You have the 'grunt' gears, for sure.
Look at the door sticker or the tag under a nut on the differential cover, and consider a new R&P.....

 

A gearing swap is not much harder than a brake job but you will need some special tools. You also have to swap both front and rear gears or 4wd becomes un-usable. Another way around it is to get another axle and front pumpkin from a donor vehicle and just swap these parts out.

 

I talked to a guy that knows about gear swaps near me. He said that it wouldnt be worht it because itd cost around 1200 dollars for front and rear. He said money better invested would be an overdrive tranny instead. It would in turn due the same thing, bringing down the rpms on the highway. wont do much for me in the city though. Another alternative im thinking about is getting an f150 with a 302 for a daily driver and doing what i want with it. Just use this truck as a play/work horse...

 

Yep.. another vehicle as a daily driver makes a lot of sense(I have a Subaru), but if you're going to do that go all the way and get a 4cyl car.. even a 302 F150 will only get 15mpg on average and a car will do double that. Besides.. do you really need 2 trucks?

 

ugh, the thought of buying a car... i dont know if i can do it. 15 mpg sounds pretty good. Well we'll see what i actually plan to do with my truck and then i'll make my decision. Maybe get a newer jeep. Seems yu can do alot to those things without killing the gas mileage.

 

Another good idea and what I did with a similar problem is to go with a larger tire it will slow down your drivetrain helping to get you better mileage.

 

i have 33''x12.50x16.5 tires on the truck now. idk if i can go any larger

 

I managed to fit 37x12.50R16.5 on mine. It took a little fender/bumper triming (about 2" off the corners to allow turning at full tuck) and mine's a F-350 with a solid front axle so I don't rub the radius arm (leaf spring instead).

That said it did me alot of good. I don't have new mileage numbers yet, but it made a huge differance on the highway the engine turns a lot slower. My truck is geared pretty low (not sure what the ratio is) and I to have a C6 tranny (so no overdive) I was spinning about 3100 rpm at 60mph (with 31" tires) now it's down to about 2600. I did the math and everything on my truck is now turning about 14% slower.

I wanted a larger tire anyway and would have gone bigger if the truck wasn't a crew-cab and thus really need all the turning radius I could get. With the 37's the tires just barely rub the springs at full lock. It looks great they really fill up the wheel wells and are in proportion to the this huge truck. At full tuck it goes all the way to the factory bumpstops without the tires needing more room other then the liitle bit of trimming I did on the corners that to most is hard to notice. I don't know how pretty your truck is it doesn't bother me to cut my fenders a bit. I'm planning to change to the 92-97 front sheet metal before I paint and will properly clearance the fenders at that time.

 

Since my trucks an f250 and has a slightly llower ride height, should i consider going to a 35? those may require trimming. I'm not sure though. I have pics in my gallery with the 33'' if you wana take a look

 

The truck isn't much shorter then mine if at all. It also looks like the bumper is already out of the way so to clear 37's I think all you would need to do is take a couple inches off the back corner of the fender. I just cut a strait line from just under where the body line takes that 30 deg turn back under, about 4" up, to a point about 2" back from the edge of the fender. (You could cut that rust out)

 

I put two more pics up in my gallery showing the wheel wells better and the wheel at full turn (driver side). Let me know what you think opossum.

 

If the picture of the tire and spring from the front is at full lock I think you would have no problem going with a 37" if you are willing to trim the fender a bit as I described. Take a look at two things, first the tire is closest to the fender at about 1/3rd lock. Find this point and imagine adding 2 1/2" to the tire. You will see what needs to be clearanced. This should be just a bit of the sheet metal below the crease about 5" up the fender. This is nesassary only because the body turns back in towards the frame at the base of the fender. Second, measure the distance between the axle and bumpstop, then add 2 1/2" to that and measure the distance between the tire and top of the wheel well. If the bumpstop length + 2 1/2 is less then the distance between tire and fender it's safe to say you don't need a lift.

I just got a new camera and will post some pics of mine soon.