1985 Custom Deluxe 4x4 -- I want it lifted...

[freddiesgirl]

Originally Posted by joe231

I thought you were freddies "girl" oops

lol i AM freddie's girl!!! the truck freddie! not the old man freddie! although when he saw the tail gate he stopped me on main street and told me he was proud to have his name on my truck haha

[joe231]

Ok
just to be clear...you are a female, correct?

[freddiesgirl]

Originally Posted by joe231

Ok
just to be clear...you are a female, correct?

haha yes the girl in my profile pic lol....

[shovelbill]

that's a nice truck.....build it right. way back when i started i got this horrible Rancho setup that rode like a stage coach. your mpg will suffer from having to step into it more to get it moving because 33's will raise your gear ratio. you'll sure cruise at a low rpm on the highway too and accelleration will stink .
it looks good as it is.........i could do without the "freddy" though


what profile pic?....i was thinking you were female after that pic.

[freddiesgirl]

Originally Posted by shovelbill

that's a nice truck.....build it right. way back when i started i got this horrible Rancho setup that rode like a stage coach. your mpg will suffer from having to step into it more to get it moving because 33's will raise your gear ratio. you'll sure cruise at a low rpm on the highway too and accelleration will stink .
it looks good as it is.........i could do without the "freddy" though


what profile pic?....i was thinking you were female after that pic.

i dunno my picture only shows up in my profile i guess its too big. but thanks yeah i'm trying to build it right...its taking so long to get it right. whoever put the headers on a while ago sawed off the bolt that hooked the power steering block to anything. my dad and i just welded it back to the engine cause it was shaking so bad. and yeah it does rumble on the highway. i put original flowmasters on it and got new pipes from the headers all the way back. the ones in that pic are the old ones. how do bigger tires raise the gear ratio?

[joe231]

Originally Posted by freddiesgirl

haha yes the girl in my profile pic lol....

ok
glad we got that cleared up

aboard!!

for the pic to show under your name in the threads you need to upload an avatar

[79'84'chevy]

i have a 4in on my 79 chevy and 35 in. tires. looks good. needs paint tho. i bought extended brake lines, 4 in. suspension lift, 4-6in. drop steering arm, skyjacker nitro shocks. big suggestion to all reading and lifting these 1/2 ton square bodies, plate the inside of your frame behind the steering box as far forward and back as you can. my frame cracked cause of the big tires. the machine shop here in cody wy did it in a day for 180.00 bucks.

[shovelbill]

ok....profile pic.........oh hell, if i was 28 years younger i'd offer to drive down help you .

i'll se if i can find something for you to read on gear ratios.....it would take me forever to type it and i hate typing.

[freddiesgirl]

Originally Posted by 79'84'chevy

i have a 4in on my 79 chevy and 35 in. tires. looks good. needs paint tho. i bought extended brake lines, 4 in. suspension lift, 4-6in. drop steering arm, skyjacker nitro shocks. big suggestion to all reading and lifting these 1/2 ton square bodies, plate the inside of your frame behind the steering box as far forward and back as you can. my frame cracked cause of the big tires. the machine shop here in cody wy did it in a day for 180.00 bucks.

nice. thanks for the advice man.

[shovelbill]

big suggestion to all reading and lifting these 1/2 ton square bodies, plate the inside of your frame behind the steering box as far forward and back as you can. my frame cracked cause of the big tires.

i sure did learn that the hard way, on two K5's. they got braces for that too.

here's a very nice "kit" and a little article on the Suburban too. this is kinda what i'm going to do.
http://www.offroaddesign.com/catalog...liftsystem.htm

[benoit454]

well I would have to agree, if you don't want it rough and stiff, go with softride or soffride I think they are called by skyjacker or superlift, forget which, or tuff country ez ride springs, back won't be effected by blocks, ride will remain about the same for the rear, stabilizer or dual stabilzers/dampers definately, upgraded shocks might be good as well.

As for gas, bigger tires are gonna hurt gas period, the way it is now the tires will raise the gear ratio, let's say 3.73's on 32's to 3.42 on 35's something in that form/example. This would give you lower rpm's on the highway cruising, but make it harder to turn them over, harder to slow down(brakes or upgrade to fix) and eat more gas, esp. around town stop and go. going from say a 3.73 with 32's toa 4.10 with 35's would put it close to stock and help keep around the same mpg. The added resistance and weight is gonna take a little bit of mpg anyways but changing gears can help with that. There's a chart somewhere alot of 4x4 or lift sites have it, shows rpms and tire size with gear ratios and what it takes to stay close to stock geared with larger tires.

[freddiesgirl]

Originally Posted by benoit454

well I would have to agree, if you don't want it rough and stiff, go with softride or soffride I think they are called by skyjacker or superlift, forget which, or tuff country ez ride springs, back won't be effected by blocks, ride will remain about the same for the rear, stabilizer or dual stabilzers/dampers definately, upgraded shocks might be good as well.

