How much do those run for? And they can handle big tires even if the gearing isn't where its supposed to be?

 

What gears do you have? Have you even checked yet. If you want taller gears then expect your top speed to go down. I'm not well educated on gearing, but i don't think it's the solution to any of your problems. The tranny is probably shot because of all the romping you do to the truck. So if it were me, I would get a dr. evil transmission. Then if you still dislike the top end power you're getting, you can downgrade to 33" tires. As far as the blowing around on the highway, my truck does that too and the suspension is stock. (i'm sure my topper only hurts it). I've driven my grandpa's 2nd gen with both a in bed truck camper in it, and a 30ft travel trailer behind it. Now that was hard to handle.

dreviltransmissions.com

 

If you got a new GOOD tranny and re-geared the rearend for those tires, you would be absolutely fine. The steering is going to suck more with any lifted vehicle, but especially in a II Gen Ram. A big truck will always get blown around on the highway no matter what. If you do these three things, I guarantee you will be okay:

1. Get a new tranny that is of better quality than OEM (Fastman, Dr. Evil, etc.)
2. Get the rearend re-geared to handle the bigger tires
3. Get some sort of aftermarket steering stabilizer

(here are some from Summit: http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...115+4294907043)

 

4.10 gears are not the reason your transmission blew up. 4.10s with 35 inch tires are the equivelant of 3.55 gears on 31 inch tires. The trannys on these trucks go. They go alot quicker if you like to do "burnouts". We all recommend lower gears, because it's nice to have the torque if you tow or go offroad, but you don't do either. So 4.10s are deffinetly OKAY. Even if you get 285s you're just going to blow your transmission up again if you keep romping on it the way you do. That's just how things are. Sorry it's that way. In a perfect world we could all beat the **** out of our vehicles all the time and nothing would ever break. In reality things still go wrong even when we try very hard to take care of things. That's probably the only realistic thing i saw in "The fast and the furious" is where dude blows up his $35,000 eclipse in the first race.

 

get a dual shock kit on the front dual steering stablizer kit new shocks in the rear and be dont

 

check out my cardomain, i have stock tires on with sweet rims on it. and my truck has a 2 inch lift in the front.see if thats what your looking for,

 

If your real loose in the front, you can pick up some 2500 coils. They will really stiffen things up on top of those new shocks.

 

Before gutting your truck for increase in stability you might want to consider this.
Big rigs slow down or simply pull over when conditions are too windy because they can and will flip in heavy winds.
Nascar racecars have front spoilers on the front of their cars not for aeordynamics but for reduced amounts of air getting underneath their cars. The reason for this is to prevent accidents, improve handling and to prevent cars from getting airborn.
There is a phenomenom that aircraft engineers speak of as, "Lift". This, "Lift", increases as your speed increases and tends to make cars more and more uncontrollable at higher and higher speeds.
In a truck like yours, the safety of driving and your handling will probably increase simply by slowing down a little bit. instead of 80, try 65. As ****ty as that sounds, that's probably the quickest way to increase stability on the road. So do what you must, but if you don't have to speed, then don't.
Also, a few things you can do to certainly improve your trucks handling and ride quality is check your chassis. First, get some blocks to put behind your wheels, get some jackstands to put under your truck when you jack it up, set your e brake and a jack to jack up one side of your truck. Now, grab a hold of the top and bottom of the tire that is up in the air and try to shake it to check for any excessive play. Do this again with your hands on the left and right side of your wheel. If there is excessive play, check your hub where the wheel bearing is. The nut may need be tightend to settle things. Just don't overtighten. Spin the hub in the foward direction while tightening to 20 ft-lbs and now loosen the spindle nut 1/4 turn. Then using your hand, not a wrench, hand tightenthe spindle nut until snug. Reinstall the nut lock, cotter pin, bearing cover, and the wheel. Now check for excessive play once again. If that doesn't do it, remove, inspect and replace your bearings as necessary.
Second, get a flashlight, a helper and some 16" channel locks, , to inspect your track bar and other steering linkage components like the tie rod ends, ball joints, pitman arm, idler arm, etcetera. Using the flashlight, channel locks and you helper, have your helper turn the steering wheel from left to right about 180 degrees repeatedly by threatening to beat him over the head with your flashlight and channel locks if he doesn't do what you say. This is so you can go under the truck to check if anything is loose. What your looking for is excessive play in any of the steering linkage joints built into the tie rod ends, track bar, ball joints, pitman arm, idler arm, etcetera. If anything seems to be loose, take notice, and continue your inspection. After your done acting like inspector gadget under there, grab the channel locks and squeeze whatever you noticed to be abnormally loose. If you can squeeze the joints of the components to where the ball in the socket moves more then say 1/16 of an inch, I'd say that that part is worn and in need of replacement because when those parts are brand new, it's difficult to barely make them move by hand. So, if you find that when you can squeeze something to the point where the ball in the socket can move around a little, be aware that that part is worn. You can still ride on it, but it's always better to take care of those kinds of things before they become a problem like when your driving 80MPH on the freeway on a windy day and the truck just doesn't want to go where you think it should and you have to manhandle it in order to safely drive down the road.
The track bars on 94-01 Dodges are notorious for going bad and causing steering issues. Luke's Link makes a kit to fix the issue, expensive but effective, http://www.lukeslink.com/dodgeinst.pdf, and I read somewhere here on Dodgeforum that Napa makes a replacement that they'll replace for free if it goes bad, so that might be helpful if your on a budget.
Top name when it comes to linkage components is Moog. At my Mom's shop, Moog is the manufacturer of premium parts and Spicer is just average. However, noone ever seems to complain no matter what they get because these things don't fail too easily. Not to say that Spicer is a bad name but last I checked, their parts were made in taiwan, so Napa might be a good way to go. They may be more expensive then autozone or kragen but they do have higher quality parts which speaks for itself, so call around. If you see quite a few things under the truck that may need to be replaced soon, or immediately, get some quotes, go on the internet to search for prices, whatever, but just remember to find the warranty on these parts because it really does mean something when a company is willing to back it's product for a long time as opposed to a 30-day money back guarantee...
Also, what kind of suspension do you have? If you can shake your truck around by just moving around in the front seat, I would say that that is not normal. Like other's have said before, It could be your shocks, if they are overstretched or old, it may be a good time to upgrade to something of the right size and strength for your trucks height. Do you have blocks underneath a stock 1/2 ton set of leaf springs? If so, you can stiffen up your ride by simply replacing those blocks with add-a-leafs. It'll be alot heavier if you try to acheive a 6" lift with add-a-leafs but you considered removing all you lift right? Try maybe just adding a couple leafes to give like 2"-4" of lift in the back. That won't look bad, will increase your payload capacity, and also stiffen up the feel of your truck's ride at higher speeds. Not too expensive either.
And finally, as many have probably hoped for if anyone actually read all of this crap that I've had to rewrite after my computer crashed an hour ago... Take it easy on them burnouts so that you can keep from blowing up your tranny, and forget about your gears. If you take it easy, they won't be a problem, especially if you get smaller tires or even if you just don't try to race around in your truck. When it comes to racing around, take my advice, when your young, it's fun, but in the end it might cost the life of someone... I almost rolled my truck a while ago, and it was simply because I was racing around. I was truthfully blessed that night and I can't say why. When I look into the mirror, I don't always like the way I look but for some reason or not, "someone upstair must like me." If you do plan to get new tires, go to pepboys or something and find out exactly how tall they are. You said you wanted 285s`? Find their height, and deflate your tires to that level to see where your truck will stand. You might be surprised at how large they are and then you might not need gears so badly anyways seeing as how you may already have some. However you might enjoy a limited slip or locking rear end for traction if you can afford it.

