I have a 2001 1500 5.9L auto 4x4 with 3.55's and goodyear rts 265's and it tows ours sleds, bikes, boat, and sometimes a car trailer. With the tires 2 sizes bigger than stock and those worthless 3.55's it wont get out of its own way in od when towing. I am looking to swap some 3.90's or 4.10's, and I am looking for some advice and ideas on how not to spend 500-600 on this project so I can get a tonneau cover and exhaust yet this year. I like the truck and if i can get some better towing miles out of it I can hopefully convince myself to hold off on getting a cummins for a while at least.
1. You shouldn't be towing in overdrive. The transmission is not designed to push much more than the truck down the road in that gear, especially with a rather tall R&P like a 3.55. It builds accessive heat in the transmission. 2. 265's are the stock size on your 4x4 model? They are on the 3/4tons like mine. 3. You mentioned in your other post that you only pulled about 2K. You say sleds, and I am guessing you have a small 2 place with two sleds, which is right under 2K like you mentioned. We used to have a 2 place also. With that stock 265's and 3.55's are not terrible gearing for a 360 that doesn't tow any heavier than 2,000lbs. BUT, if you decide to move up to a 4 place enclosed sled trailer you will want to consider a 3/4ton, as ours blows our 1/2 Suburban around at times, and our Rams are much better. IMHO, keep it out of OD when in tow like you are supposed to, you will have a bunch more power then and you will have money for your top and exhaust.
1. If overdrive will pull it then its is ok not good but ok, but in this caseand most others it will not pull it at all, except for down hill or with a 20-30mph tail wind. 2. 265's are stock on a sport packaged 1500 but regular ones come with 245's its on the sticker on the door and in the manual, some regular packaged ones also came 265's but mine was orginally a 245 equipped 1500. 3. That 2000lb trailer is a steel one not alum and has a huge home-fabricated salt shield that is about 3ft tall and 8 ft wide, which is way bigger than most. The trailer loaded with sleds and all is actually about 2100 or so I would bet and maybe 2300 when the sleds are packed full of snow and stuff. When I tow out of o/d at 70-73mph the rpms sit at about 2900 which gets be about 8-9 miles to gallon on average and if I have to fight a 20-30 wind I usually slow it down to 65-70 and then it was gotten as low as 6-6.5mpg, and on trips to the mountains that are 600-900 miles one way I need to find a way to get the rpms down a bit and get some better mileage. I am also looking at getting a late model cummins and then with some mods getting almost twice the mpg I get now. Also the 265's make the speedo off by about 4 mph at 70 so that also proves the stock tire size was not 265.
1. Not exactly, you are still building more heat than you would in 3rd. 2. I don't know about 1/2tons but all 3/4's used 265's.:dunno: 3. 2K, 2,100, 2,300....not hardly any difference. Still should be a piece of cake for your truck. 4. While the same truck with a Cummins would get nearly double the mileage, it would never pay for itself.
The last trip I went on I only took one sled and so I threw it in the bed and I was in the wind as usual and it was only about a 10-15mph head wind and it would not pull overdrive, thats only 500lb in the bed, that sealed the deal for me, something needs to be different, I am not so worried about the cost of the truck more of what it can do for me.
I have a question: I have a Cummins, auto, lifted 5.5" with 35's. It has 3.53 what should I regear it to? I am thinking 4.10's since I had a half ton (360ci) with 35's and did 4.56 and I had no highway speed. What would you guys recommend?
Your stock 3.55's are basically fine. Do you tow? If you don't I don't see a problem with a ratio that tall. If you do tow then a 4.10 ratio would be prefered with your 35's.
