Question of what I need to do on my new 80 (1 Viewer)

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If you drive it on the road regularly I would recommend regearing.
Zuk does good work not sure what his warranty is East Coast Gear does great work and have a great warranty. Both require mailing the diffs off if you want your originals back other wise they send you a built diff you send back your as a core.
 
I do drive a lot on the road so I think it would pay off. I drove down to Maryville today to have spring pins welded on my swing outs and the guy that built my bumper, Joe " Bear" Williams, said he used someone off Clinton Hwy to install his Nitro gears and ARB lockers in his Wrangler. He said he was really happy with the job. Looks like material cost is around $1200, that's ring & pinions and install kits for front and rear. The last time I priced an install it was $500 for labor, that was for both diffs. I need to wait a little while, I've spent way too much money on my 80 in the last 5 months. This was supposed to be a 2 year project, I'm not real good with waiting. I also need to order new springs for the rear, after adding all the weight I need to bump to heavies. When I ordered my lift I thought it would be next year before I had the rear bumper built. I guess that shows I need to overkill as much as possible when I do something instead of having to go back and do it again. Any idea what the rear springs are worth? They're 2.5" med and maybe have 300 miles on them. Would they be worth $150? I think I will also add spacers on all 4 corners to get a little more height.
 
I have medium rear springs on my 80 with a 4x4 labs rear bumper with dual swingouts. I added 1" spacers all 4 corners and the stance is nice. I don't know what you're going for, but the 1" spacer will bring your rear up a bit. If you're riding around loaded all of the time, yeah heavies would do the trick. I have loaded my rig down and the mediums can take the weight ok. Did you notice your truck sag when you added the rear bumper?
 
Yes, after the bumper and spare went on I could see a difference. That's actually a good idea because I don't load it up very often. For the price, I think I will try the spacers out before ordering heavies for the rear. Even if I order the heavy rears, I could still use the spacers.
 
Well I called Slee with all intentions of ordering spacers and wound up ordering new heavy springs for the rear. So as soon as I get these changed out, I will have a basically brand new set of rear 2.5" OME med for sale.
 
Lee, I shot you a PM
 
After reading through the last few posts, I figured I'd weigh in on gears. I have a 97' cruiser (a343 trans vs the a442 10ga has) that weighs just over 7k lbs unloaded. Depending on riders and gear it's sometimes pushing 8k lbs loaded. I have 4.88's and Marlin crawl gears.

I ran 4.88's w/ 35" BFG KM2's for a couple of years and never really liked the gearing on or off road. On the hwy 4.88's seemed too low. The truck was always screaming and still lost speed on long pulls. The peak torque is lower than the 2800 rpms it turned at 70mph. We went to CO a couple of summers ago and I chose to tow it out. It would have been a painful trip driving.

Offroad 4.88's were ok but I pretty much ran 2nd gear start in low unless I was crawling. They probably would have been better without the crawl gears.

Recently, I went to 37"s and expected performance to suffer. Much to my surprise it was much better. The truck will cruise 80mph down the interstate and hold speed much better than w/ 35"s. I would (and intend to) drive it out west now. Offroad, it lost a little grunt but it still pulls just fine and the ratio works out a little better for trail riding. Again the crawl gears make up the difference so keep that in mind...you'd be a little tall w/ just 4.56's and 35"s. Basically you'd have exactly the same gearing as stock tires and stock gears w/ 4.56's & 35"s and your spedo will be correct.

I guess the point of all this is that you all may want to consider 4.56's w/ 35"s if you spend a lot of time on the road. I'm much happier w/ my street performance on 37"s than I was on 35"s w/ 4.88 gears. This is against conventional logic but it was definitely the case for me. Also, if anybody wants to drive my cruiser as a reference point just let me know.
 
I really appreciate your feedback. I don't plan on going to 37's so maybe 4.56 is a better option for me. I drive a lot on pavement and I want to take some long trips in mine and not have to tow it. I keep thinking the factory gearing is not all that bad, I just need a little something extra for going up long grades.
 
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if you plan to spend majority of time on pavement and do long trips...be conservative on gearing. Try to go drive someone's truck that has the mods you think you want etc to see what reality is. Certainly for travel I would want to be able to cruise at 70 within reasonable rpms. OF course tire size adds to the mix. one way to deal with the street vs trail equation is to consider the low range gear set from marlin for the transfercase. I'm from the 60 world right now but here is my experience...with 33 tires 4.11 brought the truck into correct OEM relationship, with 35 tires I think 4.56 would be the correct ratio, (when I say correct I'm just referring to the same relationship as the truck had OEM brand new), if you want more aggressive gearing you go higher numerically. I run 4.88 on my 60 and its not a pavement cruiser ratio...with 35's, I would say my cruising speed would be less than 60.

Good idea to go drive another truck with the setup you think you want to see....everyone seems to see things a little differently at times.

4.88 gears with 315 tires seems to be a common swap based on some reading in the 80 forum.
 
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The wife and I took a little day trip up to Max Patch this afternoon. Right around 3500 feet the fog got thick and by the time we were at 4300 feet, the temps had chilled way down. Had a great time and I think my wife enjoyed it as much as I did.







