Anyone w/4.56s and 33s - what rpms are you running at 65?

...and if you are using it as a daily driver are you happy with the 4.56s or does it always leave you wishing you had 4.88s. I will be doing quite a bit of mountain driving from time to time and have to make a gear change. With the C8.25 it seems I'm stuck with 4.56s unless I put out a lot more $. How do those of you with first hand experience feel?

Unless you're running some pretty thick meats, It won't be horrible with 4:56, it also helps mpg to have better intake etc.. But honestly from my own experiance, what I've noticed affects it the most is the way you drive. I stopped hauling @$$ everywhere and suddenly I wasn't burning a hole in my tank.. go figure.

Day in day out 4.56s and 33s aare perfect, ver ygood exceleration while still getting good mpg. I am not exactly sure what mine runs at 65, but at 70 it runs about 2600-2700rpms or so I believe.

Thanks guys, I notice you both seem to live at low altitudes. My jeep is heavy and I'll be up between 3000-5000 feet quite a bit. But honestly you never felt like you wished you were geared lower for the blacktop? If not that's great cause it'll save me a bundle. Thanks!

XJME said:

Thanks guys, I notice you both seem to live at low altitudes. My jeep is heavy and I'll be up between 3000-5000 feet quite a bit. But honestly you never felt like you wished you were geared lower for the blacktop? If not that's great cause it'll save me a bundle. Thanks!

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I do live and do alot of driving at a low altitude, but have done a good bit of driving around 3-4000 by lake morena and to and from yuma arizona and over all I was really happy with 4:56, I also had good intake and exhaust systems so that helped a bit.

As far as the 8.25 goes, I'm convinced its a great axle, and 4:56 gears really aren't bad. Just like everything else theres tradeoffs to consider.. if you are hell bent on getting 4:88's and are going to replace the axle I wouldn't do it for anything except a 44.. but another problem to think about is how much of the work are you going to do yourself? Because of my job and lack of mechanical hands on experiance I rely on a shop to do 80% of the overall work done and having them swap in a good condition 44 with gears labor etc can get pricey.. (depending on alot of factors, availiability of parts, where you get them from) I know guys that have done it themselves for less than 400.

Bottom line you could swap out and get the 4:88's if you really want, but I've driving a few different vehicles in all sorts of terrible conditions and a good set of 33"s paired with 4:56's has always worked for me. Hope that helps. :eeks1:

XJME said:

Thanks guys, I notice you both seem to live at low altitudes. My jeep is heavy and I'll be up between 3000-5000 feet quite a bit. But honestly you never felt like you wished you were geared lower for the blacktop? If not that's great cause it'll save me a bundle. Thanks!

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No 4.56s are fine, just got back from wheelin and they were great, never left me wanting more. I'm going to 35s next week actually. BTW 4.56s are less likely to fail than 4.88s in your d30.

XJME said:

Thanks guys, I notice you both seem to live at low altitudes. My jeep is heavy and I'll be up between 3000-5000 feet quite a bit. But honestly you never felt like you wished you were geared lower for the blacktop? If not that's great cause it'll save me a bundle. Thanks!

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I would only gear lower for the trail... w/ 4.88's and 33's you're going to be screaming down the highway. Your top speed is going to be somewhere near 70 and that's at 3000 rpm's. Im running 4.56's w/ 33's and still run around 2400 - 2500 at 65.

I ran my 5-spd TJ with 32's and 4.56s. People said it would be too low but it was a blast to drive. Now I am running 33's and wish I run abour 2500 rpms at 65mph. i only drive it about once a week so I have no idea what kind of mileage I'm getting.

Great! this is what I wanted to hear. Saves me a lot of $ that way. I just did'nt want to do it twice.

ZachMan said:

Day in day out 4.56s and 33s aare perfect, ver ygood exceleration while still getting good mpg. I am not exactly sure what mine runs at 65, but at 70 it runs about 2600-2700rpms or so I believe.

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Dude, I need to drive your beast.....or do you still have it??:looser:

89 renix, 33" bfg and 4,56, and I will definitelly go with 4,88 this summer.
But I can reuse my 4,56 on my other car, so it is much more simple for me....