I have had both and the 4:10's were easier on the truck in a lot of situations, like stop and go, rolling hills, and steep grades.


I don't feel having 3:55's is a huge negative, and in some situations I like them better.

If 4:10's and the higher rpm's won't drive you crazy when hauling light or empty then thats what I would suggest.

If open roads is what you are on all the time I'd think the 3:55's would be nice. I found that its where the gearbox/tranny is set that makes the most difference.

For example wiith my 4:10's I could pull a lot more while in OD., Where with the 3:55's I'd be locked out. Same performance, same rpm's, but different gears.
But looking again at your tow and the truck capacity I'd say 4:10's.

Big Jimmy

 

10,000lbs. is around the cutoff
4.10's over 10k and
3.55 up to 10k. unles you have a built trans and lots of hp.

 

I had the 3.55's and changed them to the 4.10's. Much easier on the truck. I pull a 10K TH and the 4.10's are the way to go. IMO.

 

I Haul Way Heavy With 285 Tires Had The 3.55
Life Sucked
Had Them Changed Out To 4.10 Now Life Is Better

 

My truck was born with 4.10 and I swapped to 3.55. My race trailer is only around 8500lb so I can pull ok, and the no trailer driving is better.......HOWEVER! now I'm looking at a bigger trailer and looking at the weights involved I'll probably regret losing the 4.10. I've stayed with the stock tire/rim size as my truck is a tool to tow my boat and race rig (tow pony, not show pony).

 

I pulled 30-35k with my old 2000 5 speed with 3.55 it was a great puller put in a mild chip (I had BD plug in power) and I could pull most hills in overdrive. But like I said I had a manual. With a auto 4.10 might be better.

 

I pulled a 10k+ 5ver for 92000 miles with one and never had a problem. Three other friends have the same vintage with the 3.55s and pull TT weighing about the same.

The only problem is you will spend quite a bit of time in 3rd gear if you are in hilly country. I wouldn't suggest you straight pipe it unless you are fond of drone in the cab when in 3rd and fueling heavy on the hills.

As mentioned, 4.10s would be easier on the truck.

 

love my 3.73s

better fuel economy no problems pulling 12k lbs in colorado high country

 

3.55 will work just fine I have both in my trucks and tow well over 10K . its your call but 4.10s are easyer on the automatics and when towing MPGs seen to be the same empty 3.55 will get a lot better mpgs

 

With the 47RE, I think 4.10s are a great option. The overdirve with the 47RE is higher geared than high gear in the manual transmissions so that the overall ratio in overdrive with 4.10s is only slightly lower than a manual transmission and 3.55s.

Plus there's more torque for getting up and going from a standstill. This may not mean much to a truck with a stock torque converter, but put in a tighter, after market converter and you can have problems getting up over a 6" curb, without a rolling start, at high altitudes, with a heavy trailer in tow. I've seen this happen several times over the past years.

 

Is the motor lugging or is it something else? I know my truck when cold does not like to pull ANYTHING that requires effort. Effort being up a steep driveway or similar, curb, hump or what not. My whole issue with the stock TC in this situation is it slips WAY too much.

 

I agree with Jimmy

my previous truck was a ford IDI F250 4x4 five speed, regular cab long box, factory turbo diesel with the 4.10s, and MAN that thing was a pullin machine, and not much more, it was awesome at take offs, but rather low on power and top end due to the gears, but it would yank around my trailers with ease. I could take off in second like nothing..

My current truck has 3.54 (or 5) rear end, and i like it better on the highway, but for pulling it takes a little more effort than 410s would take. For what i consider light towing, which is what i do 90 percent of the time now (under 10K trailer weight) they are more than adequete, but if i was gonna tow cattle all the time and heavy loads like some guys on here do, i would opt for 410s.

Land here is mostly flat (except for three rivers and georgewest in some areas) so with a little bit of horsepower you can overcome wimpy gears, which is what i tend to do..

Its a tradeoff, if you are gonna do highway useage, alot and tow light, go with 355s with heavy towing, id opt for 410s, ive had both, and really i perfer the 410s by far over 355s for towing, but on the highway, i wouldnt have my setup any other way..

410s with a gear vendors would be a dream come true in my opinion..

Rick

 

My truck has the 3.55's and I only tow my #7700 TT about once a month and here is what I've learned. It seemed gutless until I used a Superchips programmer and now it will pull "almost" any hill around here in OD as long as you have the rpms above 2000. That also means that you have to be getting along pretty good which I don't like to do. I like to keep my max tow speed @62mph which puts me in the bad spot on the powerband for OD if in hills. Mine's straight piped so I don't like to run in 3rd at those speeds for too long unless I have to. But on the other hand, this truck is my daily driver and I can get 22mpg on my commute so it's a no brainer for me. If you want the trans to survive I would go with the 4.10's or you can do what I plan on doing-drive the heck out of it and not worry about it and when the time comes for a new transmission, have one built that can handle more.

 

I pull fema trailers with my dually, which probably aren't that heavy, but are parachutes from an aerodynamic standpoint. I switched from 4.10's to 3.54's to improve empty highway mileage and dragstrip performance (it did both). The thing had WAY more pulling power than I needed, and was screaming on the highway with the 4.10's. The 3.54's were definitely the way for me to go, BUT, since then I have put a larger turbo on. I had a stock turbo until a month or so after the gear swap, which is when I put on an htb2 64 with the 14 sq cm exhaust housing. With the bigger turbo, it has lost a noticeable amount of low end torque, and it smokes like a forest fire if you ease into it too fast. When it really spools up, it's retardedly strong, trailer or not-but there is that period of not much power at the bottom of the gears. If you ever plan on putting a bigger turbo on the truck with 3.54's, you need to keep the gearing in mind a little more than if you had 4.10's. If I had it to do over again, I probably would have still gotten the 64 mm compressor wheel, but I would have opted for the 12 cm housing to improve spool up.

I dunno if any of this has any bearing on your situation, but I wanted to let you know about it if you might get a larger turbo later.