I have an 08 JK Sahara 2 door, stock engine, fair amount of weight with armor, winch, hardtop. 33" tires. I am not going to go to 35s, so I want to pick the best ratio for my 33s.

Stock gears are 3.73 with manual tranny.

I want lower ratios for offroad. With 4.46 1st gear x 2.72 xfer case:
3.73 dif = 45.25 Crawl Ratio (2000 rpms = 4.4 mph)
4.11 dif = 49.86 Crawl Ratio (2000 rpms = 4.0 mph)
4.56 dif = 55.32 Crawl Ratio (2000 rpms = 3.6 mph)
4.88 dif = 59.20 Crawl Ratio (2000 rpms = 3.4 mph)
(Rubicon Crawl Ratio is 73.1)

So for sure I want 4.88's

But, I also don't want to be blowing the front D30, and I don't like how as you gear lower, the pinion gets fewer and fewer teeth:

3.73 41 and 11
4.11 41 and 10
4.56 41 and 9
4.88 39 and 8

I sure don't like going down to 8 teeth.

now the more I look at this, the less clear it is I should even change the gears.
I would be:
* spending a bunch of money
* going from 11 to 8 teeth
* and at 2000 rpm the diff is only 3.4 mph verus 4.4

Is it really worth regearing?
Should I go with the 4.88 and weaker 8 teeth or 4.56 and 9?
How much will this cost me?

 

save up for an atlas if you want to lower the crawl ratio and don't plan on going to 35's.

 

I tend to agree with the Atlas suggestion. The path that you have taken with your Jeep and how you use it make what a third party transfer case brings more appealing than the path so many others take with somewhat larger tires and most of all having a 6 speed as opposed to an automatic.

For me I'm just not that interested in throwing any money at a D30 and when it breaks I'll move to D60s, different gears and move the vehicle to the third position of what my wife and I will use for normal on road tasks.

 

Nope, it ain't worth regearing. Least from what all I've read on here. Spend it on sumthin else. More nitrous.