What Gearing Do You Need Off Road? Axle & Transfer Case Breakdown (Garage Talk Episode 1)

[@BuiltForDirt]

What gear ratios are you running in your 4x4?

[@genoory5090]

I have a 2011 Ford ranger fx4 off road with 31 federal couragia and 4.10 stock gears. I wanna upgrade to 33s or 35s? So what gear ratio should i go with 33s or 35s for good off road power and reasonable gas mileage?

[@heathcarr1105]

4.88s are ideal for that setup because they're so under powered

[@calizukicurtis3477]

Can you do a video on wheels? Off set. Back spacing. Neg off set? I get so lost on this topic

[@BuiltForDirt]

Sure let me add it to the list. This would make a good garage talk episode

[@xiahmia15]

This is a great break down

[@BuiltForDirt]

Hey thank you!

[@bluegreentoad4286]

Great video, helped alot

[@BillaBong1]

I really need help. I got the 3.73 rear gears and wanna regear to 4.56 or 4.88 for heavy load and towing and offroading. But alot of folks say yes and alot say no about changing front trasfercase gear to match the reaer gears. Some say because binding and will mess up the transfer case. I have a stock 2003 chevy silverado 1500 4x4 5.3l. 10bolt 8.6 3.73gear. Sorry im a newbie about this truck stuff

[@BuiltForDirt]

Yes you need to have the gears match or you will blow up your transfer case. What size tire are you running?

[@BillaBong1]

@@BuiltForDirt im currently running 35s. But will also get a set of 37s soon.

[@BuiltForDirt]

If your going to 37s I would definitely recommend 4.88s

[@MH-gy6qv]

Do you have any insight on how tire size and gearing effects RPM? When I bought my Samurai, it already had a SPOA, 5.13's, and 31's. It'll chirp the tires in 2nd, but 5th gear at 65 mph, she's screaming at 4500 RPM. If I cut off the stock bumper mounts, and get 33's, will that lower my rpm a good amount for when I have to hit the freeway?

[@BuiltForDirt]

Of course. There is a great RPM calculator for the Samurai you can use here: www.zuwharrie.com/gearing.php I'm assuming you have the later transmission with the lower 5th gear. That would put you at 4397 RPM at 65 mph. Going up to 33s would lower your RPMs to 4131. If you switched to the earlier transmission with a higher 5th gear and had the 33s you would be cruising at 3801 @ 65. Those 1.3s like the high RPMs so don't be too worried.

[@redboard9able]

Can you run the 4:1 Transfer case in the diesel gladiator

[@BuiltForDirt]

Yes the Rubicon diesel comes with the 4:1

[@rigsoffrods9386]

Sorry my English, I have a 4.0 Cherokee, I'm putting 37 tires, but I'm in doubt about the differential ratio, where I live there's a lot of mud, clay, I need higher revs to go faster, I'm afraid to put a 4.88 ratio and it gets slow in the mud passages, 4.56 would it be better for me?

[@BuiltForDirt]

Personally I would do 4.88s with 37” tires.

[@rigsoffrods9386]

@@BuiltForDirt thx ;)

[@sailorsanjoy]

Cant we get a dual transfee case setup for suzuki samurai transfer cases ?

[@BuiltForDirt]

Yes you can. There are a few options. Any dual case option doesn’t help for on road gearing that you might need so keep that in mind

[@jalzate67]

I own a 1.6 Suzuki vitara and would like to know if it is possible to get lower end torque by changing gear ratios when running on 2wd ?. mind my English and I'm a total beginner

[@BuiltForDirt]

Yes changing the gear ratio in the axles to lower gears would be the way to go

[@jalzate67]

Thanks! @@BuiltForDirt

[@LightningTime777]

I have an 03 RAM 1500 quad-cab 4x4 with the 5.7 HEMI and I have gone from 31.5-inch tires to 35s with the stock ratio of 3.55:1. I drive 50/50 highway and city rarely going above 65-70. When I go off-road it is on the slower side driving up moderate fire roads. Most have said to go with 4.56 gears but some have said that 4.10 was plenty for them. The equation of (35/31.5)*3.55 gives a new ratio of 4.09:1. I don't know what to do. Could you help? Thanks!

