it has almost everything to do with tire size whats your aspect ratio. 255 only tells me you have a 10.50 tire with a 17inch wheel.
here's a great chart to tell you what you want

 

you could always split it down the middle and get 3.73s...two members have them for sale right now on the cheap :naughty:

 

If you get 4.10s kiss fuel economy goodbye. You get more power at the tradeoff of higher rpms and more fuel consumption. Id go 3.73 as the happy median.

 

if u dont plan on EVER going with tires any bigger then 3:73s are ok. im not real crazy about them. if i had to choose i woulda got 4.10s even with the truck in stock form

 

You're looking at a couple hundred dollars to purchase and change gear sets. It doesn't hurt the truck at all and those couple hundred dollars buys a lot of gas. Unless you're towing or something don't bother.

 

Thanks xkmacx86 for the chart and all your guys input Im guessing those 4 digit numbers are rpms?

I dont plan on going with bigger tires and dont mind dealing with lower fuel economy since i dont expect it from driving a truck but my concern, is it really worth the up front cost to change the gears with my current setup and occassional towing (jetski)?

secondly will i still be able to reuse my locker? deciding whether to go 3.73 or 4.10 isnt that big of an issue its just finding a trust worthy place to doit and background knowledge of what i need or could do.

 

in the valley their are a few places that i know of that will do the gear swap for about $150 and one guy has dont it for i think 15years and charges $155 emaxxer talked to him not to long ago. As for 4:10s its all about what you want.....more tq or better gas mileage. i have 3.73s right now and plan on making the 4:10s jump soon. As for using your stock parts....yes your G80 and stock carrier will work just fine from what i have seen.

 

Ill keep this in mind. The valley? Noobie for asking. where is this?
And are you saying emaxxer does it or he got the guy you are talking about do it?

i tell you what... you buy me the 4:10 gears and ill give you my 3.73 gears and ill pay for shpping

Are you talking to me??

4.10's will help but not noticeably. Engine mods are going to prove more beneficial for the op.
If you get gears too far out of your powerband you'll either sacrifice power or gas. Yeah you'll a very fast 0-60 but you'll be cruising at 3000 if you get too high a gear.

Well all the engines mods i have are PTB, gutted cat, and modified air intake. Thanks for the additional input

 

i may have to make a trip to the valley

 

i tell you what... you buy me the 4:10 gears and ill give you my 3.73 gears and ill pay for shpping

 

shits tight over their. i bet with $1000 u walk out with gears installed a nitrous kit and tuned :lol:

 

damn, i should save up some money and work more overtime!!!


does he have the gears on hand or do i have to bring them to him

 

i would take them cause its $150 for the install plus oil and gasket soooo thats not bad. i called a 4x4 shop and they said $575 i think for everything period......gears labor oil the whole shabannggg

 

Buy a v8....... power speed torque. Decent millage.

4.10's on 28's you're talkin 3000 rpm cruising down the road.

Do the big three. Get a header lighter wheels. Hell drop it an inch or so and you'll get better millage and have a bunch more power across the whole power band instead of swapping gears and frontloading your power and not being able to pass grannie on the highway with rpms pinned going down hill.

It all in what you do with your truck

 

who you talking to?

 

the op has 255/75r17. stock rubi size they are 32x10.

 

4.10's will help but not noticeably. Engine mods are going to prove more beneficial for the op.
If you get gears too far out of your powerband you'll either sacrifice power or gas. Yeah you'll a very fast 0-60 but you'll be cruising at 3000 if you get too high a gear.

 

4.10's will help but not noticeably. Engine mods are going to prove more beneficial for the op.
If you get gears too far out of your powerband you'll either sacrifice power or gas. Yeah you'll a very fast 0-60 but you'll be cruising at 3000 if you get too high a gear.

 

here's my experience:

went from 3.42 to 4.11 (w/33's), and while i feel it was a good investment, it didn't exactly release the low-end beast. i have a manual, and found i would need to ride the clutch in steep starts, off road, pull/tow situations etc. the 4.11 was the lowest ratio available, so i got what i could. my advice is if you gear change, and spend that money, get the 4.10's, otherwise you'll hardly notice the difference.

 

amen.

 

amen.

 

on second thought. A 5 hour drive to the valley. Might be more worth it to find someone closer. what a bummer...

 

yeah well I can't find anybody that wont try to charge $700+ to do the install around Austin so I said fuck it! :lol:

 

Don't forget, these charts dictate final rpm basis of 1 to1 top gear. ie direct drive. We all have transmissions with overdrive, either manual or automatic with around .070to 1 gear ratios in top gear, so knock 30 percentish of the rpm when you achieve your top gear either automatically or by shifting.

 

Unless you can get it done for extremely cheap, I wouldnt bother going to 3.73s. I doubt you will even notice a difference, as others have mentioned. I went from 3.42s to 4.56s in my Blazer and it was a pretty significant change. You should goto 4.10s and put bigger tires on

If you havent added a trans cooler, I would put that at the top of the list.

 

luckily I already have 28" tires so when the 4.10's go in, I'll be fine. I want a 26-28" slick for the track though. but haven't made up my mind yet. Under $300 for the gear swap is extremely cheap so it's definitely worth it for me and if you keep the same tire size, then swap from 3.42's to 3.73's, you WILL feel a difference in acceleration. I'm going to be selling my 3.73's after the swap so let him decide what he wants. He probably likes his gas mileage but doesn't want it to tank with 4.10's so he'll take the happy medium and go to 3.73's. I want the most possible torque multiplication for acceleration so 4.10's is as high as I can go.

 

you gotta pay to play..if u wanna go go fast and get good MPG u need to decide whats really important to you :lol:

 

Also, when you are choosing gears, you need to think about what you're going to be doing with the truck... set your goals.

You want to drag race? In a street vehicle, you want to be hitting redline in third gear at the 1/4 mile mark. How fast do you WANT to be? Wanna trap 100? 105? 110? Better check the ratios! Make sure you'll be ok without the trans shifting to overdrive! Don't forget to take into account the tire size that you'll be using at the track.

 

I'm safe with 26" tires but can't go any smaller due to how low my caltracs are. But the mph would be the same I believe in the 1/4 compared to the 3.73's the ET will drop though. That's my understanding at least.

 

I went from 3.42 gears to 4.11's in my 5.3 rado and only noticed about a mpg differance so it was more than worth the money, it dropped me .4 tenths in the 1/4 and is much funner to drive with the 4.11's. I know a local guy who will install them for $275.00 who installed mine for me and does excellent work and will have it done in a day, the hard part is breaking them in and trying not to play to hard lol. I paid about $600 for the gears from GM but there are other brands that are cheaper and are still very good quality gears.

 

But as far as I know, the companies claim to make gears for an 8" ten bolt rear end but the spline count is different and/ or AAM and GM have an ownership right to control big aftermarket companies from producing gears for the powerlite rear end! That's what motive gear and other companies that I've spoken to have told me. And I never get a reply back from AAM when I ask them how much a set of gears cost for my truck! I believe it's a fucked up deal to think that gm and AAM have some sort of agreement to keep companies from producing exact reproductions of their gears. That's just what I think....

 

i have aftermarket "Yukon" gears in my diffs right now. no idea for part #'s, but believe me they're out there and cheaper than gm.

 

Awesome! Thanks man! Good to know! Where did you buy them?