Regear isnt gonna get that much better mileage.. sure it will bring your performance back and maybe a little mpg increase, but not enough to justify spending what shops charge to regear a vehicle(even one axle.. imo) if thats what your worried about. The engine wont have the load on it but its gonna rev more. I'd say 4.10 would put you near stockish.. 4.56 will giva ya a little extra gear to play with. Realatively the same price. If u do go with 4.56's.. your gonna not wanna go with a much smaller tire than a 35 ever again. Id go 4.56 if it were me tho. If you level it and do a 3" bl you should be able to fit 35's with stock wheels no problem best i remember.

 

I'm unsure of doing a 3" body lift, I heard 1" is fine but wouldn't 3" change the center of gravity of the truck a good bit? That being said because if it does its easier to flip on turns. However I just had a thought, if I were to do that and get some wheels with a high offset so they stick out more would that give me a better stance when it comes to turns?

Also can yall explain offset to me again? That and backspacing are still confusing. I know backspacing deals with the width of the wheels and the back spacing is how much of the width is in the wheel well right? ex. 35x12.5x17 means its 12.5 wide and say the backspacking was 5.6" then that means that 5.6" was in the wheel well correct?

 

The lower the offset number, the more the wheels sticks out - essentially. Backspacing is confusing, but I believe it's the distance from where the wheels bolts to the hub to the inside edge of the rim. Either way, they both have to do with how much the wheel sticks out and there is a linear correlation between them. Lower offset number = lower backspace number. 4.5" of backspace = sticks out a lot; -44 offset = sticks out a ton.

But I believe that between performance increase, mpg increase, and reduced drive train strain, gears are entirely worth the money, even for a 4wd. For gas mileage only, it probably wouldn't be worth it though. But for a 2wd especially, a regear is a no brainer in my mind. It isn't super duper absolutely required for 35s though.

 

How would you describe your driving style? Mine is pretty aggressive, but the 2Vs do get a little better mileage. I get exceptionally terrible gas mileage, especially for a 2wd. I don't know anyone that gets as low as I do, not even within 2-3 MPG

 

It's about a mix, I don't really kill it off the line anymore but I'll open it all the way up to pass someone if I feel like it.

 

I've toned it back a lot and it doesn't seem to help at all. I've done a whole tank of 87 octane on my 87 eco tune all "hypermile-ing" on the freeway and got 13.x. But shortly after doing the long tubes, I beat the absolute **** out of the truck on the 93 perf tune and got 13.9 on 80% city and stop-and-go. Makes no sense to me at all, but I've concluded that driving style and type of road/speed make no discernible difference in mileage for me. I'm extremely on top of my mpg, religious about fully filling up at the same station, same pump after the tank is all the way empty, and it just doesn't change.

I may start running the 93 eco (have yet to) and do some calculating to see if the 93 is actually somehow worth it

 

Stock wheels are what you need to fit the tires because they hav alot of backspacing and dont stick out much. That way you can clear the front and rear of the wheel wells on turns. I wwouldnt go any higher than 3 with a BL.. it will still be very stable. You'd have to be trying to roll it and i dont know if you'd be able to roll it then either

 

Biggest body lift they make for the 04-08's is 3" anyways. But the install is a lot harder than on the pre 04's, and cost a lot more to get installed.

 

So your telling me it doesnt cost any less than a suspension lift? If you arent doing it yourself and are paying someone?

 

It's about a thousand dollars labor to have a body lift installed on an 04-08, IIRC. I think I've seen one guy get quoted $700, but still, it's insane. If you can do it yourself, it's great, but it's a b*tch. Plus the PA kits are $600 for us.

 

It's pretty close, depending on the lift you go with if you can't install the body lift yourself. It's still not more, but at that point you might as well save the extra and go suspension which performs better and looks better.

 

A BL on those trucks can look good still.. suspension is cooler no doubt but his is a 2wd so id venture to say he's going more for look more than performance. A BL isnt going to change your ride much if at all. Just trying to think cost effectively for him and his needs.

 

Basically this whole list of stuff I want to do is if I have all this spare cash flowing in but I don't sadly. But yea offroadn is right I would be going more for look than performance for my 2wd. That being said should I go body lift or suspension lift then?

 

Depends, do you like the look of a truck with a body lift? Do you mind later on buying gap guards to cover up the gap in the wheel well and some running boards to cover the frame hanging down?

 

I'd go suspension purely because you'll be able to say that you have a suspension versus body haha. But with the suspension providing 3" more of lift and costing just a few hundred bucks more, I'd do suspension. I personally can barely stand the thought of frame gap and all that and don't care for the looks of them. But if adding one on top of suspension is the best route for me, I'll get over it.