tires verses gears

Are you having issues?

I have the tall 3.31 gears in my CJ7 with it's 6 cylinder and 33" tires.

In my case I 'can' use 5th gear on the highway as far as engine power goes, but it then revs too slow so the engine lugs and it just drinks gas.

If I forget about having the 5th gear or overdrive as it is properly called, then my rpm stay about 2300 on the highway or in the 'sweet spot' for power and my mileage stays over 20 mpg, usually about 23 mpg.

As far as off road goes, I can count on one hand the number of times I have 'needed' 1st low gear in the last ten years and even then it was plenty low for the need. I normally start off in 2nd low and cruise in

Mike

If you feel you do not need the 33's the 31's may be better for you. All things being equal, smaller tires put less strain on the drivetrain and it will be less likely to break. The Dana 35c in particular is a weakness of the YJs.

j wrote:

Wish I had one. Then the 33=B4s may be fine for you unless you are having other problems with them.

j wrote:

I would think that putting larger tires on and lowering the rear gearing would put a tremendous amount of stress on the axles. I have stock 30" tires and 3.73 gearing, and something tells me that the engineers matched axle torque capacity accordingly. 35's are huge! I'd bet that thing's a handful in heavy winds or when trying to brake it down.