Looking at the actual teeth in a 4.88 vs 5.13 there is a material difference. My gear guy indicated that he's seen a few 5.13's go bad with my set up but rarely any 4.88's. I have no plans for 37s either.
And yeah, its a little sluggish on hills but not much, and the lower RPMs are nice. I'd rather have the safety factor of the 4.88's I guess.
Honest question; how much stronger is the 4.88 pinion with 1 more tooth vs the 5.13?
The only pinion we ever considered "weak" was the Richmond Gear 5.71 in the Toyota 8" drop out. That thing was tiny and we replaced several. Of course the guys wanting 5.71 were running 35+ on the little Toy diffs which didn't help the situation. Our recommendation was the 5.29, which we did not have issues with.
Fun fact; the 4.56 was considered "much stronger" vs the 4.88 several years ago in the 30 due to pinion size. Now the 4.88 is considered "much stronger" than the 5.13, again due to pinion size.
If I paid to have a re-gear, I'd be pissed at "sluggish" performance.
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