Competition Now which gear?

[Smokewagon359]

O. K. So now I have a couple of pulls under my belt, and have used a different gear each time. My first hook I took the advice of new friends at the track, and some here at tdr1. (jwilliams3) I put the truck in low range and 4th gear. It did really well for the first pull, but I was light about 500 lbs. and forgot to air down the tires. Spun out, and never bogged. Next pull was a charity pull in Hillsboro OH last Saturday. I was running short (265/75) tires, but I aired down to 40 up front and 50 in the rear. I had contemplated running high range 2nd gear and at the last minute I went through with it. I went 315 feet. Again the truck never bogged. Talk about your head swelling up. Now I've got another pull coming up and I want to run the same combo, but am convinced that I need to go up yet another gear to get some more ground speed at the beginning and maybe bite a little more at the end. Do any of you guys ever run 5th on the low side? I have an NV 5600 transmission. My turbo lights quick (Aurora 3000) and I'm not slipping the clutch any more than it takes to keep from blowing the tires away at the start. Because of my lack of smoke and that I'm taching out at the end of the track, I feel I'm under geared. What do you guys think. Oh yeah, I have 3. 55 final drive.

 

[Smokewagon359]

Sorry let me rephrase



Is there any added stress to an NV 5600 by running in 5th gear 4 lo?

 

[JFlagg]

According to the gear calculator I have, 2nd HI range will give you slightly more gear then 4th LO range. Now, going to 5th LO range seems to be a decent jump in speed. Meaning, the gap between 4th and 5th in low range is wider then between the 1-2, 2-3, 3-4 gears, so it might be alittle much. Again, according to the gear calculator I have 2nd HI range should split the difference between 4th and 5th on the low range side. I don't know how much stress difference there will be going to 5th, but I would think that 2nd is in your sweet spot.

 

[mattymac]

According to the gear calculator I have, 2nd HI range will give you slightly more gear then 4th LO range. Now, going to 5th LO range seems to be a decent jump in speed. Meaning, the gap between 4th and 5th in low range is wider then between the 1-2, 2-3, 3-4 gears, so it might be alittle much. Again, according to the gear calculator I have 2nd HI range should split the difference between 4th and 5th on the low range side. I don't know how much stress difference there will be going to 5th, but I would think that 2nd is in your sweet spot.

Ive seen video of justin doing the 4lo 5th gear combo, it worked for him its just a matter of having the power and not coming out to hard or to soft.

 

[jwilliams3]

O. K. So now I have a couple of pulls under my belt, and have used a different gear each time. My first hook I took the advice of new friends at the track, and some here at tdr1. (jwilliams3) I put the truck in low range and 4th gear. It did really well for the first pull, but I was light about 500 lbs. and forgot to air down the tires. Spun out, and never bogged. Next pull was a charity pull in Hillsboro OH last Saturday. I was running short (265/75) tires, but I aired down to 40 up front and 50 in the rear. I had contemplated running high range 2nd gear and at the last minute I went through with it. I went 315 feet. Again the truck never bogged. Talk about your head swelling up. Now I've got another pull coming up and I want to run the same combo, but am convinced that I need to go up yet another gear to get some more ground speed at the beginning and maybe bite a little more at the end. Do any of you guys ever run 5th on the low side? I have an NV 5600 transmission. My turbo lights quick (Aurora 3000) and I'm not slipping the clutch any more than it takes to keep from blowing the tires away at the start. Because of my lack of smoke and that I'm taching out at the end of the track, I feel I'm under geared. What do you guys think. Oh yeah, I have 3. 55 final drive.

Dont get too confident there buddy!

Stay in 2nd gear hi range... .

5th gear is really for most instances is kind of useless because you'll end up losing footage at the long end of the track because if you have any tire at all the sled will snuff you out (thats guaranteed) where as with 2nd gear hi range you should be able to keep it lit up.



Get some 33" tires.

Most new pullers always assume that they need to run some stupid big gear and start blaming every other part of their truck when it doesnt work out for them.



You have plenty of speed with 3. 55 gears.

 

[Smokewagon359]

I did the 2nd gear high thing and actually thought that would be the end of it.

First pull I did low range 4th, was 500 light and had the tires pumped up tight. Spun out at 256ft. and never bogged.



Second pull I found the extra 500lbs I needed, let the tires out to 40 front 50 rear, went 315ft. , and still never bogged the motor at all.



So you can probably understand why I'm still searching for another gear. (higher)

 

[jwilliams3]

I dont know if I mentioned this but 5th lo will destroy your clutch in short order.

 

[Smokewagon359]

Hi Justin,
I was hoping you'd jump in there. I posted the last one right before yours showed up. I'm still experimenting, and still have good tread on my all terrain tires, but am planning to go up to a 285/75 or 305/ 70 after the season which should put me in the 33 range. I'm just playing around at these closer pulls to see where my limits are.

 

[Smokewagon359]

Forget that then. If you've watched my threads over the past year, you'll remember how long it took me to separate myself with that 1630 dollars

 

[Smokewagon359]

If you get a chance Justin, check your private messages

 

[Smokewagon359]

If you get a chance Justin, check your private messages

Well, I think I PM'd I can't tell if it took