Shmellmopwho DCLB EXPO BUILD

Yeah that's smart. Just makes it all easier. When you doing your regear? Have you decided on 4.56 or 4.88 yet?

 

Yeah 4.56

 

Oh yeah manual trans! Duh. That'll be better for you. If you were auto and 35's I was gonna say go 4.88

 

I mean I was really on the Fence about it but I don't need to be that overgeared...

 

Well I think because you're manual trans. You're already at higher RPM's so the 4.88's would put you a little high. 4.56 will be good for you. My general consensus that I've gathered from a lot of people is

V6 auto with 35's = 4.88
V6 Manual with 35's = 4.56

 

Awk.. I hope I didn't make an expensive mistake going 4.56's with my auto. My headache filled info gathering led me in circles so I broke it down to fuel economy vs power from the tiresize/gear calculator. What I didn't do was account for the area I live in...it's far from flat. Now I wonder if I'd actually get better mileage out of 4.88's being that it takes less engine power to get the truck moving? I do have my eyes on a crawlbox for offroad turtle power but I worry about sluggish DD performance. Oh well, gears arrive tomorrow no turning back now.

 

I still think you'll be happy with your 4.56's especially if your truck is your DD. I DD my wife's car for work so I can more easily get away with the 4.88's. The Crawlbox would be awesome!!! Stoked for you to receive your stuff. Where did you order from?

 

I'm going to do 4.88 with my manual although I've even kicked around the idea of 5.29 with 37" tars

 

Do you DD your truck? You're gonna be a slow turtle but you'll be able to crawl a wall like Spider-Man

 

It's dd for now. I'm sure I'll start driving my 65 vw more as my dd once I get the fuel issue worked out. I'm not concerned about top speed. Just low end torque

 

Nice, same here. I don't need to go all fast in my truck. Just like having the power on the low end!

 

Right on, good to hear. It's such a balance game but one thing is for sure they'll turn these dirty fives. I went through ECGS (awesome guys to work with) and opt for their fully assembled 3rd/clamshell. The crawlbox will be fun, there's something magical about having crazy control going slow. I blame one of my buds for taking me out in his crawler. That said I'll be staying away from anyone with LT or a SC.

 

Awesome! I too went through ECGS and I agree, they're friggin awesome. Very polite, knowledgeable, and easy to deal with. I went with 3rd and clamshell too. You plan on installing yourself? Or bringing to shop. I installed myself, saved myself about $1000 that way. Wasn't too hard either. Took about 8hrs with a few breaks in between. Haha I'm having a really hard time staying away from LT . If I ever do it'll be a while

 

I got a reall good laugh from that pic Ryan. Haha

 

Haha it gave me a good laugh when I came out and saw that.

 

You bet, that's the main reason I went the pre-assembled route. I have a hard time paying someone to turn a wrench but will happily pay for things like welding. Even then I'd rather do that myself but my bugger welds are far from trustworthy so I'll leave that to a seasoned hand until I'm better at it. Your side projects are inspiring, I'm looking forward to fab stuff that's not held together with pop rivets and glue.

 

It's hard to beat the price of the pre assembled units when you're mechanically inclined and feel comfortable doing the install yourself. You save a ton of money!! Hahaha I really appreciate it man!! Keep practicing and before you know it you'll be confident in anything you build. The only reason I'm half way decent at it is cuz I practice at least a few times a week.

 

No kidding man, I was super tempted to buy the gears/install kit but couldn't afford the extra downtime. The assembled route was a good compromise. Sure would have saved even more $ but then again there's the additional risk of expensive mistakes and the need to buy more specialty tools. Although I do enjoy valid excuses to buy tools.

Yeah, I've gotta get my hands on more scrap metal for practice. I saved chunks from the oem shock mounts and soon enough cab mount chunks will be added to that pile. Did you ever finish up your diff guard?

 

Hahaha yeah I wouldn't wanna mess up the internal components of the diffs. Left that to the experts but definitely wasn't gonna let someone charge me $1000 to wrench some bolts and get their hands dirty. Haha I always love having an excuse to buy tools too

You could probably get some cheap scrap to practice on from the scrap (remnants) section of your local metal supply store. That diff skid has been sitting on my work bench for a while now haha. I wanna get around to finishing that too! Just gotta figure out a strong way t mount it.

 

Finished my bed rack today and I'm happy with it. Made some gusset/tie off points and some hi lift mounts on it.