4.56 or 4.88 on 35s

[agryphon]

I just bought a '93 LC with 35 BFG AT tires and will be doing a OME 2.5'' lift soon, thinking of regearing to either 4.56 or 4.88. I do a lot of highway driving but will be doing some offroad as well. How will this affect performance particularly MPG?

 

[napir]

4.56 will give you the best mileage, 4.88 more pep. Stock gears are actually pretty good for highway mileage w/ 35s, assuming you are on relatively flat roads or not at high altitude.

 

[Kaninja]

Yep, 4.56 best highway mileage. 4.88 if you do any wheeling beyond just overlanding. 4.88 if you are at altitude or pull a trailer, or need to go up lots of hills, or have a heavy rig.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Try it with stock gearing for a while. I've always thought 35s and the stock 4.10s was a great combo. If you are at elevation, though, it may be a different ball game.

 

[Tennessee80]

Another approach is to keep your stock 4.10 and get a lower gear set for your transfer case

 

[MaddBaggins]

I've been running 4.88 with 35's for 10yrs now. Good combo especially going down a steep hill offroad. Barely touch the brakes.

 

[agryphon]

Thank you for the input, sounds like 4.88 will probably suit me best, I live at 4,600 feet and I've noticed it has a little trouble on hills

 

[elripster]

I have 4.88's and 35's and like them on the highway due to climbing hills in top gear without frequent downshifting. The torque converter remains locked almost all of the time.

Frank

 

[fourtrax]

love my 4.88's

 

[livelarg]

I've got 4.88 on 35's as well. Great combo. Maybe better mileage with the 4.56, but if you do hills or off-road, you're gonna hate the power loss.
The 4.88 give it an almost stock power deliver and even the speedo is only a few percentages off.
Good luck!

 

[midfat]

35's on stock gears, on the freeway, at altitude, climbing long grades... it's miserable. And it's like telling your geriatric transmission to break dance.

 

[eurosonic]

4.88

 

[Tools R Us]

Try it with stock gearing for a while. I've always thought 35s and the stock 4.10s was a great combo. If you are at elevation, though, it may be a different ball game.

I have 37"s with stock gears, added crawler gears for the trail, works fine for what I do.

 

[Dragos80]

I believe it is more cost effective to have the transfer case altered, than replacing the 2 diff gears. Don't quote me on, do your homework.

You can do a under drive gear for HI and a crawler gear for LO at the same time. As far as I remember the parts alone for one diff are about $1100.

 

[livelarg]

I've never heard of anyone changing the tranny for bigger tires.
I did my axels not just for ratio, but also strength and adding air lockers.
I'm happy

 

[Cass007]

I believe it is more cost effective to have the transfer case altered, than replacing the 2 diff gears. Don't quote me on, do your homework.

You can do a under drive gear for HI and a crawler gear for LO at the same time. As far as I remember the parts alone for one diff are about $1100.

Intrigued by this ... anyone with a link or more info? Working on a few things, build thread coming soon.

 

[Dragos80]

Read here
Transfer case re-gearing

 

[BadReligion]

I believe it is more cost effective to have the transfer case altered, than replacing the 2 diff gears. Don't quote me on, do your homework.

You can do a under drive gear for HI and a crawler gear for LO at the same time. As far as I remember the parts alone for one diff are about $1100.

Interesting. Who makes the new 4H gear? Last time I checked with Marlin, this didn't exist.

 

[Dragos80]

Interesting. Who makes the new 4H gear? Last time I checked with Marlin, this didn't exist.

Transfer case re-gearing

 

[half k cruiser]

I believe it is more cost effective to have the transfer case altered, than replacing the 2 diff gears. Don't quote me on, do your homework.

You can do a under drive gear for HI and a crawler gear for LO at the same time. As far as I remember the parts alone for one diff are about $1100.

When they go on sale you can buy an entire kit from @justdifferentials for a little under $1k. I think last year around black Friday it was $900 and free shipping. If that deal was going on right now I'd have my kit in the mail. Of course, i'm not sure what I would do with said kit as I've never installed gears before. And there in lies the problem, you have to pay another $1000 to ship them to someone who installs. Although I believe they will ship you a complete third member with your gears of choice.