Share your experience good or bad with gear vendor Overdrive

[68Gold/white]

A 300 HP 350 should be OK with a 3.08 gear. Although not for a towing situation, especially heavy loads.
My 77 Trans Am (that I bough new...) came with a 2.41 gear. Of course it had a 400 engine, BUT has had a Pontiac 350 in it since 1992. It runs and drives JUST fine!!!

[72LB]

Originally Posted by Sheepdip

Your 3.08 rear gears final drive would convert to 2.40 +/- in O.D., your 28" tall tires would give you just over 1600 rpm's at 55 mph or 89 kph

That wouldn't be bad, how did you come up with the calculation?

Originally Posted by 68Gold/white

A 300 HP 350 should be OK with a 3.08 gear. Although not for a towing situation, especially heavy loads.
My 77 Trans Am (that I bough new...) came with a 2.41 gear. Of course it had a 400 engine, BUT has had a Pontiac 350 in it since 1992. It runs and drives JUST fine!!!

I don't really tow much and if I do it's light. I'm going to have to weigh the numbers between a 700r performance rebuild and a driveshaft shortening versus the gear vendor and a driveshaft shortening.

[Sheepdip]

[QUOTE=72LB;8763850]That wouldn't be bad, how did you come up with the calculation?

Well the G/V OD is a .78:1 driveline ratio
1 divided by .78 = 1.28 3.08 divided by 1.28 = 2.40 .. there are countless online RPM/Speed calculators, I just picked one using the 2.40 ratio and 28" tire diameter.

I have not looked at G/V's website in awhile but I believe all the conversion info charts are there also.

[Sheepdip]

I don't really tow much and if I do it's light. I'm going to have to weigh the numbers between a 700r performance rebuild and a driveshaft shortening versus the gear vendor and a driveshaft shortening.[/QUOTE]

The 700R route is cheaper or should be.

[72LB]

Originally Posted by Sheepdip

Well the G/V OD is a .78:1 driveline ratio
1 divided by .78 = 1.28 3.08 divided by 1.28 = 2.40 .. there are countless online RPM/Speed calculators, I just picked one using the 2.40 ratio and 28" tire diameter.

I have not looked at G/V's website in awhile but I believe all the conversion info charts are there also.

Thanks I'll look.

Originally Posted by Sheepdip

The 700R route is cheaper or should be.

I'm thinking it will just have to price it. For what I would have done to the 700r+torque converter+driveshaft shortened or build it could be close.

[HO455]

I have to say that my 700r4 experience mostly has been with my S10 Blazer. I've put over 100,000 miles on it myself (It's at 195,000 now) with 3.42 gears and a screaming 160 hp 4.3. Yes more horsepower is always nice, but at 3800 lbs it has towed everything I needed including a couple of cars on dollies. Towed my sandblasted 2.5 hours up I-5 at 65 mph no problem.
That being said I have just put a used GV in my Burban as at $900 it was cheaper than getting 700r4 built to replace the tired Th400

[mtdave2]

I had a gear vendor in my 72 longhorn for years, then did a ls swap so it wasn’t needed. Now I bought a k1500 suburban and want to put the unit in there. So I call thinking I just need an adapter. I was right, they make one for the np205, ill also needs a switch for the shifter and a gasket. Cool right? Nope.

I was shocked to find out they want $850 for the adapter, and they want a $350 core charge on my current th350 adaptor. I asked why and their reason is valid, people take their adaptors and put other stuff on them then they get calls for technical support. Wastes their time and affects their brand name. fair enough. The guy was irritated talking about this topic, I assume they get tons of people getting angry over this. I was controlling my anger over the feeling of getting screwed, but his attitude wasn’t helping.
My point is first, $800 is a bit ridiculous for the adapter. But I can get over that bit. They charging me the 350 until I return the adapter I own frosts my ass a bit. I’m not exchanging the part, nor is it the same part. And what happens If I just had the unit with no adapter? I then have to pay $1200 for the adapter which should be 300 max?

how about giving me some credit for returning it. Id be ok if they said 350 core charge and when you send it back they credit you 450? They would have fewer people mad.
From the customer's point of view this situation is frustrating and leaves me feeling like I got screwed. Not good for business, and here I am telling the world about it, instead of singing their praises. I love their units, they are the best, but the lack of training for their salespeople to handle this situation better, and not making the customer feel good about sending the adapter back is a major mistake. I am level-headed and understand business, risk, and what they are trying to do and I had a hard time not getting mad. Your average joe would loose their ****, soooooo fix that gear vendor!

[HO455]

Unfortunately Gearvendors has had a "My way or the highway" attitude for decades now. Now there are at least half a dozen other ways to put an OD behind a GM engine they still seem to believe they're the only game in town. Hopefully it doesn't put them into bankruptcy at some point as it's a good product.

[jumpsoffrock]

I used to think GV was for wealthy folk with no spending cap, but considering how hard it is to find an NV4500 in a local junkyard, and then all the work installing it, and also considering I'm using an unknown "used" trans......
I am considering GV more valid. But this "my way or the hiway" thing is discouraging to hear.

Luckily my truck is currently setup to hit 60mph without issue, so I'm not too worried or desperate.

Boy it'd sure be nice to find one of those miracle "Hey everybody I picked up a low-mileage NV4500 for $300!!!!" right about now....

[Sheepdip]

Originally Posted by jumpsoffrock

I used to think GV was for wealthy folk with no spending cap, but considering how hard it is to find an NV4500 in a local junkyard, and then all the work installing it, and also considering I'm using an unknown "used" trans......
I am considering GV more valid. But this "my way or the hiway" thing is discouraging to hear.

Luckily my truck is currently setup to hit 60mph without issue, so I'm not too worried or desperate.

Boy it'd sure be nice to find one of those miracle "Hey everybody I picked up a low-mileage NV4500 for $300!!!!" right about now....

The biggest advantage to a GV unit is once your are in OD, which most do not realize it takes about 45 mph to get it to have enough pump pressure to engage, as long as you do not drop below roughly 20 mph you can split all your gears...a huge towing/engine load advantage.

[chewychevy67]

Since starting this thread I have purchased a gv unit and installed it in my truck. It is in metal work/paint so it may be a while before I can drive it. I have been trying to find a way to bypass the computer and make it work automatically as well and this is what I came up with. Its a 1972 th400 speedo housing used then for controlling emmision at certain speeds. The speedometer housing has magnetic pieces in it that make contact at a certain preset speed and release at certain speed. You can adjust the speed slightly using by turning allen key screws. Here is a video. I put the speedo cable on a drill just for this experiment. I just really hate computer like stuff in my old trucks. https://youtu.be/y9OsuoCRckE
The volume pitch is really high on the video so keep your volume low to start it.

[HO455]

How much adjustment did you get?
Were you able to get it to switch as low 45 mph?

[chewychevy67]

There isn't a whole lot of adjustment but I was able to get it to turn the gv on at 45mph and shut it off at 25mph using a relay which is what the gv electronics do in autodrive. I'm going to put an inine switch so I can turn It off completely if I want to as well.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by chewychevy67

There isn't a whole lot of adjustment but I was able to get it to turn the gv on at 45mph and shut it off at 25mph using a relay which is what the gv electronics do in autodrive. I'm going to put an inine switch so I can turn It off completely if I want to as well.

That sounds perfect. You might consider using a foot switch for the on off switch. I use the foot switch on mine to shift in and out of OD as I navigate my way through traffic.

Plus foot switches are out of sight. I installed mine with velcro so there were no new holes made in the truck.