- Times are tough right now.
And driving a gas guzzling four wheel drive vehicle
is even tougher.
All the money that you'd like to spend
on aftermarket upgrades,
like a new set of tires from TrailBuilt,
it's all going right into the fuel tank instead.
So how the heck are we supposed
to afford upgrading to aftermarket parts,
let alone just trying to afford to drive
the vehicle down a dang road?
Well, my friends, I'm not gonna lie.
It's not gonna be easy, but here are a few tips
and tricks that will actually put
some money back into your pockets
from what you're going to save on fuel cost.
Now, the one major thing that I wanna key on right away
is that regardless of the four wheel drive vehicle you have,
the number one best modification you can do
in regards to improving your fuel economy
is rehearing the axles.
The thing is, guys, once you start throwing
on a larger, more aggressive set of tires,
because of the extra weight of the tires
and the increased rolling resistance that you'll experience
from the larger footprint of the tread,
the harder the engine is going to have
to work to rotate them.
And the harder the engine works,
the more fuel it's gonna consume,
and it's even worse for smaller engines,
which is actually contradictory to standard beliefs.
One would think that a smaller engine,
regardless of the size of the tires,
would just consume less fuel
strictly due to the volume restrictions.
And this is true for untouched stock vehicles.
I mean, there's so much fuel that can flow
into an engine at a time,
and a smaller engine takes less fuel
to run than bigger engines.
And yes, absolutely.
But then, if you're pushing more fuel
for longer periods of time
when trying to rotate the tires,
just means that the smaller engine is working harder
for longer compared to a larger,
more powerful engine that isn't going to have
to work as hard for as long as the smaller engine does.
Therefore, a larger engine can turn the bigger tires easier
than a smaller engine.
And in most cases, consuming less fuel to do so.
Well, here's where we can fix that.
Once we decide on what tires we're going to upgrade to,
this is where we'll want to determine
what gear ratio we'll want to upgrade to.
Even with the larger tires,
the increased friction of the bigger tires,
the extra weight you're gonna be carrying on
and in the vehicle, like recovery bumpers, roll cage,
larger suspension components, recovery gear for the trails,
and not to mention, the effect of the aerodynamics
on your vehicle from the accessories added on,
matching the right gear ratio to the tires
and the RPMs of your engine,
regardless of what vehicle it is,
is going to allow your engine to run
like it did before all of those upgrades.
And maybe even a little bit better.
And if we can help our engine work easier,
it's not going to consume as much fuel.
Returning your engine back
to normal operating conditions before all of the upgrades.
And if we're not spending as much money at the pumps,
then, well, this means that we're putting money back
into our pockets. And in turn,
it's actually paying us back in fuel savings.
The trick here, though, guys,
is picking out the right gear ratio right away
because buying gears and having them installed
is not cheap by any means.
But if we do this right,
we can immediately start seeing the savings
in the first mile we drive away from the shop.
Now, prior to figuring out what gears
and gear ratio to upgrade to,
we're gonna need to have and do a few things first.
One is, we're gonna have to have
the upgraded size tires on our vehicle first.
If you don't already have them, pause the video here,
click the link in the description below,
and pick yourselves up a new set.
Now remember that when you package your tires
with a set of wheels or rims,
that we will mount them
and balance them for you at no additional cost.
If you live in any state in the Lower 48,
we'll even ship them to you for free.
Plus, in almost every wheel and tire matchup,
we even offer an additional discount
for pairing your tires with a set of wheels.
Saving you even more money,
which is basically paying you back in savings.
All right. So now that you're back
from picking up your new set of wheels and tires
and have them installed on your vehicle,
we're gonna drive our vehicle at 65 miles per hour
and record the engine's RPMs.
If you don't have your new tires installed yet,
you can always do a Google search for gear ratio charts
and gear ratio calculators to match the ratio
to the tire size you plan on installing.
But if you don't already have
the larger tires installed yet,
it is a good idea to see where your factory RPMs are at
at 65 miles per hour, to get a baseline reading
to match the new size tires to that factory RPM setting.
Most gear ratio charts will give you
the different choices of ratios to choose from
depending on if you want better towing ratios,
or better highway driving ratios,
or in the middle of the two
is your best overall performance ratios.
All depending on how you use your vehicle the most.
So now, let's take a look at an example.
Let's just say our vehicle
as a completely stock vehicle is running
at about 2,500 RPMs or revolutions per mile.
When looking at the chart,
I'm looking at about a 28 inch tire
with 321 gears in the axles.
And gear ratio just means,
for every one full rotation of the output shaft
coming out of the tail housings of the transmission
and through the drive shaft,
my tire is going to rotate a full 3.21 times.
