Hello all:

Specifically talking about acceleration and braking, do you think I'll be okay leveling my 4x4 XLT supercrew and buying some 33" tires? My gears are 3.55 w/o LS.

Thanks in advance....

 

You'll be fine. The braking won't be as good, but you can buy a bbigger brake kit or something if you are concerned. Acceleration won't be as good, but you probably aren't racing your truck anyway, are you?

 

Thanks, and you're right - I'm not racing it. When it comes to accelerating, I'm 34 going on 64.

Vehicle: whatever 'yo mama drives - LOL!

 

I disagree. 3.55's should not be in these trucks to begin with. I'm planning on levelling w/33's in a year or two when my tires die. I refuse to do it though unless new gears are in place first.

If you've got 31.5" tires now, going to 33's will give you an 'effective' 3.38 ratio. That will dog, and put a lot more stress on your vehicle than the 3.55's will (and they will strain a lot as it is)

with a 3.55 and 31.5" tires, if you regear to 4.10's and go to 33" tires, you will have the performance of a 3.73 + a little shade.

 

Guess I'll just keep OD off permanently?

If someone actually goes through re-gearing, would FORD perform the work? And is it roughly $1k per axle?

 

OD off--basically. It will hunt for gears like crazy, even more than it already does.

I doubt you could talk ford into going any higher than you could get on your truck if it was stock, i.e. 3.73. Plus, they would charge you 2-3 times the price it should cost, and they aren't nearly as experienced in such things as an axle shop would be.

for "gear change" or "gear swap" or "re-gear" and you will find lots of info on prices, etc.

Some computer work will be needed afterwards as well, micro tuners can handle the new gears and tires just fine. Downside is, if you revert your truck back to stock with the tuner, your speedo and shift points will be all out of wack. Now if you combine the tires and gears together, you get your 'effective' gear ratio. Ford can reprogram your stock pcm only for gear ratios available as a factory option in your truck.
Now as I said before, 4.10's with 33"s would put you real close to an effective 3.73.
So, if they set your stock program to 3.73, you'd be hard pressed to notice any difference (speedo and shiftwise) between your stock program and the program customized for your new gears and tires .

Hope I didn't confuse you too much...

 

Nope, it makes sense. Thanks for your help. Makes me wish I'd actually paid attention to the gears when I purchased. I traded in a 2001 supercrew that had 3.55 with the 4.6L. It takes some of us slightly longer to learn things.

 

I've put a lot of thought into the matter and know most of the numbers by heart--I'm in a modded 4.6l w/3.55's.

Now if you wanted to go to 33" tires with a 3.73 stock ratio, you'd get an effective 3.55 which would be a big performance drop, but still plenty useable.

 

well i have the 33's and a 3" lift on and im going with 4.56 gears and a locker real soon! i have just about every mod for the 4.6 and the truck still needs more

 

I have the xlt with 3.55 gears. Was afraid of going for the 33 inch tires thought it would run like crap but put on the leveling kit and 33s and runs just fine if not better.

 

I'm happy with the performance of my 5.4 with 3.55 gears and 33's. Also, my truck has 40 less HP than the new F-150's.

 

5.4 lariat 3.73 ls.....I have 33" tires with this set up and notice a differance.....IMO it would be a dog if I didn't have a super-chip, exhaust and cold intake. I would like to change gears but will not do it on this turck....

 

I have 4.11's with 30.5" tires and I still want more gear.

 

I have an 05 screw, with a 5.4L and the 3.55 limited slip. What advantages would I get out of switching to 4.10's. What I seem to get from reading posts is that it will help acceleration and towing, but what about gas mileage?

 

I'm running the set up you talk about. 4.6 with an auto, 2.5" lift and 295/70r17s with 3.55 gears. It lags but for just around town and the occational freeway drive they do fine. It really dogs when you hit the grades though.

-Tim