ddestruel

25k-30k lbs with 3.42's hasnt been a problem on long grades 7%-8% for 6-10miles, 5th holds well at 65-70 mph , 4th can still give you 55mph without taching the motor out, which is the key being able to gear down and not loose the power band. The G56 and the new common rails benefit from the lower gears

Starting out with 3.42's vs 3.73's or even 4.10s really isnt noticible. on a hill or not the .50-.70 gear ratio difference really isnt noticible since 1st gear is so low.

remember the old ford diesels with ZF's had a 4.something :1 ratio our trannies have a 5.63:1 first gear, there isnt much that 5.63:1 cant get rolling. My 3.54's with 315/s towed a GN stock trailer around montana for 7 years and 200k miles all on the same clutch. 3.54's and 35's that trailer and truck averaged 25k-30k Gross. the 3.54's came with a lower factory rating GVW than the 4.10s but my truck stock with 3.54's would out pull my brother's (which had 4.10s and was the same in every other aspect) when he dropped to 4th he was stuck at 50-55 mph tached out. when i dropped to 4th i was holding 65 mph up the pass.....

RowJ

Your 6 speed is 1:1..... in 5th gear!

RJ

Hayseed

All I can say is that my 97 with 3.54 gears stock would tow better around here on the interstate than my buddies 95 with 4.10's. I could downshift at 70 mph if needed and he had to maintain 5th until 60 mph. Now on the backroads the 4.10's do a little better. Off road in the hayfields and poorly maintained roads the 4.10's keep you in high range. I got the 3.73's in my 07 because I planned on and did put 315's on it. This puts my gear ratio at 3.3 and that works well for me. Out in OK I know 85-90 mph in the slow lane will get you ran over. The last time I was on the OK turnpike I was getting blasted at 93 mph but that was as fast as I wanted to go. Several times I have often wanted taller gears in the 97 but with the 4k gsk I just run her a little harder. Back to the point, everyone has their own needs and that is why we still have the choices we have when buying a truck. Used to be you could buy a truck with a weak gas 6cyl. or some big block gas, with gears from 2.54/1 to 5.88/1 ratios. The manufacturer let the consumer pick. Then dealers started ordering weird combos that just did not work well for the common customer and it gave the product a bad name. Thus now we have only a few choices but each will work well for most situations. The exception is the PowerWagon that comes with 4.88 gears. That would not make a great highway cruiser, but it does rock offroad.....OK rant-off!

AH64ID

Power wagon has 4.56's.. but otherwise yeah.. there will be benefits to each. I think the 3.73 is a great combo between the 3.54 and the 4.10, and even if I could have gotten my truck with 3.42's, I wouldn't have. When I go to 285's it will put me at about 3.6 and thats tall enough.

SpinEmNSmokeEm

What do YOU consider "heavy" with 3.42???

Hounddog

Considering D.C. won't use 3.42 with a auto and a loose convertor I would think not much. Maybe 8k tops.The starting off and getting moving on moderate to steep up hills is going to be hard on clutch etc.

Hayseed

My bad!!(character Limit)

AH64ID

Nor will they put them in a 1 ton.

You loose 1K tow rating with 3.42's vs 3.73's.

Hounddog

On a RV site one of the RV gurus posted recently for diesels was the rule of thumb was up to 12k with 3.73 gear.12k to 15k 4.10 and over 15k 4.30

scootertrash35

i run 38k all day long with 3.73s
but some of us still want 3.42s
we seem to be loosing track of the intent of this post,he wants to know who has them Not those of us that don't or even worse those who don't want them

scootertrash35

yes they do put them in 1-tons

ddestruel

a gas or diesel RV? Do they specify or is it just like the 4x4 magazines with the tire size gear ratio chart? and since its an RV id assume automatic. that wouldnt help the situation.

anyways doesnt mean much, its an opinion. And thats funny the truck i just drove up to MT that i mentioned was a 3500 they must have just done it for a one off rig.

tractor trailers run 3.50, 3.70, 3.90 rarely do you see one with 4.10s even on tractors pulling 105,500 -120k lbs the ratio that is provides the best of both worls is the 3.70 ratio with 3.50 being the ratio of choice in alot of rigs running the Western open highways.


