when im driving my truck on the highyway, if i go up the slightest grade i need to push the accelerator down fer enough to kick it down to the next lowest gear once its outta OD to accelerate. say im doin 65 mph, and i want to accelerate to 70, i push the pedal down halfway, kicks out of OD, but im accelerating about 1 mph per half mile. it will not accelerate with any haste unless it goes into the next lowest gear. is this normal operation for the 4.7 auto? its an 03

p.s. when i was driving in the mountains, i had to tach almost 5k to keep up 55 mph on a 6% grade carrying no load but me. granted i didnt do this for but a minute

 

very normal, especially in a quad cab, especially with 20's especially with 4x4.

Get some 4.56 and a turbo and you will be fine.

 

definately regear to at leat a 4:56. I would lose the 20's and go the 17's but that is my opinion.

 

what effect does a higher gear ratio have on gas mileage? this will bring RPM's up higher, right, to get into a better powerband for cruising on the highway?

 

truck is stock with 17" wheels, would changing ratio give more low rpm response? and can anyone else let off the brake from stop and a lot of times truck does not budge? sometimes it goes backward, just things ive never experienced in an auto.

 

Putting on the tires basically in effect lowered your overall gear ratio. I higher gear ratio will help get you back to a more stock overall ratio. Gas mileage may go down and your responsiveness will go up as the engine won't have to work as hard to move your truck.

 

with stock 17's and going from 3:93's to 4:56's, my rpm increased 300 rpm. At 70 I'm turning 2500 rpm's now and the engine works far less than it did before. With good driving habits - which I do not posess - my wife can still get over 17 mpg in stop and go traffic from Kaufman to Dallas.

Do a seach on gears.