Regear or Not ?

[ROLLIN33S]

I have a 1998 Ford light duty F-250 that I pull landscaping equipment with, nothing to heavy but heavy enough. I know the truck isn't the greatest tow rig ever built but it's what I got for now so I need to make it work. It has a 4.6L w/a 5 speed tranny and 3.31 gears. I also have another rearend with 3.73 gears in it, would it be worth the time and money to swapp the 3.31's out for 3.73's or should I go with 4.10's or lower. Its a 2wd truck that doesn't see a lot of highway action just around town towing. So what do you think.

[Jrod-13]

I could have SWORN that all those LD 7 lug f-250's had 5.4's, autos, and 4.10's in them..???

with a 5 speed and 4.6, gears will help a ton, I would personly go with 4.10's for sure, or even 4.56's..

[64Trvlr]

Depending on tire size I'd go with 4:10's or 4:56's.

[ROLLIN33S]

I thought I forgot to put somethin in there, It has 245/75/16 on it. Maybe I got the odd truck it wouldn't suprise me any, the 5.4 auto would have been nice to have. But I'm not complaning I only paid a 1,000.00 dollars for a 98' truck

[ramv]

No they had that exact combo for a few years... Thats the part that sucked was it had tall gears....

4.10s would not be too deep, at all, 4.56s would be better yet,

[gilraine]

I could have SWORN that all those LD 7 lug f-250's had 5.4's, autos, and 4.10's in them..???

with a 5 speed and 4.6, gears will help a ton, I would personly go with 4.10's for sure, or even 4.56's..all ive seen ahave been like that. 5.4, auto 4.11's... with your 5-speed, i would go with 4.56's to help the motor out as much as possible

[n9emz]

I'm gonna hop on the 4.56 bandwagon. I have the 5.8, E4OD and 3.55s in my F-250. 4.56s are going in it asap. If I'm gonna continue to have bad mileage (4.3-7 mpg depending on the trailer), I refuse to thrash my truck any longer to do it.

[zukota]

A little real world for you. I have a 94 f-150 302 slushbox. factory gear was 3.55s factory tire was (...I think) a 235. I went to 4:56 gears and a 31" tire. At 60mph my speedo is about 2mph off... Handles my samurai truggie MUCH better.

4:56 is NOT too much gear.

[ROLLIN33S]

Zukota, How much was your fuel mileage effected with the change in gears??

[pmurf1]

I could have SWORN that all those LD 7 lug f-250's had 5.4's, autos, and 4.10's in them..???

with a 5 speed and 4.6, gears will help a ton, I would personly go with 4.10's for sure, or even 4.56's..

Are you sure they were seven lug? We had a few of the ones I think you're talking about, the 7700 package at the last company I worked at. The chrome wheel/hubcap package had an outline that made it look like it had 7 lugs, but underneath were 8 lug Ford 4:10 rear 3/4 ton rear ends. 5.4 and auto. They towed good though, I went to Moab twice with one loaded pulling 6000# from AZ.

Even if you went up to 4:10's the difference would be very noticeable. If you mainly use it around town, you could go deeper. Depends on how muc you want to dump into it. The gas mileage will never offset your $1k initial investment before you run that truck into the ground.

[crashnzuk]

We have some of these trucks at work. Both the light 250 and the 150 7700, they all have 7 lug wheels under the 7 lump hubcap. I think Ford did have full wheel covers that had 7 fake lug nuts (swooshy looking cover), but they fit standard 8 lug wheels.
Travis..

[zukota]

Zukota, How much was your fuel mileage effected with the change in gears??


I'll post on monday, taking it out loaded for the first time this weekend.

[DMG]

Are the 2wd LD250s 7 lug too? I have a rear from a 97 LD250 4x4 5.4 that I will make you a sweet deal on. I think it is 4.10.


I have a 1998 Ford light duty F-250 that I pull landscaping equipment with, nothing to heavy but heavy enough. I know the truck isn't the greatest tow rig ever built but it's what I got for now so I need to make it work. It has a 4.6L w/a 5 speed tranny and 3.31 gears. I also have another rearend with 3.73 gears in it, would it be worth the time and money to swapp the 3.31's out for 3.73's or should I go with 4.10's or lower. Its a 2wd truck that doesn't see a lot of highway action just around town towing. So what do you think.

[zukota]

192 Miles going from about 80' above sea level to about 1700' above pulling a gcvw of about 10000 (5K truck / 5K trailer).

.... I got 7.5 mpg.

I'll run the truck the rest of the week and try to get some non tug numbers.

[ROLLIN33S]

DMG, I have a rear out of a 4x4 5.4 97' and it has 3.73 in it, not sure about yours thou ? Where are located at? and yes 2wd's are 7lug also.

[DMG]

I am in Pittsburgh, PA. I will check the gears in mine. bought a whole, rolled LD250 for the motor so I have a bunch of parts left that I don't need unless I want to turn my Expedition into a LD250 Exp