redneckengineered said:
3.0 if for no other reason than it's a much stronger gearset than the 3.8 and lower. If you need more crawl with 500hp, a 3.0 and 5.38s buy a Toyota :****:
I used to have 4.56s and a 3.8, it was great but I exploded the gears. Went to a 3.0 with same axle gears and love it. I just use 1st more often now where before I never used 1st.
Toyota guy daydreaming here....thinking about a future build.
So me and a buddy were talking about this very thing the other day, doing what wheelers do, i was looking at different crawl ratios and that led us to talking about this very thing.
I have been wondering if the 3.8 gear would be the weak link in this equation. I had felt like the 3.8 would be an issue because of the gear turning at such a higher RPM and then being placed under a large shock load it wouldn't be able to handle it...it looks like the personal experience you guys have with that setup confirms that the 3.8 for Southern style wheeling might not be a good choice. I know many different setups are good and many of them can be made to work, however, my train of thought in this conversation is focused on the Build it Once and Leave it, type setup..,
It is my personal opinion, although i maybe wrong, that it would be better for the weak link be the ring and pinion, because it is less collateral damage in the event of a failure, relatively speaking....which is a lot cheaper that replacing a T-case at 3000+ dollars.
So i here is my question,
Andrew, do you think that a ratio of TH350 2.52 X Atlas 3.0 X Axle gear 4.56 =34.47 is more targeted for a rig with 500ish or more Hp?
And in no way am i being a smart aleck....my buddies rig is a TH350/np205 with a lowmax 3.0/ and 5.13's so that puts him at 38.78 which seems to really work out great.
It crawls really well and also has the power to really spin when you want to get into a higher gear....i have really been basing my thoughts for final crawl ratios to build a new rig on the way his rig preforms. I don't remember what stall he has at the moment. Also i don't think his is over the 500hp mark...so i am wondering if the diffrence in ratio's vs HP is where the main diffrence would be. Somewhat of a Crawl Ratio vs HP...more horsepower=less crawl ratio....Less horsepower =slightly more crawl ratio.
I have a TH400 already so i have been playing around with Ratios a lot.
So TH400 2.48 X Atlas 3.0 X Axles 4.56 =33.92 which is right there at the 34.47 i think you may have. I had thought that i wanted to go with 4.10 gears at the diff for strength reasons but if you do the math on 4.10's it comes out to 30.50 which i think is to low a ratio for a trail rig...
I hope this makes sense...
Do you have any thoughts?
Thanks for entertaining it.