Im new to the forum and Ive been watching this forum for quite a while. Now don't go hard on me but, what difference does it make in switching to 3.55 gears, etc. Does it make your truck run faster or what?

 

To simplify, the gear ratio is how many times your driveshaft spins your rear end in one complete axle/wheel rotation. Your gearset includes a pinion gear and a ring gear. Your driveshaft spins your pinion gear, the pinion gear turns your ring gear, and your ring gear spins your axle/wheel. An example would be a pinion gear with 10 teeth spinning a ring gear with 40 teeth. In this example, your ratio would be 4.00, which is found by dividing the two. Common gear ratios in these trucks are 3.08, 3.31, 3.55, and 3.73.....3.08 has the slowest acceleration and the highest top speed, 3.73 has the quickest acceleration and the lowest top speed, and the others fall in between. You don't need top speed. You can run 3.73 to 4.30 and go way faster than the truck should go.

 

max is right, higher gears will definitely give u better acceleration and low end for applications like towing. however, this also means you would be running your engine at higher rpms than it would with lower gears at any given speed. if u do alot of highway driving at speeds of 70+, then high gears like 4.30 would not be as practical.