I'll be going to 4.88's when I go to 37/38's, I was debating what to go to a lot as well as its 3 hrs to the closest trails, I also load up with a lot of gear and a trailer, but it is a DD to. It comes down to for me how is it being used more for and based my decision off that. Mine is a Rubicon with factory 3.73's and the auto, speeds of 70mph every day for 90 miles a day, its not even two years old yet and I have 50,000 miles already.

 

Since there are a couple towing comments here, I'll add this. I don't tow a lot, or haven't in the past, but I have now towed with both 5.13 and 4.88 on 37s and my 3.6L auto. It's pretty much the same, with a lot of downshifting into headwinds or even slight climbs. It's pretty aggravating in an auto as you're constantly forcing the tranny back to a higher gear after it downshifts. 5.13s don't solve this issue. Probably less aggravating with a manual tranny. For most people I'd suggest gearing for your most common normal driving. I dropped from 5.13s to 4.88 due to an axle swap rather than desire, but I actually like it a bit better for normal driving. That 100 or so rpm at the top end of interstate driving makes a difference to me.

 

I have a manual and I don't tow so I have no idea what I'm talking about, but would there be a tuning solution for this? I had a tuner in an F150 (with the 3.5 ecoboost, it was AWESOME) and it adjusted the shift schedule as well as power delivery. I know they made a tow tune as well as performance, I kinda figure someone would have that option for changing ratios in a JK.

 

I don't think any of our typical programmers do, but I might be mistaken. My BullyDog does not. I would also think that the end result would be cruising in 4th gear instead of 5th. The thing that just drives me insane is, even in "manual mode", you'll have cruise control set and be in 5th gear, and if you start losing speed the transmission shifts down to 3rd and the RPMs spike up to 5k. If it would just shift down to 4th and THEN to 3rd only if necessary, that wouldn't be as bad. Most of the time a simple shift to 4th would be enough to maintain. So, it's a constant dance of down, up, up.....down, up, up.

 

Thanks for some input from someone that tows some. I would much rather go 4.88s. The Jeep already had 4.56s in when I bought it so it's not like I'm spending the money twice for a regear. I just want to make sure I make the right decision the first time I have to pay for it.

 

y, for you, the problem is just going to be the difference is so minor. I guess though, just like me moving down 100 rpm at the high end, you'll be moving up a modest amount and could be just as happy......it's just harder to justify the financial expenditure for such a small improvement. My situation for changing 1 gear set was unique.

 

Yeah I haven't decided exactly what I'm gonna do yet. I would really like to swap to a D60, but that will be down the road a ways. I have some other upgrade I need to knock out before hand.