I just bought a 1980 scout that has a crawl ratio of 54.54 and is running 33 tires.
It has the factory close ratio 4 speed and 345 ci motor. The scout has great city drivability with this combo, my question is besides serious rockclimbing will this ratio work for most offroad situations. I would really appreciate some helpful opionions, I need to keep the scout very streetable but I dont want it to fall on its face offroad. Please help a offroad newbie with some insight!

:D

from one newbie to another

go wheel it

no one is gonna laugh at you if you fall on your face
just if you don't go out and try it

Wheel it, I still have my stock gearing, not gonna change it until I swap in my other axles, You are actually a little lower geared than I am and I can still run the same trails as my buddies, I just have to try a little harder on the uphill and smoke the brakes on downhill trails.

If the motor has good torque it should work pretty good.
I had a cj7 with 35" tires and a 52-1 ratio it worked good.
I took it on the rubicon about 20 times, I would have liked it to be lower but it was fine. :D

Its should work fine for most offroading.I have the same ratio in a '73 Blazer with a 305 and I actually use 2wd hi and low gear in the trans for most trails.I just pop it in 4wd low for the harder stuff.You will need to slip the clutch a little on really hardcore stuff.I am going lower sometime.Just waiting to collect the right parts for the double or if the AA crawler come through.Blazin:rasta:

Originally posted by wsilva
I just bought a 1980 scout that has a crawl ratio of 54.54 and is running 33 tires.
It has the factory close ratio 4 speed and 345 ci motor. The scout has great city drivability with this combo, my question is besides serious rockclimbing will this ratio work for most offroad situations. I would really appreciate some helpful opionions, I need to keep the scout very streetable but I dont want it to fall on its face offroad. Please help a offroad newbie with some insight!

:D

Just curious how you figured your ratio. If you have the close 4spd, 1st gear is 4.02, and a 1980 should have the D300 case @ 2.62:1 so 54.54/4.02/2.63 = 5.13 gears in the axles. Do you have 5.13 gears in the axles??? by the way the 345 has loads of torque between 500rpm and 2500rpm, that engine takes those gears no problem. Just check your gears, your crawl might not be as low as you think.

sean

Hell, I've only got like 44:1 right now and that doesn't stop me. Of course, I don't spend a whole lot of time on the rocks, and on most of the muddy WA trails I wheel, low gears aren't as necessary as they are on the rocks.

Like fcfred said, nobody is going to laugh at you for taking your rig out an wheeling it. Not everyone can afford the big toys :D

Make sure your rig is tuned properly and will idle well and you will be fine. I'm running a TPI small block (W/too large cam for this application) in my rig with 55-1 crawl and if I idle it down below 800rpm she will stall out when coming in contact with ledges etc... If I set the idle at 850 rpm it's just enough that I dont have to even touch the gas and it will crawl till it tips over backwards. Sure it's not as slow as I'd prefer BUT it works just fine for me.
Dave