My trucks a 95 F-150 regular cab short bed. I’m working with a 302, 5 speed manual trany, 8.8 rear end with 3.55 limited slip gears. I've put a 6'' suspension lift and 35x12x15 BFG KM2s (possibly 38s when these wear out). The truck is extremely sluggish as you could imagine. I’m looking at going with 4.56 ratio but I’m not sure. I do like to play in the mud with it so I want the power and I also do some towing nothing major just atvs and utvs. This truck is more of a toy then a daily driver so I’m open to all suggestions. I’ve been told to go with a 9’’ rear end but I really have no clue what to do at this point. Any help is appreciated

 

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Those links might interest you.

 

Thanks bashby nice link

 

Thanks to bashby's link I've narrowed it down 4.10s or 4.56s. 4.10s would be perfect when driveing it to town but I'm not sure how it would do when towing. 4.56s would be perfect for towing but I'm not sure about when I'm driveing to town. I do'nt tow often but when I do the power would be nice. Is there a inbetween? Is there anyone with any of these setups I can compare to?

 

I have a Jeep CJ-7 with 35" tires, a 304 and 4.10 gears. They are adequate, I can tow a boat with it. I think 4.56 would be a bit better off road, especially on a heavier F-150. If you are seriously considering 38" tires, you definitely want the 4.56.

 

Definitely without a doubt go with the 4.56 The 4.10 would be a measureable improvement but still very weak with a 302. My 95 F150 had a 351 (later a 393 stroker)- I swapped the 3.55 out for 4.10's and auburn diffs both ends, but I only had 31" tires. In my opinion, the 4.10's are perfect for 31"-33" tires; go with the 4.56's for 35"+....

 

Go with 4.56's and don't look back.

 

X2

 

Whith the 4.56s would I need to change anythang in my tranny?

 

To ballance everything like stock for both fuel milage and torque for bigger tires.
Take your stock tire size like 31s and devide it by your diff gear ratio like 3.55-1 it will look like
31/1/3.55 you get the ratio of a single driveline rotation. Take your new tire size and that single rotationu came up with. Multiply the two and by a gear set close to that and u can save money not
Beating up the gear boxs any more then stock would've.

31/3.55 is 8.73
8.73 is what u want to match as close as posible
38/8.73 is 4.35 so get something close to that and it will handle close to stock but be bigger