th?

I did leave feeling pretty good about my truck tho

 

Nope. Top gear in the 6 speed isn't much different than the 5 speed. Would have been unfair to the other trucks to run it up the hill in direct drive.

 

that's what I thought. I couldn't find the ratios in a quick look, but I thought it was within a few hundreths of the ratio of our 5spds.

Honestly tho, my truck went up the hill better in 5th than it would have in 4th