Take off ability with 2.47 / 2.64 gears

They all run that these days. And they probably don’t have full lockers or tall rubber either.

 

With automatics, you can get by with ratios like that for fuel economy, but with a stick, you'll be frying clutches, as 1st gear and 2:67s won't be low enough for field applications. And I did farm work, you run into soggy situations all the time. You aren't going for "triple digits" anyway, and no less than 3:90s, I'd have to think.

 

that cascadia i have is 2.67.
i don’t have problems, but, have learned of loading heavy in field before taking off. ease back a little, truck sinks a bit in field with weight, then take off forward, makes it easier seems to me.

 

Don't do it. From a life long farmer, though in a different area, you are used to 2 small engines with better gearing. Going to that higher torque engine with that strictly otr gearing is going to make you wish you had not found that low priced vnl. Your wg64 is a city truck that can work fine on a farm. That vnl is a otr truck that needs to stay otr. Regardless how hard you try to keep it on the roadway to load with the buggy, and regardless how few miles you put on it annual, the risk of drive train failure putting that truck in your rotation, is too high IMO.

 

Find out what first gear is on the direct drive . I know a 2.64 starts out like a 3.55 ratio with a double over 13 speed . A direct drive will put more stress on driveshaft though .

 

A direct drive transmission has a lower first gear than an overdrive one. 14.94 first in a direct vs 11.73 in an overdrive.
At 140,000 lbs hauling hopper bottom super B trains on road they were fine. In a soft fresh field we found they had to be towed or pushed to get started.
In the older trucks you did have a greater risk of twisting a drive shaft or breaking an axle using a direct drive in the fields, the newer trucks kinda limit the torque to prevent that from happening, but that also prevents you from getting it rolling in tough conditions.