Best gears and cheapest place??

[jsbihn]

I am looking to purchase rear gears for the rig.

I would like to find something that would improve my get up and go, but not make it so get up and go that i loose the ability to move through the off-road and mud if i want.

I have heard of many gear setup
So i am trying to find out who all has gears and what they have and what they think of them

Also, I would like to know the cheapest place to get the gears.
Usually the gears arent that much, it is the install that kills ya
And it bothers me when something that is usually a cheap item on every other car (or is the same PN on another vehicle) is charged up in price just because of the vehicle (ie. like a exhaust for my Vette costs 500 bucks, but for my M3 it cost 1500 - OR - a camshaft for the Vette costs 500 but for the Hummer it is 250 bucks ** just examples mind you **)

[Hellz]

better add in the front gears too.. cant do either alone, both must be done at the same time... life of AWD vehicles.

you are right, the gears are cheap. its the install.

i paid $1750 for my gears recently from burnsville OffRoad.
parts were only $600.
i went with 4.88s, but it doesnt really matter if you go with 4.56s or 4.88s, the price is going to be pretty much the same.

i want to say that my pickup and go is very good right now. tranny doesnt seem to be working as hard than with stock gears.

If you plan on doing hardcore 4x4 ing, then maybe you want to move to 4.56 or keep the 4.10 gearing instead.

now if you are doign just mild or occasional off roading, then maybe 4.88's might work for you.

i woudl love to hit MOAB one of these days, and i think i can do it with 4.88s, but then again, im a noob to 4x4ing, so when im driving the beast, i feel like i can drive over anything.

my recommendation..
if you are:
going to do ALOT of 4x4ing= 4.56
some 4x4ing - 4.88s

also (heavily) depends on what tire size you are running too..
stock - 4.56's
37+ 4.88

*** FYI.. right now i after the regear, i can not change out of 4HI. my TC light and ABS lights are always on. talking to someone here who moved up to 4.88s they had the same issue and said the shop must have crushed the traction control wire that goes inside the rear diff. i havent had it back int he shop to resolve the issue, but i do know it isnt solved by a programmer.
i did have a loose wire that i made sure was fully connected, but still didnt resolve the issue.
my next step is to pull the gears out of the rear end and replace the wire, i just dont have a part # for it. also i will test the rear ABS, but i have faith that it is working properly, it is just disabled because of the TC.

[jsbihn]

Thanks Hellz
Actually I think I am going with 37s. I heard that is the biggest tire that will fit on the truck without modification (or with very little modification - like turning the keys)

Sorry that I forgot to mention that

Where did you get the gears from?

[Hellz]

the shop ordered the gears. i was going to purchase them myself, but the shop wouldnt install them if i did.

iirc, they said they couldnt offer any kind of warranty if they dont know where the parts come from.

it makes sense really

[jsbihn]

To me... coming from a speed shop, thats BS.
The warranty is on the work not the parts, the manufacturer should warranty the parts.

Basically what they are doing is saying to you "hey we want to buy these parts from our supplier to either keep their jobber pricing or to get the jobber pricing and sell them to you at a considerable profit".

Used to happen all the time with this one shop I knew they were famous for saying that, then found them at NAPA one day buying the parts for a friend car (brake pads) and when the bill came the pads were like 120 bucks and NAPA sold them for 70

[guruerror]

When I went to 37s I jumped the gears to 4.56...perfect combo in my opinion. Gave me my 'get up and go' back and didn't kill my highway top end. Plus seems to be really good off-road as well; granted the last couple of years the truck has seen mostly fire trails and dirt roads.

I did a couple days in Moab a few years back with the stock setup and I actually think 37s/4.56 would perform even better...I'll find out one of these days when I get around to it.

Here's the site and gears/kits I went with: http://www.trailduty.com/index.php?c...cc7ddaf3e34c5f
...I had the dealer install them and haven't had a minute's problem since (been about 2 1/2 years I guess). I couldn't tell you what they charged as I had a lot of other suspension work done at the same time.

[[__--MUD--__]]

http://www.ronsmachiningservice.net/servlet/StoreFront

That guys going to have about the best pricing. Hes a sponsor on a number of the large ls1, performance truck, etc.. forums. Dont cheap out on the bearings when you order gears. Get the timken. Call Ron, good guy to deal w/, cheap, fast, good ****. I got my 5.13 set from him.

[jsbihn]

so with 37s
what would be better then a stock setup and give me actually a little ore passing umph
4.56
4.88
5.13

just dont want to loose the "crawling" ability with my h2 also
given it spends more time on the interstate then anythning BUT i still wanna be able to use it off road if i need to and it not be screwed up because of a bad gear choice

[guruerror]

37s with 4.56 put the effective ratio close to stock. You end up with something like a 4.33 instead of the 4.10 which gives you a bit more umph. I've been very pleased...

Check out this calculator... http://www.4lo.com/calc/geartire.php

[jsbihn]

ok i know this will sound stupid but
1) what are the gears we have stock in the truck? are they 4.10s?
2) will these 4.10 work with any rear end? ie. if i pull them out of the h2, can i use them in say another vehicle (vette, silverado, camaro, whatever?)

[guruerror]

Originally Posted by jsbihn

ok i know this will sound stupid but
1) what are the gears we have stock in the truck? are they 4.10s?
2) will these 4.10 work with any rear end? ie. if i pull them out of the h2, can i use them in say another vehicle (vette, silverado, camaro, whatever?)

Yes...the stock gears on an 03-07 are 4.10s.

As far as what you can do with the stock ones once they're pulled...dunno. I would assume they could be reused in another GM truck, but I don't know about a car. I'll let someone else chime in on that...

[[__--MUD--__]]

I already had 4.56 w/ stock wheels and the truck was pretty damn snappy. When I jumped up to 37" tires it really felt like a pig to me. I wanted to get back that snappyness and have some room to grow incase I change up to 40" tires so I swapped out to 5.13.

Its not like you cant drive on the highway w/ 5.13 gears...your only talking about a few hundred rpm difference.

This gear calc will give you side by side comparison between two sets-
http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html

4 wheel parts had their eaton e lockers on sale for $650 w/ google check out the other week.

[Stellar]

IMO 4.88's is at minimim the way to go. One of the best upgrades I've done by far. Add an Eaton E-locker up front while your diffs are open and make sure the shop wires it so the front only engages when the rear is locked for piece of mind.