I have a brand new stock sport S with the 3.73 rear. I just got off the highway. My rpms are only about 2200 when cruising on level ground at 70mph in 6th gear. So if you are a 2300 in 5th gear I assume you must have the 3.21 gears. I absolutely love this jeep and I always use all the gears. I think the 3.73 is a great combo on the stock alloy wheels.

 

I use all six gears all the time. I have a '12 Rubicon and find that I can be doing 65-70 MPH in 6th and get to a hill and just put my foot in it and accelerate easily even as I climb the hill. Seventy MPH in 6th gear is running at about 2500 rpms it is a sweet combo. I would never consider an automatic in a true Jeep unless I was handicapped.

 

I have 3.21 and use 6th gear all the time. If i need to accelerate then I'll downshift. Hell, I throw it in 6th and let it cruise at 1800-2200 RPM just to save gas. If i'm on a stretch of road that's 45mph, I'll do the speed limit in 6th and be running about 1700ish RPM and be fine.

Plus I'm averaging 18 city and 20-24 highway depending on the wind.

Only hills i hit are on bridges though.

 

You guys are crazy....ok so I have the stock 255/75/17 SRA's and a 2012 six speed. I put it in 5th gear for anything over 35 MPH and 6th for 45 mph and up.......


I have 3.73's, no performance mods, and I'm 5000 miles in.

 

take a 3.8 with 35's and 3.21's for a spin...I can't even begin to think about using anything over 4th gear until 55 and up. With the '12 You've got more power, more torque, stock tires, and shorter gears.

 

With the 2012 having 3.73 gears I find this to be approximately true when driving very conservative: 1st gear up to around 10mph, 2nd gear 20, 3rd gear 30, 4th gear 40, 5th gear 50 and 6th gear 60+. Of course there are exceptions and variables but this is what I see for example if I am trying hard to conserve fuel, or if I have the dog in the back and need to not jerk the jeep around with higher rpm's.

 

This is due to the throttle pedal lag. There is no real throttle cable, just an electric sensor. They make a product called a Sprintbooster that amplifies the throttle signal to provide supposedly much better results.