33” tires: 4.56 or 4.88 gears?

I'd only consider 4.88 for 33's if your Jeep seldom sees the highway. Even offroad 4.56 is more than enough for 33's considering most offroading is done with the transfer case in 4Lo. Only if you think you may eventually go to 35" tires would I go 4.88 with your 5-speed manual transmission and 4.0L engine.

Ron your 4-speed automatic changes the usual recommendation for an axle ratio, due to its exceptionally steep .69 Overdrive ratio. At a MINIMUM for your 33" tires you need 4.88 but personally I'd go 5.13. Yes 4.56 is perfect for 33's with a 5-speed manual but don't pay any attention to recommendations made for those with manual transmissions.

My TJ has the same 4-speed automatic with 35" tires and its previous owner cluelessly only regeared it to 4.88 and it was constantly lugging on the highway, I had to keep turning the overdrive off. I regeared last year to 5.38 which really helped a lot, my mpg even went from <12 mpg to >14 mpg.

Bottom line is for your 33's I'd definitely go 5.13 if it was my TJ.
Mine can hardly go uphill still on the highway. Always downshifting. Replaced cats and no codes. Gonna try 02 sensors now. Hopefully this works. 4.88 33s
Any more input from anyone would be great
 
Mine can hardly go uphill still on the highway. Always downshifting. Replaced cats and no codes. Gonna try 02 sensors now. Hopefully this works. 4.88 33s
Any more input from anyone would be great
You mention constant downshifting to go up hills. That sounds like you believe you should be able to go up hills in 5th gear which is not meant for hills. You should always downshift out of Overdrive to go up hill. If they're steep enough 3rd gear is sometimes needed. 5th gear should be considered the correct gear for flat highways or minor grades at the most.
 
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Yes I do have to downshift even to third quite a bit
The whole time I’ve owned this Jeep I’ve thought something was wrong with and I had a Lemon 🍋. I can’t believe I wasted all this energy looking into this. So basically the tj is an off-road around town vehicle then ...?
 
I'd only consider 4.88 for 33's if your Jeep seldom sees the highway. Even offroad 4.56 is more than enough for 33's considering most offroading is done with the transfer case in 4Lo. Only if you think you may eventually go to 35" tires would I go 4.88 with your 5-speed manual transmission and 4.0L engine.

I know this thread is a little old but I've been spending all day reading different threads on this forum. I'm considering going to 4.88 gears because long term I'm planning for everything it takes to run 35s. However, in the mean time I'd have to run my 33s on the 4.88 gears with the 5 speed 4.0. From what I read on the regearing thread, people like Chris and mrblaine and few others suggest that the 4.0 runs well at higher rpms. All this to ask....why would 4.88 be bad on the highway? From the GrimmJeeper calculator I think I would be at 3000 rpms in 5th gear with 4.88 and 31.5'' (actually size of my tire). I'm nervous to do this regear because I have to do a lot of highway driving currently and I can't quite seem to get a solid understanding of how it will be on the road.
 
I have 4.56 gears on a five speed with 33's. I drive in the dunes where I need both speed and power and 4 low is just too low. I may swap to 4.88's. 4.56's are perfect on pavement and fine in areas where 4 low would be used.
 
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Yes I do have to downshift even to third quite a bit
The whole time I’ve owned this Jeep I’ve thought something was wrong with and I had a Lemon 🍋. I can’t believe I wasted all this energy looking into this. So basically the tj is an off-road around town vehicle then ...?
Even stock, there is a limit to what it can do. Same as with any other vehicle.
It takes a certain amount of horsepower to maintain speed, uphill. Size of hill, weight, or tire size can all have a big effect.