2013 Sierra HD, is a gear change worth it?
Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and have a question about my 2013 Sierra 2500 HD with a 6.0L and 3.73 gear ratio. It has a tow rating of 9400 lbs and in the manual it says if I had 4.10 it goes...
Forum Discussion
I am still wayne_tw wrote:jbufton wrote:
Thanks for the tips everyone! Yea I was thinking around $1000-$2000 for the gear change. I'm going to try manual 5th and tow / haul. The truck has no issues keeping speed just hated to hear the engine rev, but sounds like it will be ok.
Changing the differential gearing is no different that lowering a gear in the transmission. All the lower gearing of the differential does is cause the engine to rev higher. Manually lowering the final drive gear in the transmission (say from 6th to 5th) causes the engine to rev higher. Same same.
This goes around all the time. Changing the gear ratio is completely different than just dropping a gear. It in effect changes all the ratios in the trans, that is why a truck with 4.10's will tow more than one with 3.73's! With my X and the 3.73's the rpm's were too low in 3rd at 65mph, it would lug a bit to much, and too low in rpm to make O/D usable when towing. With the 4.30's it brought the rpm up about 300 rpm in each gear when towing just enough to make each gear in the transmission more efficient.
And like was said unless you know it will allow you to run in O/D changing to the 4.10's will raise the rpm in all gears, however even a few hundred rpm can make a big difference!