This debate is quite commical. 3.54's worked great and they allow you to pull most any hill in direct at 65 mph. 4.10's dont. load doesnt matter your tranny has a low enough 1st gear ratio that up to 30k lbs GCVW you wont be working the clutch much at all. maybe if you try using second but in 1st i never had a problem, and thats living in montana hauling a stock trailer around at a GCVW of 25-30k lbs for alot of the 200k mile life span of my clutch.

What it all comes down to is do you want to have more than one gear to use or do you want to be in OD all the time unable to use direct till your speed drops to 55 mph.... I like having two gears available up to 70 mph and not taching the motor out. Ive never had problem and if i could have gotten 3.42's in my 03 i would have but because they werent available i went with 3.73 and 35's which works really well for me now, 3.42 and 285's would have been a perfect combo for towing heavy (defined as 15k lbs or more loads) up long steep grades in the mountain states, plus i could have had an E rated tire but i wanted the low rpms in OD for cruising with the trailer and Direct for the grades.

manufactures 1000 lbs difference in GCVW recommendation doesnt mean much.

One last example my brothers 97 12v 215hp 5 spd 4x4 with 4.10s and M 97 12v 215hp 5spd 4x4 with 3.54's Both trucks stock. both same tires both hauling the same number of cows in out trailers, both weighing within 1500 lbs of each others. both side by side on homestake pass MT. i could pull the grade everytime 10-15mph faster than he could. i could down shift and maintain speed he had to slow down before he could downshift. oh yeah he lost more OD nuts than i did .... and i had no problems out in the fields pulling the trailer loaded around either...............

So im not sure where this debate is heading but i know i was well over what some RV web page recommended and for some reason those guys are always having to slow down for the hills too .... usually it works to my advantage so i can pass them.... but in my mind it must be hard with 4.30s and an OD allison to pull the hill in OD that truck might have to slow down so the tranny can grab a different gear without taching out that poor little oil burner.


The fact is ive had numerous trucks and i have hauled well over what most people do and i have used 3.73, 4.10 and 3.54 as well as 3.07's in my old D350 and out of all the ratios the 3.54's were a great ratio and 3.42s would have been desireable too. so instead of what "I Think" works or doesnt i am advocating this from having used them and been extremely satisfied and i was very disapointed when they didnt offer them in 03-07

Hounddog

As I mentioned before Chrysler wanted to drop the 3.55 a LONG time ago because I guess they didn't know better.In these Southen states it must be thick with flying bugs adding to wind resistance cause the Dodge Diesels I've had and friends of mine have had with 3.55s gear wern't worth a flip for pulling any more then about 8k with out having to be FLOORED if you lost any speed on a decent incline.I guess Ford offers a 4.30 gear in a 3500 just because it was a good number but not really needed to tow big weight.Heck I don't relly know why they put those BIG Disc brakes on these trucks cause drum brakes have less resistance and seemed to stop fine as long as enough room in front of you.

ddestruel

must be why chrysler speced the 3.54s all the way until 2002 even though 3.73s were available from spicer dating back into the mid 80's for the dana 80....... (if chrysler wanted to eliminate the 3.54 they had plenty of options and oportunities thier engineers put it on the build sheet for spicer every year)

just so you know AAM didnt have a 3.42 gear set designed due to pinion location in the housing for the 11.5 and it wasnt created until Chrysler insisted on it.


4.30's were created for ford and thier V10 applications since they are gutless non turbocharged applications that need the rpm and gear reduction to maintain speed.

Good luck finding a 4.30 equipt 7.3 ..... 4.88's were created in the Dana 135 because that was the lowest available set....... Last i spoke witha spicer tech they were designing a higher speed set to more efficiently accomodate turbo diesels

scootertrash35

what does an old truck with 3.55s have to do with an 08 with 3.42s?