Rears went out while driving

It is direct drive meaning to Top Gear is not Overdrive.

The general rule is the less horsepower you have the deeper you should be geared.

That's kind of the problem with older stuff because a lot of times it wasn't geared right so now you have a truck that is geared very high with a transmission without an Overdrive. It should be the other way. It should be that you have a transmission that has a regular overdrive and your rears are geared lower like 390 or 411.

I would imagine that truck feels really sluggish with those 355 Rears.

 

I’ve never understood the theory that “it wouldn’t pull hills very good”.
Couldn’t you just downshift and use a lower transmission gear?
If anything, with tall gears you could get a hell of a run at that next hill.

 

Last time we got new trucks around here, we had a bunch of guys throwing a fit because they couldn't climb a certain hill in 9th gear, they had to drop to 8th. But with the higher rear ratios, they were going nearly the same ground speed as their old trucks. Some of them understand it now, but some still don't get it.

 

Meaning that top gear is at a 1:1 final drive ratio. 1 full turn at the output end of the trans, and 1 full turn at the input side. Thats direct drive, ( as in direct through) An overdrive wound probably have a .73 final drive ratio. 1 full turn at the output side, but only .73 turn at the input side. So the wheels are spinning at the same speed, but the engines only spinning at .73%. (the wheels are turning more than, or “overdriving” the engine) The result is the same road speed, at 73% RPMs. If you’re at 2100 Rpm at 70 mph now, with an overdrive trans the engine would only have to turn .73% or 1533 RPMs to achieve 70 mph. At 2100 RPMs you’d be at 96 mph. Something like that anyway.

 

"Triple-digit" truck? What's that mean? Also, 3.55s don't pull hills good?

 

I still don't get it. I'm having a real hard time wrapping my head around what you guys are talking about. And I've been on here and on YouTube to try to grasp it.

I have 3.55s on a 13-speed, 14L Series 60 with 515 hp. On any little pimple of a hill, I have to gear down to 6 or 5. Is this normal?

 

Triple digits means it will make it to the 100 mph mark