I'm an X guy now!

[Happy Jack]

http://www.mappyjack.com/MG.htm

There she is. I'd like to get most of the plastic off the side. Need to get rid of the 3.27's badly. Took it out once and it just didn't want to pull itself up a steep bank in 1st gear and low range. Even with the 235's on it. Need to do something about the rear bumper and spare tire hanging down in the back.

What are good gears to run in the X? Had a little 89 BII with an A4LD and 2.9 that did well with 4.11's and 30" tall tires. Could have been a bit lower though. Will the 4.0 crawl with 3.73's and 235's? Have a line on some 31 LTB's. Thinking about a 3" suspension lift. If the 5-speed or clutch goes on it I have a C-5/4 to go in it. Hope I can still get a stubler to go with auto when that happens.

 

[techieman33]

If your thinking of going to 31's then get some 4.10 gears, then that still gives you room to go up to 32's or 33's in the future. Have you tried to raise the spare up? there should be a handle under the hood, it goes into a hole under your tail gate, you'll have to raise the gate to see it. good luck. And welcome to the site.

 

[pughman]

i have a 2in. lift and 31's , i am going to run 4:10's in mine...

 

[Happy Jack]

Thanks for the reply. Yup. It's all the way up. It's a new full size 235 BFG AT. Maybe it's just catching on something.

Guess I should have given some more info. I like to go slooow. I'm old and my bones hurt and I like to crawl over the rough stuff nice and easy. I don't even mind using a winch if I can get some some young guy with good legs to run up the hill to hook it up for me. But I want to keep my MPG. Made over 20 mpg when I went to pick it up. So I need to lift it to gain ground clearence and departure and approach angle. But I don't want to go too high or I'll start pushing a lot of air on the highway and loose mpg. As I said the plan is some day to go with the c-5 auto.

Guess what I'm asking is how low can I go on gearing till mpg really starts to drop. And how well(slow) dose it crawl.

I've had plenty of 4x4's over the years but this is the first 4.0 and the first Explorer I have ever owned. Just trying to see what others have done and how it effected on and off road travel.

Thanks again.

 

[hiridin]

4.10's and 31's is a good combo that should still yeild decent mileage

 

[Jon94]

Wow, nice! It looks exactly like mine! Except I have an auto trans and auto hubs. You are definitely making the right choice in getting rid of the 3.27s. Words cannot express how much I hate my gears.

 

[buckshotmudder]

ive got 3.73's and 33's...not too bad but not good either..switching soon to either 4.10's or 4.56's

 

[Rhett]

You are definitely making the right choice in getting rid of the 3.27s. Words cannot express how much I hate my gears.

Yes they can. Just not words you want to say here.

When I retire my truck from daily driver, I will get rid of the 3.27's! And it won't happen soon enough!

 

[Happy Jack]

Thanks for the input. What I was thinking of is going with 3.73's and keeping the 235's for a while. When I replace the 5-speed with the c-5 I'll loose over drive. So when I do that I'd like to put a doubler in and 31's to try to keep my highway rpms at or below 3,000 and have good low low crawl. Is anyone running or have you run 3.73's with 235's? Will they crawl slow? Hate to go 4.11's now and then when I do the C-5/doubler and 31's it will turn over 3,000 on the highway. I have a BII with the c-5/doubler and 4.11's. But it has the 2.9 and I'll run 33's for highway trips, and maybe even 36's for really difficult stuff. Not wanting to go with 33's on the X as I would push a bunch more air and hurt mpg even worse.