Building a 2500 pound buggy and am trying to decide what to do with gearing and power train options. 16 valve 1.6 liter putting out 115 horse. Trying to decide if I wanna go manual or auto. with divorced dual toy cases behind with 5.29 gears in the thirds. Final gear ratio for using stock dual cases with auto is 66:1 and final gear ratio for manual with stock cases is 100.4:1. Which would be the better crawl ratio and which would I better be able to use for trying to haul ass. I just don't remember how much difference an auto makes in crawling. Important to also keep in mind I want to be able to go fast in this sucker. Stock in 5th gear, high range, with 5.12 axle gears gives a final drive of 4.4 with 27 inch tires and with the auto, in high range and 4.62 gears gives 4.62 with 27 inch tires. I wanna run 38's and final drive with the manual and high range with 5.29's would be 4.5 and with the auto it would be 5.29. Is the gearing low enough to push the 38's but high enough to turn them going 60-70mph? Thanks
erik

Originally posted by ECF
Is the gearing low enough to push the 38's but high enough to turn them going 60-70mph? Thanks
erik

Sounds like you answered your own queston right there. You need the 5 speed

However, you're going to have to do some tricks to those 38"s to get them to ride at 70 under a light rig. You'll need to have them trued and put BB's or golf balls in them to balance.

Course then it doesn't seem like having a final ratio of 4.5 would put the gearing in the power band I would need to turn the tires and being only at 100 to 1 seems like it wouldn't be geared low enough for crawling. It would have final drive close to that of stock but I'm pushing 38's instead of 27's so it would seem like it would need to be geared lower but I'm not sure how much lower. Any gear genius's out there?