Okay, so i'm lifting my truck 6" and i'm puting 35's on it. I do quite a bit of highway driving but in the winter i'm going to have 33's on it. im not too farmiliar with gearing.. so if anyone has suggestions please let me know!! Thanks in advance.

 

What gears and engine do you currently have? If you have a 5.4L and 3.73 gears then you can probably get away with out changing gears if you don't tow a lot and can deal with the little bit of sluggishness. If you do upgrade I would go with 4.56. 4.56 will be good for the 35's and in the winter with 33's the truck will feel very light and quick. So my answer is to go with 4.56's or do nothing. I'm putting 4.56's in my truck and I run 34" tires year round. If you have a 4 x 4 you will have to do both front and rear.

 

Did you make any decisions on the gears? Maybe me posting again will prompt someone else to chime in with an opinion...

 

yes sorry. i havent had a chance to get on here and i apologize for not responding but i decided to stay with stock 3.73 for now. but eventually i would like to change to the 4.56 as you suggested. i do have a 4x4 so ill be doing both when i end up switching.

 

your gas mileage is gonna go straight down the drain when you do that though. i had 33s on my last truck and went from the 3.55s to the 4.10s and it was just about perfect. on the highway going 80 it was revved out pretty good. not sure how much cuz i didnt have a tach but its really gonna mess with your gas mileage the lower you go. i think 4.10s would be perfect for 35s

 

^^ if your worried about gas don't lift/put bigger tires on it. I vote 4.56

 

Going for 3.73 to 4.10 is not enough of a jump to justify the cost (~$1500 - $1800 for a 4 x 4). The general consensus on this site is to go with 4.56 with 35's or stay at stock 3.73. I'm currently having 4.56's installed right now and I only have 34's. My gas mileage dropped from 15 mpg city/highway combined with stock tires down to 12.5 mpg with 34s and 3.55 gears. With 4.56's it can not be worse than that and at least I will have the power back. I can post my mileage results with the lower gears if seeing that helps at all. Here is a quick plot I made of RPM vs Speed for different size tires and gears just to give you an idea. With 35's and 4.56's you will be right between the cyan and green line on the plot.

 

wow how much do they charge for gears these days???? i got a limited slip differential and 4.10 gears for my last truck for 200 dollars almost brand new 1800 is unheard of

 

That's $1800 parts (new) and labor for both axles.

 

I'm paying around $1500 out of pocket for parts and labor at my local shop and from what I've heard that is reasonable.

Just curious where did you get parts for 200 dollars? The labor must have been free?

A set of Yukon gears for front and rear from Randy's Ring and Pinion is ~$500. Full install kits (bearings, seals, shims, nuts, etc.) will be at least $200 for front and rear. That comes to ~$700 for parts alone. Then a shop charges $89/hr for labor and the job takes 8 - 10 hrs if you're good so that is another ~$800. Total that puts you at $1500 dollars for parts and labor for the job. If you upgrade your differential the parts will be between $400 - $600 but it won't add to the labor. I just went though all of this since my gears are being installed now.

Like I said, most I have talked to said the $1500 was reasonable for parts and labor so I'm curious how you could do it so cheap? You must have had a lot of connections...

 

The way I read that, he paid $200 for used parts, and probably only for the rear axle, and probably with no install kits or anything like that - just the gearset and clutch pack.

 

Ya total cost just in parts to regear my truck is nearly 800 with oil, additive, bearing kits, seals, crown ring and pinion for both diffs on a 4.56 ratio. Thats at cost too with me and a buddy doing it at our driveline shop. Plus in my case I am getting Ford to reflash the computer for me, as I dont have a chip and CANNOT afford to get one at this time.

 

damn i never really looked into how much parts costed new thats reasonable for getting it installed. i just did my rear axle it was 200 for the ring and pinion gears and the limited slip differential and i got a bearing kit for 40 dollars from napa with a discount and had some gear oil sitting around so i guess i made out pretty good on that one.