3.31 gears at 40,000 lbs gross.

4x4ord wrote:

ShinerBock wrote:

4x4ord wrote:


I obviously don’t know the stats but could it be that 999 out of a thousand Powestrokes are equipped with either 3.31 or 3.55 gears so the likelihood of coming across a 4.30 equipped truck with problems is not very likely?

No, no, you are right.... The added stress of towing the same load in the same gear with a 3.31 versus a 4.30 does nothing to the friction material of the clutches or decreases the life span of the transmission. Just like the added stress of towing does nothing to the friction material of your brakes and anyone who tows all the time should expect the same life span as one who never tows.

So are you finally able to see that the overdrive clutches in the 10r140 are not going to be handling high torque loads with 3.31 gears (I can’t get my foot to the floor towing a heavy trailer without my transmission dropping to 7th .... at towing speeds it is virtually impossible to put foot to the floor torque through the overdrive clutches) but with 4.30 gears every foot to the floor hill will put all the torque the powerstroke can muster through the over drive clutches until the load gets heavy enough to slow the truck down to 7th gear ... 55 mph.

With regard to the wear on things like gears go .... we all know that transmitting the same power at lower rpm means higher torque. Higher torque requires parts to be engineered to withstand that higher load. But, if the parts are built to take the torque I am not convinced that high torque/ low rpm causes more wear than low torque high rpm. If the same power is being transmitted through the gears my guess is that the wear will be similar. Diesel engines are typically used at low rpm and high torque and do you think they wear out faster than higher revving gasoline engines doing the same work?

As far as your brake pads wearing out faster stopping 30,000 lbs vs 10,000 lbs .... I don’t know what that has to do with anything but, yup I agree.