Talk to me about 35's and gearing options

[blthomas]

So I'm looking at getting some cheap radial MT's. I've about given up on doing anything with these LTB's, I wanted to try balancing them last shop night, but that wouldn't change the fact of them being bias ply and rough riding.

So I've been on the hunt for some budget tires, radial and MT's.

Found a set of half or more tread MT's, 35x12.5. Price is excellant, going to look at them tomorrow or Tuesday.

My gearing is 3.73 now. Going to a auto soon. How much am I going to hate life?

I feel like I need 4.10's or 4.56's, but I don't want to kill highway driveability. If I can do 60-65 I'm happy.

Thoughts? I found another set of 33 mt's in VGC for a couple hundred more, but I like my money in the bank better than spending it.

How will the auto do with 3.73's and 35's? Gonna be a dog on road?

[MarineDawg]

Most people in a TJ with an auto run 5:13s. I know you are talking about the CJ. The auto likes a deeper gear.

[blthomas]

I found a NP435 behind my garage this evening. Could have sworn I sold it. :suspicious:

I drug it into the shop, and it still goes through the gears seemingly smooth, and the shafts spin nice and smooth in nuetral.

I'm going to pull the shifter and top tomorrow, see how it looks inside, see if I can see if it's missing any teef on the gears.

If it looks good I may be changing directions here. Looked it up on Novak's site, and it has a 6.68 1st gear. :madgrin:

That couple to the D300 I have here would more than triple my crawl ratio, and I could actually have some fun.

It will bolt up to the T150 bellhousing, so I'd have to pop for an adaptor for the tcase, but it's within budget.

Gonna read some more. I was going to the auto mainly for a cheap gearing upgrade to put in D300, but I may do the 4 speed.

I think it will get me deeper gears overall. Thats what I'm after for the most part to make the CJ usable off road.

Thanks for the input, re-gearing adds lots of cost I don't want to do right now.

[Scrambler84]

what do you have in your CJ now? I have a D300 and T176 4 speed in my 1984.

[ThinkMud]

on a TJ I like 5.13s even with the 6 speed manual.

on the JK's i've ran 5.13s with both manual and auto, but the auto needed it to be even lower, like 5.38s.

on the 2012 I'm planning on going 5.13s as well as soon as they find a fix for the programmer junk.

I would rather be way too low, then too high. I don't mind tach'ing out at 3k+ at 70 if it makes driving around town more fun:)

[Scrambler84]

I thought the programmer problems where only issues with the automatics?

[ThinkMud]

I thought the programmer problems where only issues with the automatics?

That's what i think too, but I haven't heard anything to confirm 100% that no issues are in the manuals, so don't want to risk it yet, haha

EDIT: plus i don't have the funds for gears for a while:(

[Scrambler84]

yeah but how bad is it? mines not horrible with the stock 410s and 35s its a dog but i live with it, and when it goes back to stock here soon it will be no change back so thats nice.

[ThinkMud]

The 12 is fine with 4.10s and 35"s. I can cruise 70+ in 6th gear up hills and not have to down shift! But... 5:13s would make it much nicer haha

[ThinkMud]

Plus after the extra weight of full skids and the rear bumper an tire carrier will cause more sluggish feeling I'm surez

[blthomas]

Pat, I have the T150 and Dana 20 combo.

My crawl ratio with those is 22:1.

I have a D300 here, and found a T176 for sale. That combo would net me a crawl ratio of 34:1.

The Np435 adapted to a D300 nets me a crawl ratio of 66:1.

Thats leaving 3.73's in the axles.

Not sure how to compute a auto, but the auto combo using the calc's numbers is like 32:1, but I think they perform differently offroad.

Not sure what I'm doing yet. Tires or trans change. Decisions.

But the NP435/D300 would make things like Crozet and Rausch more fun and technical. I can't crawl at all now. Kinda like a fast jog.

[ThinkMud]

isn't crawl ratio for a normal rig like this:

1st gear ratio X axle ratio X 4 low ratio?

so like a JK rubi with a manual would be something like:

4.46 X 4.10 X 4 = 73.144

but if you have those dual set ups you'd be like 90+ !!! b/c you get to add one more t-case gear in there.

I remember someone with a yota on va4x4 had like over 100 crawl ratio with dual crawler boxes, that was sick

[blthomas]

Yea thats how most of the calcs are setup, 1st gear x low range x axle ratio = crawl ratio.

Most of them state that anything 55-75 is preferred, of course the higher the number the better.

The guys getting in the 90.0 and up according to the one I use are all using doublers more or less.

http://www.californiajeeper.com/crawl-ratio.htm

I'm betting J has a stupid low crawl ratio. Gotta be awesome to get that low.

[ThinkMud]

I'd have 91 when I go to 5.13s:)