As for gas, bigger tires are gonna hurt gas period, the way it is now the tires will raise the gear ratio, let's say 3.73's on 32's to 3.42 on 35's something in that form/example. This would give you lower rpm's on the highway cruising, but make it harder to turn them over, harder to slow down(brakes or upgrade to fix) and eat more gas, esp. around town stop and go. going from say a 3.73 with 32's toa 4.10 with 35's would put it close to stock and help keep around the same mpg. The added resistance and weight is gonna take a little bit of mpg anyways but changing gears can help with that. There's a chart somewhere alot of 4x4 or lift sites have it, shows rpms and tire size with gear ratios and what it takes to stay close to stock geared with larger tires.

so the higher the ratio, the better the gas mileage? but what do you lose with going from a 3.42 to a 4.10? can you just explain to me how gears work in general? lol. i guess i could look it up but i never really understand what they are saying

[shovelbill]

i stole this somewhere....yellow is for economy, green is stocklike and red is for power.....all numbers are for a 1:1 trans ratio WITHOUT overdrive it said.
33's and 4.10 gears are pretty close to stock. just to add: when you lift it air gets under there and causes more drag too, helping to hurt your mpg.
.

[shovelbill]

very simply.......the higher the gear ratio the lower the "number", like 2.73, 3.08 3.23 etc.

the lower the gear ratio(numerically higher) the more rpms the engine will turn to do a certain speed. lower gears, are "typically" for towing and power. such as 4.10 or 4.56 in the 30 series trucks. 3.08's are more for "highway" cruising rigs. if you change the tire size you engine will have to turn more revolutions to get the tire to spin one revolution.........someone help me here

[freddiesgirl]

Originally Posted by shovelbill

very simply.......the higher the gear ratio the lower the "number", like 2.73, 3.08 3.23 etc.

the lower the gear ratio(numerically higher) the more rpms the engine will turn to do a certain speed. lower gears, are "typically" for towing and power. such as 4.10 or 4.56 in the 30 series trucks. 3.08's are more for "highway" cruising rigs. if you change the tire size you engine will have to turn more revolutions to get the tire to spin one revolution.........someone help me here

soo....my 3.42s are not ideal for pulling, but they are good for cruising the highway? and if i put 35's or something on there then the gears would have to spin faster to be able to go the same speed? whereas if i put 4.10/ 35's it would be about equal to 3.42/32's. i dont get why my truck even has 3.42s on it then. it has a granny gear in it and the engine feels like it is geared so low. it whines so hard in first gear. it feels like it would pull a house. but its a "high" gear ratio, which isn't ideal for pulling? am i right?

[shovelbill]

i guess i missed that you had a 4 speed stick....you'll be fine with that and
33's. it will pull a house down too. the gears would be spinning SLOWER with 3.42 than 4.10 at the same rpm, less revolutions.
3.42 was in the middle for stock 1/2 ton trucks. you could usually get 3.08, 3.42 or 3.73's in them. i've heard of some people having 2.73's in some of the 70's truck too. don't fix anything till it either breaks or you see how it does for you. on the highway in 4th it'll almost "act" like an overdrive for you and you may pick up a few mpg.

[freddiesgirl]

Originally Posted by shovelbill

i guess i missed that you had a 4 speed stick....you'll be fine with that and
33's. it will pull a house down too. the gears would be spinning SLOWER with 3.42 than 4.10 at the same rpm, less revolutions.
3.42 was in the middle for stock 1/2 ton trucks. you could usually get 3.08, 3.42 or 3.73's in them. i've heard of some people having 2.73's in some of the 70's truck too. don't fix anything till it either breaks or you see how it does for you. on the highway in 4th it'll almost "act" like an overdrive for you and you may pick up a few mpg.

oh that makes sense. thanks for all yalls help. i know where to come when i have questions now

[shovelbill]

for every turn(revolution) of the STOCK size tire the driveshaft will spin 3.42 times. if you put on a 33" tire it'll probably spin the same as if you had 3.08 gears with a stock tire.....that's simplified, but you get the drift.......be well

[freddiesgirl]

ahh i get it now, it wasnt as complicated as i thought..thanks

[justpball]

welcome to the site, I think 3-4 inch lift is what you would want and 33s would look great with that much lift...look through some of the 4x4 threads and you will see lots of pics and when you see one you like just pm the poster and ask them what setup they have...

[hatt]

I drove around an 84 4x4 everyday with 250/4 speed/3.42/33s for 15+ years. It did just fine. Sure you couldn't run down Vettes with the little six but it was a pickup truck after all. Had a 78 Ford with 3.50 gears and 351M and it had plenty of power with 33s. If you read these forums sometimes you'd think you need a blown 496 with 5.13 gears just to get out of the driveway.

Your driving style is going to dictate you mileage with 3.42s. If you like to be the first one to the next red light every time your mileage is going to suffer, no matter what you gear you put in it.

[justpball]

I had 3.42's in my burb with 6in lift and 36s and it was great, got about 14-16 mpg and it was still peppy enough for me.

[benoit454]

how the crap is 3.42's and 36's peppy? I got some 255.70-16's on my 88 with 3.42's and it aint peppy, new motor and new transmission and tbi. It does great on MPG's but not pep. Now my old monte carlo with 26 inch tires and 3.42's is awesome.

Old man's 84 has 2.73's and it has no pep, mpg sucks, around town is terrible, no take off power to break tires loose.

[MikeJones16]

Hannah, if you were going with 35" tires. I'd recommend a 4.88 rear gear for around town driving. If you have overdrive then that'd be perfect.

[hatt]

Originally Posted by MikeJones16

Hannah, if you were going with 35" tires. I'd recommend a 4.88 rear gear for around town driving. If you have overdrive then that'd be perfect.

You have 4.11s in the truck in your link?