How to ID 3:73 gears

[Workhorse]

I picked up my 80 today post 3:73 gear swap. I haven't driven it all that far due to break-in on the gears. More impressions to follow.

First impressions: I like them. They feel nice and comfortable. I don't find myself shifting every 2 seconds. The gears dropped my RPM's by about 300-ish RPM. I will post more as I drive it more.

I like them so far. I have a 6" lift with 315's and an H150F/HF2AV manual 5 speed FYI...

 

[Workhorse]

After a long time, here is an update: I swapped out my 6" lift for OME J springs and BP-51 shocks and went down in size to 285/75/R16's. To be perfectly honest, I didn't notice any real change, subtle but not major. It didn't change the RPM's a whole lot either. Maybe 50-ish RPM's max, it was surprising.

I am still very happy with the 3:73's and still return 21.5-23MPG consistently. At about 2450RPM's I am comfortably cruising at about 68MPH.

I am curious about what changes an H152 would bring to a truck that has 4:10s and 285's. The overdrive is what sort of lacks on these manual transmissions.

 

[Major Tom]

John any update on this?

It's looking like the 6bt going into my 80 will be turning 2200rpm at my normal cruse speed. Well out of its efficiency area. Going to 3.73's will help this quite a bit I think.

@Wheelingnoob What did you end up doing? Did you try the 3.73's. I have a 6bt/nv4500 in my lx450 with a 10% overdrive gear in the center dif. I'm sitting at 2200-2400 rpm at 60-65mph. I would also like to bring that rpm down somewhat.