how are 3.73 gears worthless , they are the best intermediate gear , offer great towing along with great gas mileage
my 96 with the 4.0 and off road package towed a 17 foot flatbed with a 83 Chevy C1500 loaded on it at 60 with no problem what so ever , and it had 3.73 gears
our brand new plow truck and the last plow truck we had had 3.73 gears , that is the only gears me or my step dad will have in our trucks
Well, you and your step dad must really like those numbers. I personally couldn't care less what the
ratio of my rear end is. I care how it performs. Give me a 1:1 rear gear-set and if I feel like the truck has the grunt to get me rolling with a load, you won't hear one peep out of me. But you could give me all the ratio in the world, and if I don't feel like the truck has the cajones to get off the line how I want it to... you'll hear me bitch and moan about it. I have no doubt you can hold 60mph with 3.73 gears, because really in our case, the rear end ratio is most useful for getting the truck rolling. Once you are at highway speeds, you can use the transmission to compensate for a shallow rear end ratio.
To sum it up, I don't think that the
ratio 3.73:1 is in anyway worthless, in fact I like all of those numbers. But the
numbers themselves don't have a whole lot of meaning unless you give them a purpose. That is what I have done, and for my purpose, they don't perform how I want them to... therefore for me, 3.73:1 rear gears are
worthless.
If you want more of an argument about why I think that 3.73:1 gears in a 4x4 3.0 Ranger with a 5 speed and 31" tires are
worthless. I can point you to the power curve of a Vulcan, and show you through math, that at 70mph in OD you are quite a bit below the engines torque peak (which means we could be getting better mileage out of it, as well as having more leverage to get the truck rolling, by having a deeper gear-set.) I am done arguing my point, enjoy your 3.73s. I will continue to detest mine.
-Chris
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