06Fargo wrote:
Increasing gear reduction as close to the wheel ends as possible (i.e. from 3.55 to 4.56 axle ratios) will always increase pulling performance vs downshifting in the transmission.
Look at heavy haul road tractors, large farm tractors, large combines, wheel loaders, etc - all have planetary reduction wheel ends on their axles.
That isn't done at the wheels to increase performance. It's done there to reduce to torque on the axles.
Lower rear end gears will close the gap between your tranny gears because you can now use all of them instead of skipping OD. It can effectively add another gear while towing,