need help with constant downshifting

[jujuss07]

How's it going guys?

I have an 05 sport trac with some 285/75/16's on it. (isnt that more or less a 32" tire?) I put them on it sometime last march i think and ever since then the truck downshifts really easily on very small hills. it is eating my gas up all the time. do any of you know some simple mods to the engine i can do do increase the power and torque so it will have that little extra boost to make it up the hill? i already have a K&N drop in filter and flowmaster exhaust.

Thanks guys

 

[IZwack]

Regear .. its not cheap, but you'll be extending the life of your transfer case, transmission and engine in the long run.

Either that or put the stock tires back on.

 

[kert0307]

You will need to change the gears in the truck to get it's performance back to where it was. Lets say your truck had 30's on it and it now has 32's, you changed your gear ratio by 1-30/32= 6.25% so now your speedo, odometer and gear ratio is off by that percentage. So when you go up a hill your engine has to produce 6.25% more torque than it did before to get up the same hill, which is why is downshifts.

 

[jujuss07]

what about a computer reprogrammer? will i be able to change the settings that way?

 

[jujuss07]

about how much does it cost to get it regeared?

 

[James909]

No reprogramming the computer will not fix this problem. It may mask it a little by changing shift points etc. But the only way to really fix the problem is to regear. It's not cheap, for a 4x4 it will probably be about $1,500.

 

[jujuss07]

wow thats a good chunk of change. and change i dont have. lol. but the reprogrammer will at least fix the speedo and odometer right?

 

[James909]

The price that I wrote is pretty much the maximum cost to regear. The prices will change depending on your location. But the gear set will typically cost about $400 and the price for labor is a couple hundred per axle. Typically about $400-500 per axle. But if you decided to regear you could save some cash by pulling the diffs out of the truck yourself and bringing them to the shop. But to answer your question, reprogramming the computer will correct the speedo and odometer.

 

[jujuss07]

about how hard is it to do yourself?

 

[IZwack]

about how hard is it to do yourself?

You dont want to do it yourself unless you've already done it, especially for a vehicle thats going to see road time (not an off road only vehicle) -- it requires some special tools.

 

[jujuss07]

oh ok..well where would i go to get the gear sets?