What gears should I use in my rear end?

[Kerlijah]

So I'm saving up my nickels and dimes, hoping to get different gearing soon. Unfortunately, when it comes to gearing, I dont know jack
I drive my truck every day, mostly just in town, but I also drive it a lot on the highway. I dont have a tach, so I cant say exactly how many rpm's I'm turnin at 65 down the highway,(way high though I'm sure) but I can tell you Ol Yeller really doesnt like goin that fast at all, it's practically screamin!!

So my question is, what would yall recommend for gearing in my truck? It's 2-wheel drive, has the stock 4-speed with granny low--it's so low geared right now it could pull my house off the foundation, but since I just drive it, I dont really work it, I'd REALLY much rather be able to get up and go, but cruise at highway speeds without feeling like I'm gonna blow my engine...

Any help would be awesome, thanks guys!!

[ont_guy_38]

You probably want a 3:42 gearing . That is a good all around ratio

[Goldfinger]

2.73 for mpg. the acceleration is a little less but has a high top speed and will run highway at low rpms

[MalibuSSwagon]

I have the stock SM465 and 2.73 gears. Its not a screamer but it drives and tows fine. Highways rpms are 2k rpm at 60-65. Just needs more power to get up and go!

[N2TRUX]

No one can properly answer your question with out more data to input. What motor do you have? What size tires are you running? Exactly what transmission do you have? Answer these questions and we can offer our best advice.

[James McClure]

N2, thankyou. I was waiting to see if someone asked these critical questions. Kerl, we need to know everything thats in front of the diff as well as tire sizes and current diff ratio. (more on this later) Without good information you can't get a good logical answer. What works for driver "A" or "B" may not be good for you or your truck. We also need the current ratio because you can't put series 3 gears on a 4 series carrier, so if you have 4:10 gears in there now 3:73 or 3:08 ect won't fit without a spacer or a 3 series carrier. If you can't decode the diff from the numbers on top of the R\S axel tube or suspect a previous diff change the most accurite way to determine ratio is to pop the cover aand look for numbers on the ring gear. The numbers you seek look like this, "00:00". They will be arranged that way. 15:41 is 2:73 ratio, where 15 represents # of teeth on the pinion & 41 the number of teeth on the ring gear. Divide 41 by 15 and you get 2:73. jim