I think all your geeking with numbers just proved what I was trying to convince you of. 3.58-1, 4.27 gears with 32" tires will give you that nice start off ratio.Thanks for the thoughts....I can be indecisive (or wishy-washy as my wife says), so sometimes I it really helps me to voice my idea and then hear the responses. Obviously, sometimes those suggestions lead to something new ad better, but sometimes its more that I recognize that someone else's method is not the way I want to do it, and it helps 'solidify' or reinforce in my head how I want to do it (even if its not the generally preferred method or CW or whatnot. We each build our jeeps in the way we each individually want - regardless of whether its practical or makes sense to anyone else - so I probably won't follow all the great suggestions
What this discussion did for me is solidify that I am more than happy to run with the stock axles and stock gearing for now....get it on the road and see how things go with the sbc and sm465 and 30" tires etc. If highway cruising at 60mph is just untenable, then I'll be able to justify dropping the coin for an OD. If it is not too bad, then I would much prefer to spend that money on some replacement lift springs and upsize the tires just a bit, which will help with cruising rpm a little. I think 4.27 gears is just about right for a 33" tire, so I don't want to mess with that. If at some point, I blow up an axle, we'll deal with then, and I'll have some mileage on the odometer to make a more informed decision about gearing if needed.
yup...I did that here - well I thought I was going to link to it in my build thread, but guess I never added it....I keep most of my cj build stuff on the earlycj5 forum so I don't have much about it here on OWF.
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On the street and highway, I used the OD as basically a 4th gear as well....but off road, I use it as a gear splitter to help find just the right wheel speed for whatever obstacle or trail section is needed. Basically, '1 and a half'' is often just about perfect when you need just a bit of wheel speed and crawling in 1st isn't quite enough momentum. But I don't know about that 3.58 1st gear....I am worried its going to be a bit too low for optimum street use.
Warning - going to geek out here a bit, but this is the kind of stuff I like to think about. Much like people discuss crawl ratio, we had a big discussion on ecj5 about 'start-off' ratio when at a red light or whatnot. Currently, in the cj5, I have a start off ratio with 3.1 1st gear and 4.88 gears of just over 15 (3.1 times 4.88 with D18 in 1:1 high range). Even with 33s, I find that a bit too low (numerically too high). Although I don't do it much, I prefer to 'start-off' in 1st gear + OD (just over 11 when factoring in the 75% OD) to get rolling a bit faster before shifting into 2nd (and to keep the person behind my from slamming up my tailpipe when I go to shift). That can be a bit too high of gearing for comfortable starting on uphills, but kind of tells me something between 12 and 15 is a good range (again with 33s and pretty lightweight cj5). I found the 58 wagon did nicely with the the t90j (2.79 times 4.27) at 11.9, but it was running smaller 30 tires. Going to the sm465, its going to be a start off ratio of 15.3, so more like my cj, but with the small 30" tires, I think its going to be too low - but yes, once I upsize the tires, it will help, and the wagon is a bit heavier. I am excited to drop the 4:1 T18 I have sitting in the garage into the cj5 one day - the low gear of 4:1 isn't the sought after 6.32:1 of the wide ratio T18, but for street driving, gears 1-3 have really nice splits. The 2.41 first gear with 4.88s yields a start-off ratio of 11.8, which I think is going to be perfect for that jeep, and the 4:1 low gear is fine as I already have tera low gears in the D18 - so the CR will be just over 60.
As an example, the tired stakebed has trouble starting off with 2.79-1 and 4.88 gears with 30.9" tall tires. You will also have the advantage of more start off torque with that 350.
You really should add in tire diameter or circumference for your start off ratio.