Well, I probably got the money for one more good mod before Christmas hits,then I'll have to start saving for others. So what should it be?
I've narrowed it down to these two because they'll basically end up costing the same (can do the exhaust but parts more $$$, gears cheaper but pay somebody to install them)
Which one's the most bang-for-the-buck in your opinion?

For reference I've opened up the exhaust from the cat back, and I'm running the 3.55 gear ratio now with 265x75x16 tires

This might be the last mod for a while, I'm getting married next summer and need to start putting moneytoward that. Would it be wrong to register at summitracing?

 

Now I might be a little bias considering my truck has 4.10 gears...but honestly I think if you can put headers and a nice y-pipe on your exisiting truck, it's going to tear *** and your truck is going to be better off in the long run! Plus, how many people have the bragging rights of headers, there phat by all means lol.

 

i see you have a LSD in your sig....so i'd double check that you'll be able to continue using it if you go with new gears. I'd bump up even further to the 4.56's. Never heard anyone complain about going too high with gears, only guys that stopped at 3.92 or 4.10 and wished they'd gone bigger.

my train of thought goes like this....if you get the longtubes on a mostly stock motor and stock gearing, your lowendwill likely feel like it's sufferinga bit. if you get gears your lowend will be kickass, and if you add headers down the road...best of both worlds.

my $0.02

GEARS

 

looks like your winning me over 20DodgeNeon00, everybody else is just stopping by and gawking!

C'mon, I wanna hear from everybody, especially those of you that have swapped headers and gears. Which did y'all like best?

EDIT: sorry Olsen, you were posting the same time I did.

 

Hands down gears. The exhaust stuff, though phat, is only going to do you good if your engine is actually pumping enough air to utilize those new pipes. This means upgraded air intake, TB, intake manifold, maybe even better heads, pcm programming, etc. Don't get me wrong, you'll feel some improvement from those upgraded exhaust components, but they need to work in conjuntion with so many other mods before you really feel their full benefit. Gears on the other hand are pure mechanical advantage, no matter what you other mods are. Ever wonder how Toyota's with little 4 bangers under the hood can push 38" tires with suprising ease - gears. You need not have any other mods for gears to be effective.

 

In my opinion, headers are earned once you have a complete cold air intake kit installed, a free flowing exhaust system (including a hi-flow catalytic converter), and and a quality performance chip that will allow your engine to fully comprehend the new mods it has! Yes gearings are nice, but it depends on how much you want to get into it...if you are only going to be getting yourself one treat, if it were me, i'd buy the headers and the y-pipe because it's so satisfying! Do you have a cold air intake and a performance exhaust system? Just curious, if not, then silver-dodge is right, you would want to make sure you have some key components to go along with headers to maximize their cause. All dodges are powerful, I think it'd love you more if you let it breathe hah!

 

Silver,

I noticed you have the same gears I was looking at getting. Do you wish you went bigger (ratio)? I don't plan on going bigger than the 33's for tires, not for a while anyways. I also don't want to completely thrash my gas mileage, as to get anywhere in this state, you gotta drive highway.

 

Does anyone know what the top speed on these trucks is with 4.10 and 4.56 gears?
Mine has 3.55s and I know it goes at least 120 which is where my speedometer ends.
I definetly want to put lower gears in it to help the low end but I don't want find to go through the trouble then find out my truck tops out at 80mph either.

 

I have 4.10 gears with 35" tires, and I went 112 mph the other night, and there was still a lot left. By the way, the 4.10 gears have rediculous off the line power, all I have right now is a complete exhaust system, and I can't help but chirp the tires WITH 35" tires when I floor it, so that should tell you how sweet these gears are hah

 

There was a calculator posted in another thread about gearing. If you knew the speed,tire size, rpms (5000 or so to max out without redlining) and like the OD ratio (0.69:1)you could calculate the gear ratio. Ah, here it is:

http://www.drivetraindirect.com/t_gear_calculator.htm

According to the calculator 4.10's will run 120mph at 5000rpmswith 33" wheels