 

But ya see guys this transmission didn't break because of me. I know everyone thinks I romp on it all the time, but those are only for the videos. Generally, I'm a slow and cautious driver, and I really go out of my way to take care of this truck. The truck is doing what it did when I first test drove it back in July. The transmission would just keep in wining in a certain gear and not shift no matter what you did. If you let of it will just backfire, and if you keep giving it more gas, the rpms will just keep going higher and higher and higher until you want to puke. Once I'd get it into 3rd gear I was able to sustain 65 mph all the way down from Bar Harbor, but it was just a sickening feeling when I was driving through the backhills and the trucks tranny was just jumping around everywhere, and then all of a sudden I heard a little small poof and then the tranny just all together stopped biting in, so I pulled off the side of the road 150 miles away from home, and I was like ****!! Anyways the highway made it better because I was able to sustain one speed and there werent any hills. But when we pulled off to get some food, it all started up again. Trying to get back on the highway was a nightmare, it wouldnt shift again, so i pulled back on the side of the road, let it sit for a couple minutes, then i tried it again. I pulled back on the highway with some pretty good accelleration. IT'd shift at like 5rpms going into 2nd, then it would shift at all going into third unless i put it in neutral while driving and then put it back in drive, then that would let it shift into 3rd. So anyways, this whole tranny deal is EXACTLY what it did in july. They replaced some solenoid and that seemed to fix the problem. Since I've had the truck, the tranny has ALWAYS sucked. I've just been good at milking the ****er, but it's always jumping around. The tranny was so pathetic that this trip topped it off, it couldnt even handle the trip. Then I put just a simple 4 wheeler on the truck, and thats wehn it started to completely stop shifting, it's pathetic. So obviously I know everyone here thinks I did it, but this tranny did this **** when I first bought it, and since I've had it, it's always been a weak transmission, and now, its back to what it did when I first test drove it. To make this truck stable, I'd have to buy a better stabalizing kit, and heavy duty front shocks or better front shocks. And I need a new tranny. Even with that said, I still may be dissapointed. What I do know is that if I bring it back down to its offroad heigh, put a 285 on it, it will be structural, not a fake suspension if you know what i mean. Well I just got an interesting phone calltoo My grandparents called me, and they said when I left there was a big puddle of oil sitting where my truck was. PErhaps my tranny blew some kind of seal? It would explain why it was fine on the way up, and then the next morning completely ****ed up! Hmm

 

So you bought a truck that already had a week tranny. Then you make several video's doing 0-60 and burnouts and such. But you didn't wreck the tranny? I understand if the tranny wasn't in the greatest shape when you got it, but there's no way the video's had no impact on the tranny blowin up. If you knew it had a weak tranny then it seems you should've been a little easier on the truck. Unless you wanted to replace the transmission.