No I have an open rear, XLT. He just welded in a magnaflow muffler and get rid of the giant stock muffler. Nothing fancy. Not loud, not quiet either. I'm happy with it, truck seems to run smoother on the highway.

 

I installed 4.30's from 3.73"s a few months ago. I love them! Best part is, I found lightly used factory gears and re-used bearings as well as doing the install myself, I got the whole truck done for under $500.

They made a huge improvement towing my camper weighing in at around 9K loaded.

All I need now is a 5 star tune!!

 

Awesome price for the gear change. I'm desperately trying to talk myself into it but that's the kind of deal I need to actually act on it I think.

 

I'm in the same boat as you. I really don't do much towing but would like a little pick me up when pressing the gas.

Also, I have no idea who would install a gear change around my area and would do the job correctly.

 

I've made some discoveries in my quest to get my F-250 re-geared.

My advice is to just ask the shop up front... Have you installed gears in a 2011+ Super Duty... If the answer is no, call a different shop, rinse and repeat. Don't be the learning experience, they'll dig into the job and then realize they're missing parts/tools/press or they just flat out under estimate the job then end up delaying you further.

Problem is most shops don't know how to quote you for the labor, the labor rate software that shops use to quote jobs don't have the rate for the front diff on a 2011+ Super Duty.

The 10.5 Sterling is "easy" as far as diff setup goes because the carrier shims are on the outside of the bearing and it's a full floating axle setup. A setup/scuff bearing still needs to be used for the inner pinon bearing as the shim sits under the inner pinion bearing. The front Dana 60 should cost more in labor because you have to take apart more of the front end to get the axles out and diff cover removed, and the carrier shims sit under the bearings on each side, which requires more prep time with the press and setup bearings when setting backlash.

Some shops cut off the old bearings, some have a big enough press to get them off then re-use them as setup bearings. Some have pinion depth checkers and don't need setup bearings. YMMV there.

The worst quote I got was 8hrs per axle ~95/hr. The best I got was a flat rate 400 for the rear and 600 for the front. Most shops didn't call me back, or took 3 weeks of pestering to get a crappy quote (I'm assuming because they didn't want the work).

I went with the 400/600 quote and it turns out the shop owner didn't have a lift that could fit my truck as he usually does performance/race car type work.

The best luck you'll have is dealing with a performance diesel shop that uses nitro gears on lifted trucks with bigger tires regularly. None of them are in my area or I would have used them.

 

A Dana 60 is a Dana 60, doesn't matter if it's in a 2012 up super duty or a 99- 04 super duty or a Dodge or old GM truck or old Ford. It's still a Dana 60axle and ANY 20ton shop press or even a 10 or small 6ton press is large enough to press and remove the bearings. I've had a 20ton press for almost ten years now not because I'm in that type of work but for when I need it for my own work or friends work, if a "shop" doesn't have a press you need to get another shop to do they work

 

Absolutely agree. I was surprised at how unwilling shops were to work on a "new" truck. It was like some mythical creature with unfamiliar axles. It's all profit. 16hours of straight labor? Sign me up. Couldn't even get a call back from several shops or 'im too busy to touch it....'

 

What gear set did you use? I just looked up the Nitro set and they want $1300 for the kit!!

 

do the 4.30's require a new carrier or is the change at 4.54?

 

So I am reporting back after getting the gear change done. Shop put in the Nitro gear kit. They sold me the kit for $1200 and $764 in labor, fluids, tax for an out the door of $1964.

The gears combined with my tune give it a lot of go. One of the biggest changes I have noticed is when cruising at say 35-40 (truck rides in 4th with tune) and you hit the gas, it flat gets going - without downshifting - which is pretty cool.

The real reason I got it was to help in towing my 30' 8k travel trailer over a couple big idaho mountain passes. I usually have to go over them at 50 mph in 2nd running 5k+ rpms. I hoping/planning to be able to take these in 3rd gear now and be able to be a little easier on the engine. Planning a elk scouting trip end of July and I will be able to test out the towing difference then.

 

The rear is like working on any 10.5 besides the pinion. It's 37 spline and uses a different crush sleeve and inner pinion bearing. The inner bearing is big, most shops won't have the puller for it. A Dana 60 is just that as far as set up. a super 60 has a 10 inch ring gear and a regular 60 is 9.75. a regular 60 gear set will fit in a super 60. The break is at 3.73/4.10. no need to swap carriers, just use a thick ring gear, that's what the factory does on these trucks, except for the deep 5.38 I believe. When I do carriers with shims under bearings I always quote for new bearings. Just incase something happens to the bearing I don't eat it and it's not a shock to have to be charged for one. I have set up bearings for the axles I work on so there's no pressing on and off. I've done more new super duties that most shops around me, they aren't any different.

 

I found used factory 4.30's that people were selling to go to a different ratio. Paid $50 for each set.

 

That is a hell of a deal.

Here's where I'm at this morning. Missing the right size socket to pull the pinion bearing. Gotta go pick up the big sockets from my dad.

 

Just because I wanted to check to see if it was in spec, backlash after 94,000 miles on this truck was at .011-.012

 

Rear is done. Pattern was good with the factory pinion sized shim, backlash at .014. Got lucky with the carrier shims and only had to move .032 worth of shims to the ring gear side to get the backlash from .036 down to .014 I keep running out of time to work on it. Well pump switch went up Saturday that was a big time waster, day job takes up most of my time obviously, this is why I wanted to pay someone to do it. I'll probably finish the front Differential Saturday/Sunday.

Worst part of this is that damn pinion yoke/flange does NOT want to go on the pinion. I had to tap it on with the dead blow while holding it in the differential, then put the nut on and put the impact on it the rest of the way. Not happy about that. I actually stopped and counted the splines just to make sure I had the right 37 spline pinion gear. The stock 3.73 pinion took a gear puller to get off, but it at least had a bit of a slip fit for the first inch onto the pinon shaft splines.

Getting the old inner pinon bearing off the pinion was a 90 minute and several beer ordeal as well. Had to cut the bearing cone off completely with a cut off wheel with two cuts one on each side to split the bearing so I could get the factory shim out and reference it as a starting point. My OTC bearing puller (which might as well be a harbor freight pile of ****) fell apart while trying to pull the bearing off properly.

Aside from those two time wasters this has been very straight forward.

Everything else has been straight forward.