I've seen the ideal ratios for the various size tires, but say if a guy was to stick with stock tires and gears for daily driving, and only put on the big tires for the occasional offroading trecks, would he be ok with the less than optimal gears?

I'm justifying in my mind putting in an e-locker, and then eventually some 33's, but adding the cost of re-gearing front and rear diffs just adds up too high.

Depending on what type of motor/ tranny/stock gear ratio/over all weight of the rig, etc., will have a different outcome on trail performance with the 33's. The main effect on the trail will be your crawling capability, i.e., you will have to use the brakes more on descents, a little more gas and momentum to get over things, a little more clutch slippage, etc., but other than that you should be fine.

Thanks, sounds like a dual transfer case would be another option for about the same cost as re-gearing both diffs, and more advantages.

I have an extra cab 3.0 w/ I believe 4.56's. I'd realy like to plop an e-locker in it, and having one already set up with the proper factory ratio is appealing <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Having to get the e-locker re-geared, as well as shipping out my front diff is both spendy, and major downtime <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mrt.gif" alt="" />

I would consider going with 4.88 gears. If you're going to buy a factory E-locker, going from 4.56 to 4.88 isn't going to change the price of a new diff.

You would have to replace the front gears, but one way to do it is with a 4.88 factory front diff out of a wrecking yard. Those diffs were found in some '92-'95 trucks that had V-6, 31" tires and an auto. Of course I'm assuming you have an '86-'95 IFS truck.

Usually they can be had for something like $150-300, then just bolt it right in.

You can run 4.88s with 31s, since Toyota used these gears in factory trucks. The only difference will be that 5 speeds have a slightly lower overdrive than autos and will run slightly higher rpms on the freeway.

If your running 33s, you'll be much happier both on and off road.

4.56 gears with a V6 and manual tranny work pretty well with 33s. Assuming you have 31s as your stock tires, stick with the 4.56 gears. Dual cases and/or a lower ratio in the t-case would be an option.

Don't know why I didn't think of the factory 4.88 and swapping out the front <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> The only possible problem with that is I have the auto tranny and little tires now, and I just replaced them, so they'll still be the daily driver tires. Not sure if I want to be over-geared on the little tires <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

If this is what your truck came with stock, the gear ratio numbers on teh door jam should be G254. What size tires are you running now. If ytou are running 30's, I don't think the 4.88's would be too much, since they stock auto's w/31's ran the 4.88's, however if you have 28's or 29's, the 4.88's would be a bit high. I would go ahead and run the e-locker and 4.56's since you already have them and relatively new tires. Before buying 4.88 stock diffs, I would try a set of 33's to see how much diff. there is in power, and wether or not you mind the diff. In the long run, I think the best set-up would be to bump up to 31's as your daily tires w/4.88 diffs, and then run the 32's- 33's for the trail.

Another option would be to swap in a 5-spd and clutch when your current tires are ready to be replaced. This would be a little more labor intensive, but might be cheaper getting the used parts. You would also see about a 4-5mpg increase w/the 5-spd over the auto.