[@BuiltForDirt]

If it was me I would personally do the 4.56. Your rpms will be a tad higher at freeway speeds and you will lose a tiny bit of fuel economy but the truck will be a blast to drive. If your concerned about fuel prices the 4.10s get it close to the stock feel and help with fuel economy on the highway.

[@LightningTime777]

@@BuiltForDirt thanks 😊

[@clooperman3745]

Have got a new 2020 Suzuki Jimny, does anybody do a lower low range ratio than the existing 2 to 1 in it at the moment, enjoyed the video, very informative, the Jimny is under warranty so I can't add anything onto the vehicle, only change the internal gears.

[@BuiltForDirt]

Here ya go www.jimnybits.com/jimny-17-high-87-low-ratio-transfer-box-case-gears-for-electric-push-button-transfer-box.html

[@joyceano5354]

Great video. Although these gears are for the push button transfer case. The new Jimny (Gen 4) has a manual transfer case lever, not the push buttons of Gen 3.

[@BuiltForDirt]

Yeah I’m not an expert on the new Jimny stuff they stopped selling them here in 1995 so we don’t have any new stuff

[@fabiosalerno1490]

Ho un nuovo Jimny con cambio manuale e vorrei montare delle gomme 🛞 di 31 pollici avrei pensato di mettere delle coppie coniche di 4:88 e delle super ridotte di 4:16

[@guruguy6800]

I only want to do rock crawling, right now i have a twin stick dana 300 with a sm465, im running a sbc 388, i want the highest crawl ratio i can get, what is the best crawl ratio i can get, i run 46 inch mickey thompson baja claws, i just want the highest crawl ratio i can get with my sm465.... Anyone have answers for me? My current gear ratio 4.56

[@BuiltForDirt]

Well if you put a 4:1 kit in your Dana 300 and then changed your axle ratio to 5.13s (Not sure what axles you have) that would give you a crawl ratio of 134.4:1 Now if you want even more you could do a Dana 300/NP231 doubler that would get you down to 365.5:1 Or even if you left your axles alone and just did a 4:1 in your 300 and the doubler you would be at 324.96:1

[@monitorglitch5720]

What gear ratio should I go for mud offroading in a samurai?

[@BuiltForDirt]

What size tire?

[@monitorglitch5720]

31s

[@BuiltForDirt]

I would think going to 4.16 transfer case gears would probably be a good setup for mudding. You don’t want to go too low for mud because you need wheel speed but the challenge with Samurais is that they don’t have very much power so you are forced to compensate with gearing.

[@monitorglitch5720]

Thank u so much TJ. Cheers!!

[@d2nasty696]

Some say the higher number is better and others say the lower number is better. I have no damn idea who is right.

[@BuiltForDirt]

It depends what kind of off roading your doing but as a general rule you want to lower your gearing (numerically higher number) when increasing tire size.

[@d2nasty696]

@@BuiltForDirt I guess that makes sense. What do you think fits well on a 02 tahoe with 35s?

[@BuiltForDirt]

Personally I would go with a 4.56 gearing for that set up.

[@d2nasty696]

@@BuiltForDirt thanks alot man I appreciate it

[@poopyturbo]

I have a 2003 Chevy tracker 2.0 4 cylinder automatic it has 5:13 gears in the front and rear differential and 33x12.5xr15 tires it seems way under powered on hills and highway what transfer gears should I use

[@BuiltForDirt]

I’m assuming you have the stock tracker transfer case. If so changing your transfer case gears will not help you on the road in any way because they are all 1:1 in high range. The only way to help on the highway would be lower axle gears which wouldn’t help enough. If you swapped in a stock Samurai transfer case that would help both on and off road because the gearing in high and low range would both be lower. The stock tracker case is 1:1 in high and only 1.8:1 in low range. If you were talking off road only I would say just put like a 4:1 gear set in the Tracker transfer case.

[@poopyturbo]

It mostly needed for offroad

[@BuiltForDirt]

This would be perfect then bit.ly/2J2EojC