How much transmission is enough?

Redneckryder549 · Nov 1, 2016

Looking to buy a shorty powerglide for a buggy build, will be going behind a 500 HP small block with 38" tires and weighing around 3,000lbs. Maybe a little more. I was looking at Hughes transmissions but I don't know which one is "enough". I know everything is able to break, I don't want to waste money on one that won't hold up at all but I don't want to spend thousands that I don't need to either. Any recommendations from real world users that have ran them in smaller Buggys?

Redneckryder549 · Nov 1, 2016

No trans brake but I do want a RMVB

civicmindedex79 · Nov 1, 2016

All I got is call ED at PTC. He is a straight guy and won't try and sell you what you don't need. Has built plenty for crawlers/bouncers/trail riders and anything else that needs to spin wheels from a motor to know.

RustyC · Nov 1, 2016

T-case and axle gear ratios have a big effect on transmission strength. Th400 or 4L80E would be my choice if I could fit it.

Redneckryder549 · Nov 1, 2016

In looking for the shortest combo it slipped my mind to think out of the box but it's actually the C4. Now researching the best way to hook it up to the Chevy V6.

Elliott · Nov 1, 2016

You're building a 500 horse v6???

Jon Piper · Nov 1, 2016

civicmindedex79 said:
All I got is call ED at PTC. He is a straight guy and won't try and sell you what you don't need. Has built plenty for crawlers/bouncers/trail riders and anything else that needs to spin wheels from a motor to know.

X2

JDodd · Nov 1, 2016

If you are going to run a v6 why not run a 4t65e with a tcase. it will probly be the shortest and with a overdrive if you ever need speed

JDodd · Nov 2, 2016

There is a lot of guys running these behind LS's so they can take the power. The bigest problem with the transaxle is having too low of a gear, but the 4t65e has planetary final drive so you can modify it to be a 1:1 so you wont have deal with the super low gearing.

With a 3.8 tcase and 4.56 diff here is the ratios for 1st-4th

1st - 50.6
2nd - 27.0
3rd - 17.3
4th - 12.1

I think that is a really good gear range for a bouncer type driving since youll have a low first and in 4th you could still run 55-60 mph