ok i have a 1998 f150 4.6 3:55 and i went with 285/75/16 tires and i tow a trailer . it does a good job but i would like more power if possible. my question is would a programer be what i need or are the tires just to big i need to just get the gears? what programmer/gears? its a 4x4 so ill be spending double.

 

Well if you're in the market for a tuner anyway, the Xcal2 group buy is going on right now (until the end of October), and it's a deal you shouldn't pass up on if you can help it. Do some reading to see for yourself, but everyone on this site who have used Troyer's tunes (which is a lot) have all agreed that they were the best thing they've ever done for their truck. So if you figure in the fact that the tunes are much cheaper, provide better performance than just re-gearing, and you don't sacrifice highway mileage it makes more sense to go with the tuner. Of course, I'm no expert and only you know what's best for you, but I'd certainly look into it if I were you.

 

A tuner will give you more power, but also, gears will make your load seem a lot lighter. Id go with 3:73 if you do gears, 4:10 would be too low for that tire.

 

Check out the XCal2, it’ll wake your truck up big time

here's a good deal too
Troyer Performance Group Buy

 

My vote goes to the tuner

 

keystone,

I won't try to convince you to regear, but I would respectfully disagree with one previous post on the topic. My truck came stock with 3.55 gears (2wd). When the carrier bearing went bad, I changed rear end gears to 4.10 (limited slip, of course). I have noticed no loss in fuel mileage, and really appreciate the added torque multiplication from the 4.10 gears. Oh, by the way, I am running 245 70R 16 tires - basically stock. I've got Troyer's custom tuning controlling the rest of my mods, so I have the best of both worlds.

The set up really does a good job of pulling my 23' boat -- enough torque multiplication to spin the tires a little when trying to hurry from a stop light with the boat in tow.

I do not believe that it is worth while to regear from 3.55 to 3.73 particularly in a 4wd application, but that is only my opinion. Were I you, I would get the custom tuning first, then decide if you need more torque multiplication later.


best of luck,


enb

 

I would say to do the tuning first simply because of it's bang for the buck value, and then if you still need some real additional help towing that load, *then* regear.

I also agree that if you regear, don't be afraid of the 4.10's - I know some people are leery of that much gear, but in our experience with these trucks, due to the generally taller tires found in trucks compared to cars, this results in a very "tall" final drive ratio anyway - and with the power band of the engine along with the weight of the vehicle, going to 4.10's is generally about the best overall gear ratio when using say, a 30-32" tall tire - meaning any of the tires available from the factory. And 4.10's may even be enough for 33" tires - but I would not be afraid of going to 4.10's even with "only" 30" tires, as you generally do not see a fuel mileage penalty thanks to the load on the engine being reduced a bit, that tends to outweigh the additional rpms the motor turns, as the motor is up in it's power band more of the time anyway.

So do the tuning first, and then if you need significantly more help after that, then consider the significant expensive of regearing - and if you do regear, go 4.10s' would be my advice as well.

One last thing - since you have almost 190K miles on that vehicle from what I see in your signature - make sure ALL the maintenance is up to date - fresh O2 sensors, fresh fuel filter, spark plugs, make sure the EGR tract is clean, etc., so that you get the full benefits of the tuning. It' also not a bad idea to do a carbon removal treatment, too - just FYI.