4.30's to 3.55 change.....

[Sawboy]

With the price of diesel so ridiculously out of hand I am wondering if anyone has gone to higher gears in an effort to save fuel.

Mind you, I did not buy a 50k truck and suddenly become concerned about fuel but............We're all trying save some dough aren't we?

I tow my car about 20 times a year or so to various racing events etc. (about 7k). I tow my boat about 20 or 30 times per year (about 2k). I tow in Il, Wi, In, and out to Ohio once a year. Certainly not mountainous terrain by any means, so hill climbing is of no real concern.

I remember reading a while back that changing the gears ran someone about $1700 front and rear. I was thinking about going from the 4.30's to a 3.55 gear. That will save me a ton of fuel when I am on weekend drives unloaded, and I don't think it will hurt me too much in the towing (power) department either as far as the loss of mechanical advantage provided by the current gearing.

What do you guys think?



Bob

 

[JRJ04]

i would go with 3.73's. thats what ive got in mine, and i still have plenty of power but am under 2000rpms goin down the highway at 70. i would almost think you might lose a lot of that low end power goin up to gears that high. but you will definately see a change in your mileage by changing. 4.30 must have you turning 22-2300 right now at 70?

 

[bushpilot]

Im running the 3.73 set...i wonder for someone like yourself if
a gearvendors over drive wouldnt be better...you at 2995 for the
gearvendors set up you could still keep your towing capablity.

Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive Ford Final Drive Ratios.

i wonder where the rpms are w/ those final drive numbers

 

[Sawboy]

I would do the gear vendors in a heartbeat. But then Ford will cry that I voided the warranty if anything ever goes wrong!

 

[DaveBen]

3.55 would be too much of a gear to pull without a Gearvenders OD.

Dave

 

[Sawboy]

But doesn't the GV unit void the factory warranty?

 

[DaveBen]

That, I don't know. Probably...

Dave

 

[WD40]

At one time the G/V unit did not void the factory warranty. That would be a good question to ask Ford. I drove a older truck one time that had the C-6 and a G/V and it was nice with a 4.10s pulling the RV.

 

[Zookie400]

i tow every weekend, be it a gooseneck horse trailer, a car/truck/tractor on a trailer, a dump trailer, or our race machines in our enclosed trailer.

my truck has 3.55's, and with the auto tranny i dont have the slightest bit of trouble. it doesnt "shoot out of the hole" like it could with lower gears, but once its rolling about 5-10 mph it moves just great. when i hit a hill on the highway with a trailer, it drops a gear, but once it does that it can easily keep the speed up above 65.

when i drove a severely overloaded gooseneck from raleigh NC back to CT we were getting 16.5mpg driving 65 the whole way. when i drove the same route empty at 75-85mph, i got about 17. city driving 20 miles to and from work (20-50mph) it gets just short of 18, if i can keep my foot out of it.

i guess my point here after all this rambling, is i wouldnt be afraid of towing with 3.55's, even if you are towing moderate to heavy loads.

 

[Kleetus]

Look at it this way... changing gears isn't going to help your warranty either, so either way, you're in the same boat...