new tires, so do i need new gears too?

[goodoleboy8700]

im putting 32x11.50 tires on my 93 explorer limited and i think i have 3.73 gears now but not shure. do i need to put taller gears in or will i be ok? im not going to be offroading much at the most i will take it on the sand at the beach every now and then most of the driving will be around town and some highway.i just got the engine rebuilt so i dont wana have to fix the tranny next. the more detail the better thanks.

 

[ExplorerJimbo]

well, it wouldnt hurt to throw 4.10's in your diff's. you may feel a little sluggish running that size and 3.73

 

[bikeboarder]

go with 4.56s. because eventually i bet you will want bigger tires.

 

[goodoleboy8700]

i got the new tires on and around town its not that bad but when i got on the highway it was good till i hit about 70 mph and it was all i could do to get it any faster not that i really should go any faster than that but it seemed like i had no OD so if i put 4.10's or 4.56's in it would that give me my OD back? if it would which would be best keep in mind i would like to still get decent gas mileage

 

[bikeboarder]

lower gears would let your engine spin faster but without as big of a load. so with the gears your RPM would be higher but you would have much more TQ.
one more thing to think about, with the stock P235/75R 15 tires and the stock gears your spedo. reads correctly. so when you put taller tires on there it will say you are going slower then you actually are. This means when you say you cant go past 70 MPH then you are actually going faster then 70. i dont know for sure but i would say you were going more like 75-85MPH.

One more thing. if you decide to go with 4.10s you will have a little less then stock "get-up-n-go" and with the 4.56s you will have a little more then stock power. both of the gears will give you better gas mileage. because of the reduced load and strain on the engine.