I don't know Silver, I think the answer is quite simple in my mind. You even said it yourself, sometimes you have thoughts of maybe tearing it back down and putting your 33s back on. I think the best compromise you can make with yourself with these 35s is either put the 4.56s into the truck when you can afford it, or go back down to 33s with the current 4.10s. If you dont want to have to think about the fact your truck is very large right now, I think 4.88s would be a nightmare for you. Since you really use this truck for realistic purposes, I think you would be shooting yourself in the foot when your going down the highway like a normal person, and your truck is having a hard time going 75 mph because the gears are 4.88s. 4.56s just seem the most versatile to me, especially for guys like you and me who use our trucks normally, and really actually don't do too much exclusive recreational offroading with them. I think once you start getting into a 4.88 gear, its when you start to pertain yourself towards the offroad crowd. 4.56s aren't going to make the truck any worse than it was stock, so you will have all of the capablities it had stock essentially. I just think it's the best fine line for guys who want a big truck but want a normal riding truck. If I find out I don't have 4.56s, I'm going to buy them. It treats your transmission well, and it gives you the extra power your truck needs for torque, yet still gives you optional and realisitic highway driving. Like I said, for someone like you who contemplates regularly whether your being silly or not for having big tires, I think you will furthermore think this way when you limit yourself to an offroad gear. Get the 4.56s when you can, and then your truck will pertain perfectly in ALL situations and even better than stock because 4.56s create a lot of torque, and not just exclusive situations. You have 4.10s right now, which is still not bad at all. So I think you should either save up for the 4.56s, or size back down to 33s and 4.10s. Whichever you choose you will be at the right ratio whether it being 33s and 4.10s, or 35s and 4.56s. This is just my opinion, and I'm basing it off how you sound as a truck owner. You seem like someone who loves the look of a big rig, like myself, but somebody that really isn't into bashing up your truck in the mud. If you get 4.88s, it'd only be for offroading purposes, I don't think you need those nor can afford the sacrifices. 4.56s seem to be where its at for people with big rigs who want an abundance of torque but don't need it any higher because it's used as a regular truck.

 

Who tells you this bull**** dude or do you make it up yourself?

You don't even know what gears you have in your truck, but your happy with whatever it turns out to be... It's probably 4.10 and he just said 4.10s with 35s are no good. So obviously you two have different ideas right from the getgo.

If they're not 4.56 you're going to get 4.56? Why? if they say it's 4.56 then you're happy with the way it drives, but if they tell you it's 4.10 than you won't be happy about how it drives? That doesn't make any sense.

4.88 is an offroad only gear ratio? I'll let someone else pick on your for that...


Alternativly, if you could find a wrecked truck with a 5 speed in it for less, or the same price. My friends dad has a 5.2 with a 5 speed and his feels alot more powerful than my 5.9 with an automatic. I know you probably don't want to go through that hastle, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

 

No, I feel pretty confident I have 4.56s. Silver_Dodge has 35s with 4.10s and he seems to really not care for it. There is no way I have 4.10s with the power I speak of, and the dreadfullness Silver speaks of. Thats my opinion though, I think 4.56 clearly are the most versatile gear here. He says he doesnt offroad much, why would he need 4.88s? He uses the truck as a realistic piece of transportation, so why would he want to over do the gearing and subject himself to just a city truck? 4.56s will allow him plenty of torque and give him highway capability. Is that so far fetched?

 

Hey Silver,

I was poking around Southeast_RT a few weeks ago and noticed they sell that GearVendors unit that HankL always suggests.
I don't know what it costs, but why don't you call John and bend his ear about it? That thing should bypass the need to do both axles and you could put the money to the one piece and have selectable gear ratios.

 

Oh, let me add this too...

I'm running the 4.11s on 265X70X16, which is about a 30.6" tire. The rpms are higher (something like 2200 hard to tell exactly because the stock tach isn't divided by 5 units between each large line, it's actually only 4, so more like 125rpms per line), but at 70mph I'm pulling 18mpg on the overhead console and can feather it around and bounce between 20~21mpg when I find the sweet spot. I never got that with the same sized tire and 3.55 gears. If I roll up to 75mph it drops to about 14mpg, but that's okay by me, as I can't keep that speed around Dallas with as much traffic as we have, and it might be the same for you up around those mountains, the Denver area was way more built up 2 years ago than the last time I had been 10 years ago.

 

My truck runs at around 2,200 rpms at 70 mph with my 4.56 gears and 36.5" tires. When I got my gearing done, I really was leaning toward the 4.88 gears, but 4wheelparts didn't have them, and I decided that I wasn't going to tackle this myself, so I had them install the 4.56's. After running with this combo for a while, I feel that I am very satisfied with the 4.56's. If I had in fact gotten the 4.88's, I'm sure I would be able to launch even better than I do now, but I would not like my truck running at 2,400 to 2,500 rpms on the interstate, just sucking that gas down! Whenever I want more torque from it, I just take it out of OD and it has all I could ever ask for for the type of driving I do. There are very few hills, I practically never go off-roading except in sugar sand at the beach, half the driving I do is around town, and the other half is on the interstate. I feel that if I had gone to the 4.88's, I may have been a little regretful due to the increase in engine rpms overall. I probably would have gone to a larger tire to compensate when the ones I have now wear out. After changing to 38" tires with 4.88's, I would be close to the ratio I'm at now at 36.5" and 4.56's.

My opinion would be the same as what 01DodgeRam360 said.