best gear ratio

[MonsterBIlly]

Right now i have a 302 w/ c4 and 33s. I am thinking about moving up to 35s or 36 inch tires. I want bigger tires because i have 3.5 inch kift with a 2 inch body lift. I think the bogger tires will look much better anf also perform better on trails.
However, 70 percent of the driving is on the road. When i do go offroaf it is mostly trails. I do get into some climbing bit mothing crazy.

What would be the best gears to run for all around use?

 

[MonsterBIlly]

Sorry for the crap spelling. I have fat thumbs

 

[Skiddy]

35's and C4, 4.56 gears work great. puts it back to about what stock was

 

[garberz]

Yup, 4.56’s are a good ratio for up to 37’s. If you need deeper gearing, start looking at gearing down your transfer case. However, this is based on having a final drive ratio of 1:1. If you have or are thinking of an overdrive trans, 4.88’s to 5.13’s depending on what trans.

Mark

 

[74BroncoCO]

Agreed, but you may want to reconsider your tire choice. Swampers can perform very well offroad and they are one of the more aggressive looking tires, but they are pretty poor onroad.

Not sure where you are located or what trails you do, but boggers are awesome in some applications and poor in others. I think there are better tires out there that do well offroad and don't beat you to death on the highway.

 

[Rustytruck]

Make sure you have the brakes to match the tires. Any upgrades to the 302?

 

[nvrstuk]

Another possibility is to drop your susp lift back to 1 1/2"-2" and drop to a 1" body lift, keep the 33"s ( I know guys who run the Rubicon and have done a lot of difficult trails at Moab with 33"s... just saying because its a LOT easier and a LOT cheaper than swapping gears AND upgrading your brakes as RustyTruck pointed out...it WILL take a lot more to slow down the inertia from 35"s... people never seem to understand that...kinda like everybody buys 4WD for the snow as they can take off faster but never take into account that it doesn't help slow them down at all...

Since you mentioned 70% on the road... your COG will be lower with the 33s, your cornering will be better with the 33"s, your handling will be better with the 33"s...

Also, are you currently running 15" rims? Tire choice with 35" on 15" rims is getting slimmer AND you have more sidewall flex on 15" rims which affects all of the above...

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Good luck

Your call, just an idea...