"Jason Bleazard" <jason.dml@bleazard.net> wrote:
: From: <jon@dakota-truck.net>
:> As long as you've got 'em open.... 4.10s? :-)
: Might be a little lower than we want to go on our daily driver, although
: it's worth thinking about.
: Bob asked that question a couple of weeks ago, but that was before I
: realized the speedometer pickup was on the axle. I wanted to stay with a
: factory option because I thought I'd have to get the speedo re-programmed.
: I'm trying to think if there's any other advantage to sticking with a
: factory ratio. We do have the chart that shows the tow ratings, in case we
: ever got pulled over by some busybody law enforcement officer who wanted to
: make sure we weren't overloading the vehicle and creating an unsafe
: condition. Obviously (to anyone with a brain) the lower gears would be
: better than what's on the chart, but the bureaucratic mind doesn't accept
: anything that isn't written down and certified true from the manufacturer.
: That's a relatively minor "what-if" concern, but it's about the only one I
: can come up with, other than the obvious fuel mileage concerns.
Here are a couple of thoughts that come to mind...
Are you swapping to the 3.92s because you are planning to use the
extra towing capacity, or is it just for more buffer? The reason I
ask is if you are staying within the 3.55 specs, the bureaucratic
issue probably wouldn't be one (there's no way someone on the
highway would know what you have in the rearend without going through
the hassle of actually checking and anyway I'll bet the odds of
something like that happening in the first place are pretty slim)
You could easily show that your truck was built with 3.55s, and if
you wanted to use the 3.92 rating, you could probably show a receipt
for the work and tell them you had the gears upgraded to the "shorter"
gears - of course, you went shorter than 3.92 but they don't need to
know that. :-)
Another thought - the 4.10s *might* not have too much of an affect
on your fuel mileage, depending on how you drive it. Certainly on
a road trip you will use more fuel, but seeing as how you are in
Toronto and the truck probably does mostly stop and go driving, the
shorter gears would help the truck to get moving from a stop, taxing
the engine less - depending on the type of driving you do, it is
conceivable that your city gas mileage might actually improve!
Anyway, yep it is probably worth doing some thinking about -
changing the ratio on a 4x4 isn't cheap, it would be a shame to
do the work and spend the money than a few years down the road
start in on the whole "shoulda coulda" thing. :-) Do you think
the truck will ever see offroading where the 4.10s would be
useful over the 3.92s, what will happen to the truck 10 years down
the road and what will it be used for, what type of driving will
you be doing, etc.
---Jon-
.---- Jon Steiger ------ jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com ------. | I'm the: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA. Rec & UL Pilot - SEL | | 70 Cuda, 90 Dak 'vert, 92 Ram 4x4, 96 Dak, 96 Intruder 1400, 96 FireFly | `------------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com ----'
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