Great breakdown of tow vehicle towing capacity by make/model

DW-gray wrote:
Can you provide some links to supporting documentation that proves "The Ford with a 3.42 rear axle actually has slightly better gearing for towing than a GM with a 3.73 rear axle due to transmission gearing"?

Has not the rear end gear ratio always been the final torque factor in transferring torque from the engine and transmission? No matter what the gearing is in the transmission, will it not work harder when applying torque to a 3.42 than a 3.73 when towing or hauling the same amount of weight? Will the engine not run a higher RPM when the transmission has to be in a lower gear to tow or haul with a 3.42, with the same amount of weight, than if the rear end is a 3.73?

What matters is the final drive ratio, which is the gear ratio in the transmission multiplied by the rear axle ratio. A 10:1 ratio in the transmission and a 3:1 ratio in the rear axle is a 30:1 reduction. That's why there are heavy OTR trucks with axle ratios in the 2.90:1 range, the transmission ratios in the 9 to 18 speeds allow for that.

All I did was do a Google search for the ratios in each gear of both the Ford and GM transmissions:

GM- 1 2 3 4 5 6 R
3.10 1.81 1.41 1.00 0.71 0.61 (06+) 4.49

Ford-1 2 3 4 5 6
3,91 2.32 1.52 1.15 0.86 0.67 3.13

As you can see the Ford transmission has lower (numerically higher) ratios in each of its six gears except reverse. Doing the math, the Ford actually has better gearing for pulling with a 3.42 axle ratio in the first 2 gears and very close in the top 4 gears compared to the GM with a 3.73 axle.

Basically I was calling out an "expert" publication for only looking at one piece of the puzzle and condemning Ford for not offering the same axle ratio as GM, and not looking at the whole picture. FWIW, I'm not particular to any brand.

Sorry about the formatting of the ratios, it didn't look that way when I typed it. :)