Ya, I agree, in most cases 3.55 would probably be just fine with 33's, though it will lug the engine, escpecially if you have the 5.2. My 31.6" tires took noticiable toll on the engine when I had the 3.55 gears. But for me, I drive a lot up in the mountains (steep grades, high alltitude), and tow a camper. 4.11's will be a much better choice. I am very happy with them already.

 

LOL.
You summit at around 7k......my house is just under 7k. When I drive up into the Rocky's during the summer, it is easy to reach as high as 10-12k very quickly, and as much as 14k if you are going up to certain peaks.

 

any change in fuel mileage better or worse.

 

suicide...installing taller gears causes the vehicles to increase RPMs, and in doing so, will always hurt mpg

 

I haven't gased up yet, but I will let you know how much I lost. I expect that it will be a lot for right now since I am still running too small of a tire. My RPM's are abnormally high. Once I get the larger tire on, and my RPM's come down some, that should change a little.

I disagree that taller gears cause decreases in MPG in ALL cases. Say for example that you have the stock gears, but are running a bigger then stock tire, the engine needs to work much harder to get things moving, using a lot of additional fuel in the process. If you lower your gears, you put yourself back in the optimal power band were the engine does not have to work as hard to accelerate, thus conserving fuel.

 

I was wondering on a 4x4 if you change the rear gear do you have to change the front aswell.

 

yes, otherwise the tires will spin at different speeds when in 4wd...

 

Gased up for the first time last night since getting my gears done. I have been driving a good mix of city and highway. My MPG was 13.53. So, I definetly lost some, but not as bad as I thought I would considering that I am still running a tire that is too small for these gears. Also, I know I could have driven it easier. It was hard to resist getting on the gas with the way these gears help my acceleration.

I'll let you know how things go when I go a full tank driving conservativly (if I can resist the temptation to mash it).

 

oh man that sucks, your already missing a bunch of power being up that high... I bet your power probably drops off the face of the earth when your up at the 10k~12k ft elevation. being close to sea level rocks.

 

No kidding. The only good thing about it is at the elevation, the air you do get (though low in oxygen), is nice and cool.