I was thinking about this last night about what if I were to change my gear ratio . Here's my problem, I've got an '01' with 3.55 gears and 35 in tall tires making my truck pretty tall geared. Now when I add my 10,000 lbs. toy hauler it makes for alot of work on my truck. So i'm thinking that if I were to change my gearing to 4.10's and with the taller tires that would put me in the ball park of about a 3.73 gear ratio or somewhere close.
Now this should be much easier on the truck wouldn't it? Would this be easier on my tranny and engine?

 

Absolutley, the gear ratio would give your motor more "leverage" against the road, and in effect, give you more power to work with. Your motor wouldn't have to work as hard to pull grades, wich also translates into better fuel economy while towing. If you tow alot, swap the gears. Without a doubt. It'll feel like a new truck.

 

I had a 2001 with the same tailend and pulled a 10-12k 5th wheel. Always wished I had the 4:10 tail. Unfortunately, since my truck was 4x4 the cost to make the conversion was prohibitive.

Between that and the noise is the reason I've ordered an 06 dually with 3:73s. In both the 2001 and 3006, the difference between the tall gears and 4:10 is about 2000 pound towing capacity (rated). The 4:10s would do wonders for your transmission.

 

I also wouldnt mind to have 4:10's sometimes when I was pulling; but really the only time I would want them would be taking off. If I hit a hill running 60mph or so, I can drop into 3rd without any problems and still have plenty of pull to at least 70 where I can just switch into O/D. I do see how you would like 4:10's with your 35's though. Overdrive is tall enough anyway. Wish I could swap back and forth between 4:10's and 3:55's .

Eric

 

I dont know unless i was towing everyday 4:10s but 75% of the time im MT and with $3 fuel i like the 3.54 and with the mach 1.6s I never need to down shift on the hwy . and when MT I get 20+ mpgs 4.10 wont get that .

maybe get smaller tires for towing
just a thought

 

Well, just got the ring & pinion swapped out, so now i'm running 4.10's. About 400 t0 500 more rpm's than the 3.55's. I'll really be able to tell when I hook up the toy hauler to it. I think that my final gear ratio is around 3.72 if I figured it out correctly. Well after spending the $1200 bones I sure hope it works for me.

 

I get 20+mpg hand calculated with 4:10s and an auto, on hwy driving real nice with Smarty on fuelsaver mode. 17-19 mixed beating on it. None of these numbers involve towing. Bret

 

I get 20 most of the time cruising with mine but I keep it at 60. Towing up to about 8000 you won't even know there is a trailer. Great. Around town the 4.10 are great but you can do a lot of shifting at times. They also seem to work better in the winter. You just let the clutch out in granny and go.

 

i have always geared my tow vehicle to pull the load in 3rd gear. reason being there is less heat build up. there is no planetary motion, the gear train turns as an assembly. only tow in od on level roads. if one has a trans temp gauge it will show a large diff. in trans temp. then one gets better fuel mileage empty. kind of like having u r cake and eating it too.

 

Anytime you go to bigger tires (35's), it's always better to have the gears for it.

I had a 98.5 w/hwy gears. After putting on the 35's, performance suffered and the engine wasn't very happy with the change.

I ordered this truck w/4.10's from the factory knowing I was putting bigger hiking boots on it. Very happy with it, too. Easy to tweak the computer for the bigger tires so speedo and mileage are correct.

Doing it 'after the fact' is a bit of an expense, and if you didn't pull anything, it probably wouldn't be worth it, but pulling that big of a load will make a world of difference. And it makes stop-and-go around town easier.

 

I towed a little over 10K one day this week with my truck and I am happy that it has the 4.10's in it. It pulls a heck of a lot easier than if I had 3.55's. And I have noticed you really don't get horrible mileage with 4.10's either. I get 20 mpg on the highway (i cruise about 70 mph) and around town it get anywhere from 15.5 -17 and i'm not nice to my truck on the in town driving.
matt

 

i bought this truck used and didnt realize it had 4:10's at first i hated it as i was only getting 10mpg and i wanted to get 3:55's however teh more this truck gets driven the better the mileage seems to be. i got 14mpg and never left town once but took a trip and never got better than 15mpg empty
so i'd love to know how some fo you get 20 with this type of truck
kirby

 

You can with a gear vendors or us gear overdrive/underdrive unit. Only thing is they can be cost prohibitive at $3-4000.