Hey everyone,
My "Noobness" is about to show, but can someone please thoroughly explain the concept of "gearing" to me. Why do I need to do it for bigger tires? What are the effects on my gas mileage? What is the difference between the options of new gears? What am I reading when I read the gear ratios? I just have no clue what any of it means and would greatly appreciate it if someone could explain it all to me.
Thanks!

 

1. To bring a little more power back that was lost from adding more weight and more leverage (tires). Gears are not needed, but preferred, for larger tires. Some guys roll 37s on 3.21s till they save for 5.13s.
2. When geared correctly, a small amount of mpg is regained. But, do the math. If you want mpg and over 35 inch tires, they don't really get along.
3. For new gears there really are only a few different kinds in different boxes. For JKs you can get 3.21, 3.73, 4.10, 4.56, 4.88, 5.13, and 5.38.
4. Being as these are all ratios, they are all interpreted as such. All ratios are to 1, and refer to the single revolution of the ring gear to the pinions variable revolutions.

A good start i suppose, bump for some more knowledge. I know someone has to have something to pitch in, no shortage of opinions here

 

Bump..........

 

The easiest explaination of gearing is that you bring your top speed down, but get better power at acceleration. Jeepers aren't exactly concerned about top speed, so it's a good trade off.

As for gas mileage gains, you are basically finding a happy point between the engine not struggling to get to speed vs. being really high in the RPM range.