Hey everyone, I have 3.55 stock gears with 36's I average about 12-13mpg on the highway w/o a/c on. Is this good, does anyone have a easy and most important cheap ways of increasing gas mileage

 

That's actually really good mileage for the combination of tires and gears you have.

No real cheap solution, but I'd say getting 4.56 or 4.88 ring and pinion gears would bring your mileage up. Not to mention bring your power back to a decent level.

 

I dont even know how your truck moves with 3.55's and 36's, I would say go with 4.88 ratio

 

I think changing to higher gears will help with his city mpgs and responsiveness, but will harm highway mpgs.Once he has worked up to highway speeds and can stay there, I would think his 3.55 / 36" combo is giving him that higher mileage by giving him a much lower overall drive ratio. Of course, it all depends on how long you stay at highway speeds and all that good stuff.

I'm not saying I would stay with that combo... I would probalby opt for 4.88 at that point. But I have towonder if the speedo is corrected... if not - his MPG is WAY higher than that!

Cartman

 

i have not corrected the speedometer, but i did do the math and discovered an average of 12.6 mpg

 

my previous reply was confusing, i found a chart online that said compared to my stock tire size, that i am off by 17 percent. So i multiplied my trip meter by 117%, to correct for the actual mileage that I had driven, I then divided that by how much gas it took to refill the tank. ended up with 12.6mpg. Also I do spend alot of time on the highway, but here is the problem. I usually drive about 55-60mph, which reads 45-50mph on my speedo. If i go up a hill, and slow just a little bit, my strained tranny downshifts, resulting in what i think to be a decrease in mpg. I have both the tools and the knowledge to change the gears my self, does anyone have a set of gears, that i could buy. CHEAP

 

Good luck. Gears are not cheap.

 

Actually gears aren't that expensive it's usually the install people get raped on.

Also you'll need 2 sets since you have a 4x4
and 2 master install kits.

 

My dad has a 87 ram with the same front and rear ends it has 4.10s in it, he plans to put some huge tires on that and maybe I can convince him to sell me his gears cheap, what do you think, i know its a step in the right direction, but should i even worry with it, because i also want to lock up the front end when i tear into it. All I have done so far is change the fluid, and that was about 2 weeks ago.

 

If you're going to lock your front axel with 36s on it you're probably going to want to put a stronger axel in. Unless you like replacing axel shafts.

Look around for a set of Dana 60s you should be able to find a set with 4.10 gears already in them for under a thousand dollars.