Slow on highway??

Those are peak horsepower and torque. If your gear ratio is the dreaded

3.07, you may not be able to find the right gear for mountain use. As I remember, some of those hills are pretty steep, too. It should go without saying, that your air cleaner, spark plugs, wires, etc. should be in good shape, but you never know. That truck was probably empty. They are pretty fast that way.

Earle

no problems but taking it on the highway, in the mountains, I was having some real issues going up some of those hills, even dropping to third gear on a few. Fifth was almost unusable up there. At one point I got passed by a tractor trailer, uphill. Is this normal? It is stock except for 31" BFG AT's. Do they slow it down that bad? Seems to me that 181 HP and 200+ ft-lbs of torque should be plenty, but it isn't acting that way.

Air cleaner, plugs, and wires are all about a year old ... How can I check the diff ratio? I run around 2K rpm at 70 mph.

Josh

Earle Hort> Those are peak horsepower and torque. If your gear ratio is the dreaded

Depending on your gear ratio, 5th or overdrive gear is useless in hilly areas except for downhill with the larger tires on it... I don't use

5th at all with my 3.31 gears and 33's.

I find I have to watch my rpm because of my 33's. If I keep it around

2300-2500+ rpm I can climb any highway hill. If I approach the hill too slow or in too high a gear, I lose it fast and as you say have to drop to 3rd even.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Felix Wankel wrote:

problems but taking it on the highway, in the mountains, I was having some real issues going up some of those hills, even dropping to third gear on a few. Fifth was almost unusable up there. At one point I got passed by a tractor trailer, uphill. Is this normal? It is stock except for 31" BFG AT's. Do they slow it down that bad? Seems to me that 181 HP and 200+ ft-lbs of torque should be plenty, but it isn't acting that way.

problems but taking it on the highway, in the mountains, I was having some real issues going up some of those hills, even dropping to third gear on a few. Fifth was almost unusable up there. At one point I got passed by a tractor trailer, uphill. Is this normal? It is stock except for 31" BFG AT's. Do they slow it down that bad? Seems to me that 181 HP and 200+ ft-lbs of torque should be plenty, but it isn't acting that way.

There is a metal tag under one of the differential cover bolts, with the gear ratio on it. If you still have the window sticker, it will be there too. With the 4.0, it is unlikely that you will have the really cool 4.11 gear ratio, that they put in the 4 cylinder Wranglers.

Earle

the diff ratio? I run around 2K rpm at 70 mph.

Bingo! I run 488's with 35" tires and at 65 my RPM's are 2400. Still, like Mike said, if I approach a steep hill too slow I am downshifting way down. On a hilly interstate with 488's I do well in 5th gear.

Josh, running 2K at 70 you are not at the sweet spot. That's why you had problems.

Andy

2001 TJ

heh......those little bumps arent mountains. ;-)

i took my rubicon over beartooth pass many times

. in under 12miles it goes from 5000 feet to roughly 12000 feet. my jeep nevershowed any signs of struggle. what gear ratio are you running?

You need to downshift from 5th to 4th until you can change the gearing to

4.10 or better.