Ballin STX

Well I love my truck buttt ever since I threw the nitto trails on my truck I feel like its straining pretty bad. I have 295/70/17 tires and programmed my edge for tires, and stock gears. I also have exhaust, gotts mod w k/n on it. I'm leaning towards gears but just curious who has has done a gear swap for this size of tire. Btw my truck is the 4.6.

Thanks in advance guys!

4x4angel

go to search .tires, gear .goodluck

techrep

iTrader: (1)

Take the Nitto's off...

Ballin STX

I want to keep them on... I am asking what you guys would do in my situation?

techrep

iTrader: (1)

if you have the money...do the gears

jerrybizzle

What are your current gears? Check under axle code on your door jamb if you don't know and google the code. Let us know what you have? You could always regear to 4.10 or 4.56 but that could lessen mpg if you do a fair amount of highway driving, but your truck will definitely be less strained and feel more powerful.

SLO281

iTrader: (1)

If you are going to keep the tires and don't like how the truck is performing you need gear change and I would do a custom tune. I ran 305/70/16s on my old 4.6 and the only time I felt any significant loss was when towing with stock gears. Don't get me wrong, I felt some loss but it wasn't enough to pay for gears.

Ballin STX

Thanks for the input guys, I agree its not that bad but I could use some more power. I do feel like the transmission is struggling a little bit but being said I do have the 4.6 so I know what I was getting into when I bought it.

My current gears are the 3.55 LS

jerrybizzle

I had 3.55s and 285/70/17 with the 5.4 before my current setup and they were just p rated tires so were much lighter than your e rated trail graps and could feel the hit. A gear change would be beneficial but isn't cheap. If you plan on staying that size 4.10s would be good. 4.56 would be better if you plan on going to 35s or don't do much highway driving.

mSaLL150

Trails are basically same tire as Toyo MT. I couldn't stand the performance blow the Toyos had on my truck, and I have Troyer 91 tune and 4.56 gears. The problem is that the tires are so damn heavy and high load range, truly not very practical on an older half ton truck. I ended up switching tires to a more lightweight (16 pounds per tire!) but still aggressive AT tire and gained 3mpg back and much more pep. Huge rolling mass is killer on these older F150s with 4 speed trannys.

If you decide to do gears, I would step up to a 4.56 since you have the smaller engine. RPMs won't be bad on the highway unless you are doing 85, and around town will be a lot better.

EDIT: just looked it up. Your tires weigh 72 pounds each. Thats easily 22+ pounds over stock per tire, not to mention they are larger in diameter, wider, and have a more aggressive pattern for increased frictional resistance. That's rough on an undergeared drivetrain.