stroker or gears?

[r33pwrd]

what ever you do dont guy a Grand Cherokee

 

[Lightfoot]

If your towing, I would say go for stroker. Gears (IMO) are great for crawling. If your hauling (ha) you need power/speed. Just my $.02.

Why is it then that most factory towing packages come with lower gears and not just a bigger motor?
Think about it this way, for the sake of argument. engine puts out 100 ft/lbs of torque (what gets you moving). in first gear lets say 5:1 ratio, 500ftlbs out of the tranny, 1:1 TC, so 500ftlbs from there. If you have say 3.07 gears, you will have about 1500ftlbs at the axle shafts. If you have 4.10 gears you will have about 2000 ft/lbs. The radius of the tire acts as a lever arm, further changing this number, lowering it the larger the tires is, and raising it as the tire gets smaller.
Essentially if you have 125hp stroker, with 3.07 gears, it will put down 1900ftlbs at the shafts. If you have a 100hp stocker, with 4.10, it will put down about the same amount of tq, the stock motor will just be turning higher rpm because of the lower gears. This is the limiting factor when dealing with improved performance from gears.

In your case, 4:10 and 31" tires with an auto is about perfect if you ask me. going to lower gears would only be marginally beneficial, and you dont want to go that much lower as you will lose some fuel efficiency on the highway, and gear changes will happen sooner.

I think your best bet at this point is the stroker. The cost of setting up new gears will be high, and you wont see as much of a benefit going from 4.10 to 4.56 (11%). THe only problem with the stroker is that it is not as cut and dry as dropping in a new short block. You will need an exhaust and intake to get the most out of it, as well as injectors, and map adjuster to get it to run correctly. some minimal tuning needs to be done.

I currently have stock 3.07's and 31's, with a 4.6, and while I dont regret the stroker, I definitely should have gotten my gearing right first. Even with the added power, towing my boat (2500lbs) isnt that easy on the jeep. It is slow off the line, and I can almost feel the stress in the transmission/ clutch. Ill be going to 4.10's before summer gets here.

 

[r33pwrd]

personally I say buy something better for pulling. Short wheel base and not a lot of power are not a good pulling combo. I pulled a 6500lb boat with my 440hp Trailblazer SS with 4.10 gears and sure it had all the power in the world but the short wheelbase made is a shittty tow rig. If all you will ever pull is the 2 bikes than I think a stock cherokee should pull it decent but much heavier than that I would say buy something else.

 

[tomcat]

<adv>of you didn't mention that you had a KLR, cheap ****.....</adv>

i haven't dino'd my stroker, but it has a lot more low end grunt now, will hold the gear or accelerate up a grade where the 4.0 would have downshifted, much better for towing. many mannerisms as my cummins ram, but without the turbo whistle, or massive torque...

and as cheap as people try to make the stroker sound, i have about $4500 into mine

 

[jeeperjohn]

I suggest gears first because a stroker will help you find all of the weaker parts in your drivetrain. Oh and OORAH!!!

 

[Darky]

If you plan on sticking with the 31s, do a stroker instead of gears. You're at a decent gear ratio for them as is, you'll enjoy the stroker more. If you intend to go up in tire size within the year or so, then regear it now stroke it next year.