I have a 2013 JKU with a manual transmission and 3.73 gearing. I installed a 2.5" lift and 35" tires and I love it. Its not my daily driver, but I do drive it regularly. It performs admirably on the street and on the highway.

I took it wheeling this past weekend and I was very happy with how it performed...but the manual transmission caused me some small issues on certain obstacles. At one point I could smell the clutch cooking. One of the guys we were with said that I need to get away from using the clutch, which makes sense, but when I tried that, the gearing was too high for it to just crawl. He said the gearing should be low enough that the starter motor could start the engine while its in gear and it could start crawling.

Im not super technical, but I am learning. To accomplish this, do I need to change the gearing all together, or can I just change the transfer case so that my 4 wheel low is even lower than it is right now? If that is an option, thats what I would prefer, since the gearing in 2 wheel high is great for everything else.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

The gearing of axles is going to help overall. It seems to me its one of the most overlooked mods out there.
I have let a lot of folks drive my jeep with 37's and 5:38's and they are usually surprised how much better its get up and go is compared to their stock gears with big tire setups.

I'm still running the 2.72 case but gears made a noticeable difference while in 4lo. Even the wife was surprised how much better it crawled. The 4.1 case would help also while wheeling.
Could always do it first then regearing later.
I have a 4.1 case ready to go in just gotta gather the tools to put it in.

If you ever plan on going bigger than 35's I would look into regearing.

 

You can swap in a rubicon transfer case fairly easily. I've heard $1000 is around the going rate for a used one. Bolts right in and you go from 2.72:1 to 4:1 in 4 low. You'd have to make a pretty big gear change to noticeably improve crawling, to the point you probably won't be happy for road driving. That said, if you go with gears, you can throw in some lockers while you are at it. Rubi case is probably the way to go for you.

 

Not looking to go bigger than 35s, and really happy with how it performs in 2 wheel high. I dont want to lose its interstate ability (as I have to drive 3hrs to get to any wheeling spot. I would love it I could just change the transfer so i only affect 4 wheel low gearing...but I am not sure if this is possible...or a good idea.

 

Good info...ill look into this. Thanks!

 

...so what am I going to break in my driveline when I go to the 4:1 transfer case?

I had this RC helicopter once...it was all made of plastic. I broke a plastic part so I replaced it with a CNC aluminum part. Next time I wrecked it, I broke the next plastic piece in line. Replaced that with an aluminum part and just continued this process till all the plastic parts had been replaced with aluminum...this seems like a very similar path (on a much larger scale).

 

I put a 4:1 case in my 2012 sport (35's and 3.21 gears with manual trans). I think it performs superbly offroad. On road isn't ideal, but I think it will make my decision a little easier for 4.10 vs 4.56. The case made a huge difference tho, bigger difference than i thought. I rarely ever stall anymore, as before it was a very regular occurence.

If you have any questions about the swap give me a holler. If you didn't already know, you can use any case from a 2007-2011 (auto or manual) or a 2012+ manual. Mine was from a 2010 auto with 15K miles, in perfect condition. I swapped mine plus $450 to local 4x4 shop that was doing an LS Swap. Got a great deal. Contact Motech as well as any local shop that may be doing LS swaps.

So i'd say go for the transfercase. Probably cheaper than a regear, and give you more benefit in your situation. 4:1 will give you better performance offroad than regearing to 4.56 would. 4.88 or up for us is too much gear IMO if you do a lot of highway. That's my 2 cents

 

You shouldn't as long as you are smart with the skinny pedal. You'll be able to crawl over stuff at much more controlled speed and not have to touch the gas or clutch. In 4LOW and 1st gear the brakes really have to struggle to get it to stall. It won't stall from the brakes alone on flat ground.

 

Can you clarify what an ls swap is? I googled it and all that comes up is corvette engine swaps.

 

Yup an LS engine swap. Could be a corvette engine, but more popular is the Chevy 5.3L. The transmission they use already has a low first gear, so some prefer the 2.72:1 vs 4:1 four low. I don't know why.