my birthday is coming up. right now i have 35s, and 3:73 gears in the 05 KR 5.4. is it better to regear or get the edge tuner. i need something to get those pigs moving a little faster. my truck is slow as hell

 

regear, especially if you plan to keep the truck

plus your significant other or parents will spend more on your birthday. the edge tuner is much more inexpensive and you can pick it up some other time

 

ive just put 35s on my 05 fx4 with the 3.73ls and am perfectly happy with the performance of my truck with an Xcal 2- 0-60 8 sec is plenty fast for me

 

The biggest bang for the buck performance mod is custom tuning via the XCal2. It will bring your truck to life even with 35’s

 

RE-GEAR!!!! unless you like visiting the dealer for tranny and rear end problems. You will be much happier with gears than a programmer. Gears, BL, and 37's are next in my books

 

BalogUK, with your setup, can you turn your tires over from a stand still...? like, while at a light stoped, can you spin out by just punching it?

 

Here's the deal - over 70% of the people here with 35's do not regear - they come to us for our *custom* tuning which does a far better job than *any* off the shelf tuning device, and they never regear - all it takes is a few minutes using the search feature to find plenty of posts from people who using just our 87 octane tuning in the 2004 & up 5.4 3V using 35's who can turn the tires over from a standstill - which is, by the way, a very poor way to evaluate performance - which can also easily be seen by just as many who do the same thing and cannot spin even their STOCK tires, and it's due to the many different *TIRE COMPOUNDS* far more than sizing.

Look, with a King Ranch F-150 you have a 3-ton PLUS vehicle there - expecting it to fry the tires with 35's from a standstill is completely unrealistic - that may or may not happen, there are far too many variables for that to ever be a relevant yardstick to measure performance by, as anyone who really knows about performance & modifying vehicles for more performance already knows all too well - for example, as I alluded to before, the VASTLY different tire compounds - there are some 35's that a STOCK truck can smoke, and some 35's that a truck with a supercharger on it cannot turn over - and everything in between, making this a completely meaningless standard.

Now, on to the question of additional wear on the transmission (there really is not practical concern on the rear end with the 9.75" read end used in the 2004 & newer trucks) - it all depends on how you operate the vehicle. End of story.

If you drive it like a race car, or frequently tow very heavy loads with it, then what actually matters is keeping the transmission fluid temperature below 190 - and 170 is the ideal temperature. As long as you do that, and don't treat it like a race car, then it'll be fine. But almost nobody puts in a tranny fluid temp gauge with the probe in a relevant location and keeps in in the below 190 range.

We're not talking about 37's here, we're talking about 35's - and many of these F-150's come with tires that are slightly over 32" right from the factory, and with only 3.55 gears at that - so taking a truck with 3.73's and putting 35's on it is not going to present a real danger to the powertrain unless we're frequently towing heavy loads, or driving it like a race car - as long as the tranny fluid temps are kept in line, that's the actual reality.

Now, with all of that having been said - the most important thing is to have proper tuning done first, as that will do more than gears, by far, to reduce slippage in the transmission and keep those friction materials alive much longer - gears cannot do that.

And now with *that* having been said - if it were me, what I would do is to tune it first, and then most likely I would also opt for doing the gearing change at some point AFTER doing the tuning too - as that is the order in which is makes the most sense. Regearing is what will restore the engine back to turning at least as many rpms for a given speed & gear as it did in stock trim, and increase torque multiplication - and that's all it does.

I think what everyone screaming GEARS is forgetting is how these vehicles come configured in the first place, along with what really makes an impact on transmission service life - which is first and foremost, by far, keeping the tranny fluid temps in check - many of these trucks come with 32" tires and 3.55 gears, and the 2004 & newer F-150's have *excellent* transmission fluid coolers with the towing package. So just put on a gauge, remember that for every 20 degrees above 170 you cut our tranny fluid service life in half, and you are generally OK tranny-wise.

The bottom line is, done properly, you can make the truck live either way - though I would say that if it were my truck, I'd have our custom tuning first, and then I'd save my nickels for the $1200-$1600 gear change if it's a 4x4 - now if it's a 2WD truck, then it's much cheaper to do the gears as it's the rear gear only, about $500 with labor - so at that point, I'd do both the tuning and the gears at the same time.

Now this is just how I feel about things as a long-time professional F-150 modifier - others may feel differently. I hope this info & perspective helps a bit, & best of luck whatever you decide!

 

point well taken, after some thinking i had decided to just go with a tunner instead of gears for that main reason. .....haha, now i just have to decide which tunner to go with....great...

 

After reading the forums here for the last 3 1/2 months, I'd say XCal 2 with MT custom tunes....which is what I chose.

 

Hi Dano,

Thanks for your post - by the way, your tunes were just sent out via email, so I hope you have them by now!

 

Yep Mike got them on Sunday, thanks! Loaded the 89 Perf Tune and I love it! It does exactly what I expected it to do (which is what I would have expected stock from Ford )

I plan on driving this tune for a couple of weeks, then I hope to get to the dyno and log it to send you the results

 

so, i know this is not how you measure performance, but still, can you guys with 35s and 3:73s and the edge installed on your trucks turn the tires over??

the reason why im asking, i was in some soft sugar sand the other day with a truck load of people and gear, i started spinnin in 2 hi so i put her in 4 hi, and she didnt have enough ***** to even spin the tires in sugar sand. i had to put it in 4low to get out.......shame on you ford

 

man i can turn em (35 procomp xterrains) over all day in any dirt, sand, muck with the 87max loaded--even stock would do that...

 

can you turn em over on the pavement just mashing the gas though....that is my question

 

Why would you want to? Its a truck, not a race car. On another note I have a question for Mike T. How long does it take for you to build my custom tune? My palms are getting all sweatie waiting for it lol