....and with 4.10's, it would be even better.
With an Aisin, no advantage whatsoever on the last 3 gears output wise, and one unusable gear (in your examples).
As I said, with EVERY gear, there is more torque in each gear with a lower ratio.
Yep, 20% more! But that's only assuming same trans gear. If you look at what it takes to maintain the same speed then the torque difference is much smaller as each trans is in a different gear and the torque multiplication is much more similar. Can't get any lower than 1st thou and that 20% extra mechanical torque is pretty nice, especially when torque limiting is doing it's thing.
I look at it as 5th is towing OD and 6th is empty OD, so it's not unusable all the time. It comes down to duty cycle and GCW.
Just for fun here are some comparisons at 40, 50, 60, and 70 mph. AISIN and 275/70R18's.. just cuz it's not an OEM option. I picked the gear that would keep the engine between 1800-2500 as that's where these things seem to like running on grades.
Again... just for fun. Yes you can speed up or slow down to get into the proper gear, or just accept more rpms. But it's fun to look at. With 3.42's often being able to use a lower gear than 4.10's for the same speed they do make up, or sometimes beat, the 4.10's in the final drive ratio. 60 is a big advantage for 3.73's, but that's really the only highway speed where that is occurring. The rest of the time 3.42's hold their own.... Now if I had dropped this down towards 10 mph you would see that 3.42's fall behind very very quickly.
Most people don't spend a lot of time towing below 40 thou,
@NIsaacs sure does and I do too but at 18-24K GCW it's not at issue. Much more above 24K GCW and I'd be putting 4.10's in, regardless of what it did to my empty cruising. I also like to tow at 70, and you can see that 3.42's do great at 70... better torque multiplication without having to rev above 2500. It also pinpoints why I prefer 3.42 or 4.10.
You cannot look at one number with simple math to tell the story. All the math on final drive ratio is used for is setting what rpm\speed you want or get, it does NOT take into account how you got to that point.
Given the same load and same gear ratios accelerating to a target speed:
3.42's shift 1-2-3-4-5 will be incrementally slower getting to to speed than a 4.10's shift 1-2-3-4-5-6. Each shift point will be diverge a little more. Inversely, if you monitor engine load across the range the higher numerical gear ratio will always show a lower average and shift point engine load. When the work performed (load moved over distance) is increased every comparison point will diverge in larger increments.
That is basics physics with a fulcrum and lever example, the mechanical advantage can change but total force needed is a constant. The secondary aspect is the direction change in the differential, the higher numerical ratios are more efficient at changing the direction, vector analysis can prove that out.
Since we spend a lot more time AT speed than GETTING to speed I put more value in those numbers. We also were talking about 5th and 3.42's vs 6th and 4.10's, not 1-6 acceleration. 4.10's will absolutely out accelerate 3.42's getting up to speed, don't think anyone is saying any different. But that's not what the discussion was about when you made your post last night, which is what my comment was in reference to and the simple math does matter for that. 3.42's and 5th is geared lower than 4.10's and 6th.
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