Ok, The truck I recently bought has the stock dana 44's with the 3.55 gears. It has 38" tires on it an OD is absolutely worthless. I would like to upgrade to the dana 60 rears front and rear. unfortunately the wheels and tires have less than 300 miles on them. untill I can afford a set of dana 60's with gears and wheels to fit. I would like to just change the gears I have now. I'm just not sure what the best gears to use would be. My driving includes: highway driving and back roads with hills. I will be doing nothing wild offroad. just some cut roads through the woods, with a few low water crossing to get into my dirtbike camp. My thought was 4.56 or possibly 4.88's. Can anyone with experiance with this give me some advise. Thanks.

 

38" tires on dana 44's isn't recommended in any event. (max rec. size is 35) For the price of gears, you could pick up a pair of dana 60's..... Ya gotta keep in mind, that gears, plus install, is gonna run north of 1000 bucks...... lotta money to throw at axles you don't plan on keeping. You won't recover much of that if you sell the axles later.... Some, yes.

I think you would be better off picking up the axles you want, getting some cheap 8 lug rims your tires will fit on, and run the 3.55's in the 60's until you can afford gears. Sell the current rims to help pay for the axle swap.

Edit: Also gotta keep in mind, those fat tires and low (numerically) gears, are gonna super heat your trans...... Another option might be to pick up some inexpensive (used....) tires that aren't quite so huge to run until you can get things in place for the axles/gears/rims.....

 

Checkout this link http://www.4wheelonline.com/superlift_tiresize.htm.

Dave

 

D%^*n. Wasnt the answer I was hoping for lol. I was planning on doing the rear gears myself.. I never messed with the dodge rears. but My dad and I put the gears in my 9" ford rear in my S-10 when we tubbed it.. I found gears for $400 front and rear for my dana 44's. But I will be taking your advise. Don't want to cause anymore issues with this truck. Still cant get the cold engine hiccup taken care of.

 

using a different gear will prevent the trans from getting destroyed? because this is exactly what i am aiming for, but i wanted 35-36 tires

 

No. Certainly not. But it will greatly help at preventing it. Just remember, Dodge trannys get destroyed with stock size tires all the time.

 

If you can install the gears yourself..... You can save a pile of money. I would still recommend NOT doing gears in the 44's, but, doing the axle swap first. Sell the five lug rims, and the extra axles to help pay for the conversion.

 

4.88s are the ticket. With the driving you've described the 9.25 and D44 will probably be fine but not ideal.

 

Thanks. I'm thinking i'm gonna go that route now since I dont drive the truck daily. And get the parts to do the 60 swap as I can To make it more dependable.

 

What? Says who? The vast majority of the desert community races on Dana 44's. They're proven nearly indestructible.