Re-gear or swap axles???

If you go the gear-change route, do a 500 mile break-in before towing.

Swap the gears. Why go buying used axles form who knows what and putting them under your truck?
I liken this to any other part on a truck, change what needs to be changed, leave all else alone. If my alternator needed replacing I wouldn't swap out the engine.

Let the wife know that after 10 years you need a new truck with the HD 18" tires.
my wife has agreed,on my trucks 10 b'day,its new truck time.:B

If it's 4WD that means two axles to swap...better to just swap the gears.

I agree with poster in the other thread. Towing a 16k trailer I would go to 4.30 or something in the range. Hope you have beefed up the 48RE and have an exhaust brake.

Finding a SRW 4.10 complete AAM axle would be very hard!

So the AMM has 3.42, 3.73, 4.10 and 4.56 gears available on the site I checked. Seems like for the money spent the change to 4.10 is not a big enough change!

Chris

I had a ranger and wanted to re-gear, bought a used rear end less brakes for about $300. On my f250 the quoted about $1000-1500 to change the ratios. I would look for a complete rear end vs the change over as it would possibly be a lot cheaper and easier to accomplish. One requires a garage to do the work, the other if you are handy can be done in the driveway at the house.

Why not leave it as is? The 3.55 was my favorite with the Cummins. 1750 at 65mph and 2350~ in direct for those north Florida rolling hills. Just a thought...

^^^ What he said.
I had a mobile guy come to my house and swap front/rear for $1,100 - parts and labor - in SoCal.

USMA Dad wrote:
After upgrading my tires to the Michelin XZE 19.5 on my '04 Ram 2500 2WD, my 3.73 gears dropped to about 3.56. I need to re-gear to a 4.10. The question is simple...do I re-gear it or find a 4.10 axle and swap the axles out within my model year?

I would change out the gears. A simple, easy thing to do. Won't take but a couple hours, and not ALL that expensive.