Tera Low sells 3.15 gears for the Spicer 18, but I already have 2.46 gears. I can get the Tera gears for $500, but is that a waste of money? I will have a T-98 with 6.4:1 first gear, and 5.38's in the axles. I am just having a hard time deciding whether it is worth $500 to go from 84.7 to 1, to 108.4 to 1. I will have 38.5 SX's, and I don't really think either ratio will be low enough.

My understanding is the tera gears suck in the 18....I think it was Dean that broke 2 or 3 sets :rolleyes:

Did you talk to O'brian's Gear? He's in Sac, and builds gear sets for 18's all the way down to like 4.5 to 1.

I have heard no actual strength reports on these. I still run the 2.46 set behind a 4.3 Vortec and an SM465.

Andy

If that is the place I am thinking of the gears are like $1500 a set. I can't spend that much.

I have not really heard bad things about the Tera gears, and I will only be running a 4-cylinder. Did the guy breaking them have a V-8?

Last I talked to Novak, they were working on a 18/20 set and were going to try for 4.0:1. might want to drop them a line and check the progess (post back!)

I would recommend staying away from Tera gears. In the small group of wheeling friends I have, 2 of them have had tera's in their 18's. They got a refund when set #5 went boom. V-6's, 33's and little skinny pedal between them :eek:

I have gone through 2 sets and each set only lasted one season so stay away of them is what I would suggest. Save all your $$$ and go to an atlas and a centered rear 60 and be done with it.

Great.......Does anyone else make low gears for those t-cases?

i think o'brien's are about it. I went Atlas at that point because I didn't feel there were enough people running O'briens to know how reliable they were going to be. Also with the cost taken into consideration I just said screw it and threw the extra money at it and got the Atlas. I just didn't want to look back and say, damn I should have got the Atlas.:D

O'brien's gears are very expensive, but if you want to stick with the 18 I think it's the only way to go. If you want to go to a center output, you might as well go Atlas for a few $$ more. I went to an 18 for 2 reasons: 1) rear output is ~4" lower- making for much better d-line angle when SOA on an 83" wheelbase 2) option of useing an overdrive (if he ever gets it into production).

I would'nt buy the Terra's because I do'nt think the difference is significant enough & they seem to have a reputation for breaking.

Originally posted by 66CJdean
I have gone through 2 sets and each set only lasted one season so stay away of them is what I would suggest. Save all your $$$ and go to an atlas and a centered rear 60 and be done with it.

Unfortunately, I have an offset rear steer Dana 44. I don't have the Atlas as an option unless I start over on the project I am almost done with.:(

Is it the Tera gears that suck, or just the Spicer 18 design? I mean, will it be weaker with the Tera gears?

It is the Terra gears that suck. The teeth just bend and brake off.

I agree totaly. After two sets and many hours on the trail removing broken teeth I went Atlas and centered.