 
Nice looking truck, dude!
Thank you, sir. It took me a while to get there but it was worth it. I have a set of OME heavy springs I need to put on the rear but can't find the time right now. After I added the rear bumper and 35" spare, it dropped the rear some. I've actually been kicking around the idea of buying a 100 series again if I can find the right one. I like the 80 but I miss the ride of a 100 and the V-8.
 
After reading through the last few posts, I figured I'd weigh in on gears. I have a 97' cruiser (a343 trans vs the a442 10ga has) that weighs just over 7k lbs unloaded. Depending on riders and gear it's sometimes pushing 8k lbs loaded. I have 4.88's and Marlin crawl gears.

I ran 4.88's w/ 35" BFG KM2's for a couple of years and never really liked the gearing on or off road. On the hwy 4.88's seemed too low. The truck was always screaming and still lost speed on long pulls. The peak torque is lower than the 2800 rpms it turned at 70mph. We went to CO a couple of summers ago and I chose to tow it out. It would have been a painful trip driving.

Offroad 4.88's were ok but I pretty much ran 2nd gear start in low unless I was crawling. They probably would have been better without the crawl gears.

Recently, I went to 37"s and expected performance to suffer. Much to my surprise it was much better. The truck will cruise 80mph down the interstate and hold speed much better than w/ 35"s. I would (and intend to) drive it out west now. Offroad, it lost a little grunt but it still pulls just fine and the ratio works out a little better for trail riding. Again the crawl gears make up the difference so keep that in mind...you'd be a little tall w/ just 4.56's and 35"s. Basically you'd have exactly the same gearing as stock tires and stock gears w/ 4.56's & 35"s and your spedo will be correct.

I guess the point of all this is that you all may want to consider 4.56's w/ 35"s if you spend a lot of time on the road. I'm much happier w/ my street performance on 37"s than I was on 35"s w/ 4.88 gears. This is against conventional logic but it was definitely the case for me. Also, if anybody wants to drive my cruiser as a reference point just let me know.

X2 on what Hawg said, I have run 2 different 80 series trucks now on stock gears and 35's and I like the way it drives on the highway. Nice power band and not too high of RPM at all doing 70-75. For off road, I plan on only doing lower transfer case gears in the future, so that I can maximize low range performance while keeping the on road overdrive comfort zone...

My $.02!
 
I sold the 80 a few weeks ago and started my search for a 100 series. Don't ask me why, just wanted back in a 100. You can't beat the 80 for pure off road capability but I also drive on the road a lot. The wife and I have good friends that moved to Denver last year so now we have another reason to hit the road and head out west. I'm wanting to take a couple weeks off and head up through the Dakotas, Montana, Utah, and back through Colorado on the way back to Tennessee. The 100 is a lot more road friendly and for what I want to do, will be great off road. I'll have a few small things to do but this one is ready to hit the road as soon as it gets here. The guy I bought it from is a MUD member and is driving it to me from Arizona, where it spent it's life since new.

Here's the list of mods, only thing I have to do is put a new timing belt and water pump in.

1999 with 98,000 miles, rear e-locker, front ARB air locker with 80 series dial, ARB on-board compressor, 4.88 gears, 315/75R16 BFG KO tires, ARB front bull bar with Warn 9.5 winch, TJM rear bar with swing out for the spare, Safari snorkel, roof rack, new White Knuckle slider ( not installed but included ) 25 gallon stock tank, 43 gallon long range tank, dual battery system, fresh water storage system with 15 gallon capacity and electric pump, custom storage rack, ARB frig, Cobra CB and Ham radio, and some extras that the owner is throwing in. I bought a HEO awning that I'll be installing and will also be changing the sound system to a double din with Bluetooth. Tires are about 50% so within the next year I will also need some new 315 tires. I may start looking for some TRD Rock Warriors and go with 17" but I also like the stock 16" wheels so not sure if I will change them unless I get a deal on a set. I'm not sure I like the matching trim paint on the bumpers, may go back to black. It will be here on May 1st so this will be a long 3 weeks but it will be here before I know it.











 
I drove my truck extensively without regearing. I had pretty much every mod and drawers and always had extra jerry cans and all that. I literally could not get up certain hills off roading because I didn't have the power. I have even ran out of power once I went to 4.56's. I personally could not imagine driving a fully loaded cruiser with 35's and no regear ever again. The funny thing is I just stumbled across her cuz I totaled my 80 series and just got a diesel :)
 
I bought this 100 a few weeks ago in west Knoxville, ton of miles but great service records and always been in the Vol state. PO did about $8000 in service over the last 10,000 miles. Just put a OME lift on, snorkel, extended to diff breathers, and new 295 TG tires. Next up is bumpers, sliders, and roof rack.

From the CL ad


This week after mounting the tires and lift
 
So do you have 2 now?
 
Nope, the white one is gone to North Dakota. Great rig but it was so nice and I had so much money in it, I was always worried I would put a dent in it or something and with this one, I don't have to worry about it. I also needed a newer DD so I was able to buy this 100 and a newer TRD Off Road Tacoma double cab. Before I was driving the 100 all the time and it's nice to be getting close to 20 mpg with the Taco.
 

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