Is Re-gearing worth it?

wnjj wrote:

RCMAN46 wrote:
Changing the rear end gearing will not give you more power. It may allow you to pull a hill in a higher gear but in the end you will probably take about the same amount of time to pull a long grade and at near the same speed.

Only changes to the engine will give you more power.

That's true but lower rear gears can make the difference between staying in a particular gear and dropping down one more. With the wide spread between gears in a 4-speed that can make a lot of difference in road speed, though not as much with 6+ speeds.

With out saying this is true, but also willing to say false on the going down a gear may or may not keep you up to speed. My old 96 SW K3500 with 4.10sm frankly would have been better with 3.73s. If I could not hold direct, I had to go into 3rd with a 5 sp manual. I then pulled the hills at about 2600 rpm as that was a good rpm for long hauls up hills which was a drop from about 48-50 down to 35mph. I could get to redline at 47-48 in 3rd, but the motor did not like that. If I would have had a taller 3rd, ie the NV56000 6 sp, or a 3.73 or 3.42, I probably could have settled in at about 40-45mph in the gear below direct, as I had the HP at 2600 and above to go 40'ish, but the gearing tween the trans and the axels, along with my tire diam, did not work well.

So at the end of the day, one should really do some math with some figures to figure out if one truly will do better with lower or taller gears, or keep as is. As one person also pointed out, reality is, if one truly wants to go faster per say, HP is your friend, you may have it in the motor to gain 5 mph, then again, you may not!

marty