looks like 4.88s are the general consensus, probably go with them. if i have 35's now with no B/L and add 3'' B/L adding only 2" in tire should be ok right?

 

The off road is also two inches taller than the regular trucks, so, with the addition of the 3" body lift, he will be a total of 5" over "stock". Usually enough to clear 35's on the non-OR trucks. 37's may be a bit tight, but, as he doesn't do trails and such, probably not all that much of an issue. Bear in mind though, that the largest 'suggested' tire for the dana 44 axle is 35"..... granted, yours should be reinforced some, but, the wheel bearings, and ball joints, are going to suffer with the larger tires.

 

i did add a 2" spacer to level out the front also, so that should help out a lil. on the wheel bearing and ball joints do you know of any after market stronger ones? or is it something that is just always gonna fail? should i look at upgrading the axle shafts?

 

x2 on both of the above offered input to you. The extra flanging on the D44 up front will not be that much of a help relative to the points being made about the BJs and wheel bearings.



BJs and wheel bearing are the weaker links before the axle shafts. Even before the axle shafts are the ujoints. You can at least upgrade those though.

Edit: There are "stronger" ones out there. I'd suggest you consider at worst replacing them once every year or a bit more. Just will depend on your driving habits.



FYI, 4.88s are the largest you can go in those diffs.

 

As long as you don't beat on it the Dana 44 will hold the 37's fine. I've seen people with 40's beat on there truck and bot have a problem. Just depends on the luck of the draw.

 

Tranny has not, aside from a cooler. It's a fresh rebuild. I do some towing of cars with a dual axle flat bed trailer, and it was a night and day diff between 3.55s and 4.88s. If I'm on the highway, I didn't notice a difference in engine RPMs at 70 mph because with the 3.55s I ALWAYS had overdrive off. With the 4.88s I can use overdrive if not towing, and it still sits near 2k. Towing, with o/d off at 60 mph lands me near 2600 RPMs. Gas mileage? If I granny it, ill see 12 city, 14ish highway. If I'm on it, ill get 9.5. If I offroad a couple times on my tank, I'll average 8 for the whole tank.

SCT is a company that sells tuners for a variety of vehicles. There is a member on the forum by the name of hemifever who sells them for a discounted price, and it comes with three pre-installed tunes according to what grade of fuel you put in your truck. I know people on here that swear by it, and it removes the "death flash" from the truck if your truck has it. Use the search bar on here and you will find countless threads on it. I noticed a bit of improvement in top end performance. Wasn't killer, but bear in mind that my truck is mostly stock engine wise, annddd has 38 inch tires. Don't expect it to start poppin' wheelies at stoplights, but it will wake it up a bit.

Upgraded axle shafts/u-joints but stock 1500 hardware otherwise.

 

Im runnin 37open on stock 3.92 gears and with no o/d i run about 2600 rpms at 65mph. And trust me it blows. I cant wait till i can afford to go to 4.88 gears

 

at least you have 3.92's.
I run OD off at 2400rpm @65 with 285's and 3.55's.
I want 4.10's sooo bad.

 

i like my 4.10s i'm happy my truck has them stock... they aren't to bad with my 35s