I’m debating on moving up to 35s from 33s I have 4.56 with nv3550, I’m 80% pavement and was wondering if I would be ok running 35s with 4.56?
35s with 4.56 gears
- Thread starter Joe.B
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Only you know what your acceptance level is. Some people claim that 35s and 4.10s are okay. I wasn't okay with them and I wouldn't be okay with 35s and 4.56s.
There is 200 rpm difference at 60 between the two ratios. Means a bit more hunting between 4th and 5th if you are in the hills.
As bad as 4.10 and 33s, which isn't good. But you will probably think it is great in comparison.
I'm not really ok with 35s and 4.88. It was great with 33s. Now with 35s, 5.13 would be much nicer.
Agreed. I'm running 35s and 5.13s with my .83 OD. With the .78 OD I'd definitely go with 5.13. The OP should probably stick with 33s and current gearing.
Along with the old belief that 4.88 was as low as one should gear our axles. Which led to the extremely flawed idea that tires smaller than 35s should have higher gearing.
If you spent the cash to regear to 4.56, that is a hard pill to swallow to regear again.
I went straight to 5.13 gears while still on 31" tyres from a 3.07 ratio. I went this route by following guys in my area and what they were running.
I have 35's on 4.56 gears. When I previously moved up to 33's I thought I'd never go bigger so I geared to 4.56. Then, naturally I wanted 35's about a year later and I've been on 35's w/ 4.56 gears for about 2 years now. It's mostly a daily driver with highway driving and exploring/rock crawling maybe 6-8 times a year. I will at some point change to 5.13 gears, when the TJ no longer serves as my Daily, but not now. Your current 4.56 gears will still do well off-road with 35's. I've done many trails in Big Bear with this current set up and have never been held back. I also find that on long highway drives the lower rpm saves some gas overall. My .02 cents
Lower RPMs do not always give better MPG. I seriously doubt your 4.56 is giving better MPG with 35's than a more appropriate 4.88 or 5.13 would with the 5-speed transmission.
The Overdrive ratio in the 42RLE automatic transmission requires significantly lower ratios than the 5-speed does. My present TJ bought used with a 42RLE, 35" tires, and 4.88 gearing got terrible mpg. It never even reached 12 mpg, it was 11-something mpg. Then I regeared it from 4.88 to 5.38 and my mpg shot up to 14.6 mpg.
The Overdrive ratio in the 42RLE automatic transmission requires significantly lower ratios than the 5-speed does. My present TJ bought used with a 42RLE, 35" tires, and 4.88 gearing got terrible mpg. It never even reached 12 mpg, it was 11-something mpg. Then I regeared it from 4.88 to 5.38 and my mpg shot up to 14.6 mpg.
The 4.56 and 35’s thing is a bit overblown. I wouldn’t ever choose it and I certainly wouldn’t upsize from 33’s to 35’s if I had 4.56 but it’s far from being as bad as it could be. You will end up downshifting to 4th on grades. The other gears won’t be that terrible.
You’ll still be cruising at around 2500 rpm at 70 which is close to what all the 5.38 and 35” 4 speed autos are doing (or 5.13/33). Ideally you’d change the gears to 5.13 for the 35’s and cruise 70 around 28-2900 but 4.56 will work as long as you need it to. It’s just less than ideal and that is pretty much not debatable except by people who don’t have fully experienced opinions with multiple setups.
4.56 on 35’s is similar to 4.10 on 32’s. It’s not THAT horrible, though certainly not as good as it could be. If you think 3.73 and 33’s acceptable, 4.56 and 35’s will be better than that for sure. Although after having 4.56/33’s, you may not be as accepting of 3.73/33 as you used to be now that you’re used to something better.
You’ll still be cruising at around 2500 rpm at 70 which is close to what all the 5.38 and 35” 4 speed autos are doing (or 5.13/33). Ideally you’d change the gears to 5.13 for the 35’s and cruise 70 around 28-2900 but 4.56 will work as long as you need it to. It’s just less than ideal and that is pretty much not debatable except by people who don’t have fully experienced opinions with multiple setups.
4.56 on 35’s is similar to 4.10 on 32’s. It’s not THAT horrible, though certainly not as good as it could be. If you think 3.73 and 33’s acceptable, 4.56 and 35’s will be better than that for sure. Although after having 4.56/33’s, you may not be as accepting of 3.73/33 as you used to be now that you’re used to something better.
All that tells you is the 4 speed auto can't be geared low enough for 35s. This is the same justification that I mentioned earlier that led to decades of people not gearing low enough.
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