Towing

I have a 18 trd or 6 spd manual with ome suspension and 285 70 17's. I have a extreme off road hiker trailer. It weighs about 2300 lbs. loaded. It really struggles going up hill. Would it help to re-gear? Or if anyone has any other ideas, that would be helpful, I'd love to hear them. Thanks.

 

Cheapest option: downshift and let the engine run up into the powerband.

Next cheapest: swap back to the light weight stock size tires and you’ll see a large improvement.

Expensive: regear and supercharge.

 

Thanks, we just got back from a road trip out west. I did a lot of down shifting!

 

The bigger tires effectively changed your axle ratio meaning less power. You could re-gear but that is an expensive option. Especially if you're 4X4 and have to do 2 axles. You're going to spend a lot of time in lower gears in the west anyway. It isn't just the steep roads, but there is less oxygen in the air meaning less engine power. You will notice a difference above 5000' and notice a huge difference at 10,000 or more. Your engine loses about 3% of its power for every 1000' elevation gain. At 10,000' you only have 70% of the power you have at sea level.

If you lived and drove at elevation all the time I might be able to justify the expense, or just go back to stock tire sizes. But if you're only visiting occasionally I'd live with it, drive slower and downshift.

 

Changing tire diameter or transmission gears does not affect horsepower measured at the wheel. However, The larger LT tires likely have a greater rolling resistance. Going back to stock sized P all-season or summer tires would which have less rolling resistance would help a bit.

How can one call a 2300 lb trailer “extreme off road hiker”? I’d like to see someone tow that on the Rubicon.

 

I agree- just run in lower gears than you normally would. That's what I've done towing ~5000#.

Re-gearing is doing the same thing in the end, just permanently keeping it in a lower final gear for both towing and non-towing situations.