So if I rotate my drive shaft one full turn,
the tire rotates just over three times,
which can be used in determining your gear ratios as well.
If you lift up your rear axle,
so the tires are off the ground,
the front tires are chalked so that the vehicle
doesn't roll away on you.
Shift the transmission into neutral,
rotate the drive shaft one full turn,
and count exactly how many times the tire rotates.
It helps them mark the tire
at the very bottom of it next to the pavement.
Then mark the pavement at that same exact spot,
and then just make sure you're watching
how many times the tire rotates around.
And then where that mark stops,
it definitely helps to have a buddy help you here,
or if you're like me and too impatient to wait for anyone,
just use your camera phone and record it.
All right, so if we know our engine is turning
at 2,500 RPMs with a stock tire size and 321 gears,
but now, I have my 35 inch tires on,
according to the chart,
my engine is only gonna be at 2000 RPMs.
Meaning my engine is working much harder
because I lost that leverage
of having a good gear ratio to turn my stock tires.
And I wanna get that back.
But here's the other thing too here, guys.
It's not just the tires that I have to compensate
for with the gear ratio,
I also have to factor in all the extra weight
my vehicle is now carrying because I have it all rigged up
for overlanding, or offroading,
or even work gear, and all my extra hunting gear.
Plus, I'm gonna be hauling a trailer maybe.
So what I may really need to look at, a gear ratio,
that's going to give me the most optimized power
from when I take off from a stop
until the time I reach 65 miles per hour.
And how the heck am I supposed to figure that out?
Fortunately, and like I had just mentioned earlier,
most of these gear ratio charts give you a different option
for figuring out the best gear ratio
for your own particular vehicle use circumstances
and broken down into three categories.
Most power, that's best for towing,
but will negatively impact your fuel economy
at highway speeds is the first category.
Then, daily driven for best overall optimized fuel economy.
And third, mainly highway driving fuel economy,
which gives you the least amount of power
when taking off from a dead stop.
And most of these charts will also give you several choices
of gear ratio ranges in each of the three categories.
Here is exactly what I would do.
After I already know my new tire size
or already have them installed,
is I would take an in-depth, real world look
at exactly how I use my vehicle the most
and for what purposes.
And then decide what I need the most of.
Power, fuel economy, or an almost perfect balance of both.
And remember, guys, without new gears
and a new gear ratio with the bigger tires,
you're not getting any of these.
So regardless of where you end up,
the new gears are certainly going to help
your engine feel alive again.
But once I end up deciding what I need the most,
then I'll look at the chart
that fits those exact parameters.
So again, using the example of upgrading two 35 inch tires,
I'm gonna say that I'm going to lean more
towards the category of daily driver
that leans closer to the most power
for best towing category.
This means with the 35 inch tires at 65 miles per hour,
my engine is gonna be right around 3000 RPMs
instead of what it was at the factory setting of 2,500 RPMs.
Obviously, that's burning a little bit more fuel
at highway speeds, but guess what?
Your engine isn't working as hard
to maintain those speeds with the larger tires,
extra weight, and reduced aerodynamics of your vehicle,
especially when it's windy.
All of us who have upgraded tires
and added all that extra weight to our vehicles
and haven't upgraded our gear ratios yet,
well, we know just how hard our engines
are working to maintain highway speeds.
And that is if some of us
can even reach those speeds anymore.
Now, unless you only jumped up a tire size or two,
which at that point, you may not even need
to upgrade your gear ratio,
and, besides, throwing in a bigger engine,
upgrading your gears to a much more optimized gear ratio
to match your particular vehicle uses
and driving habits is definite the best way
to get the most bang for your buck in the long run
when it comes to increasing engine power
and saving gas money at the pump.
Now, obviously, there is going to be
some initial cost involved,
but this kind of upgrade can be looked
at as more of an investment
because of the overall fuel savings in the long run.
And not only savings in fuel,
but consider the savings
in wear and tear on your engine and drivetrain.
Being that your engine isn't gonna have to work as hard,
especially in more aggressive offroad driving situations
to turn the tires, just means an overall reduction in stress
and fatigue of all of your drivetrain components
from the engine and transmission
through the transfer case, drive shafts, axle shafts,
U-joints, and, of course, the gears.
So, overall, just a really great way to modify your vehicle
to get the best performance out of it as possible.
But what I'd really like to hear back from you guys is,
what experiences have you guys had upgrading your gears?
Did you find that you matched up the gear ratio perfectly
to your driving habits?
Did the new gears help reduce your overall fuel economy
and wear and tear on your drive line?
Also curious as to what gear ratio you went with
in conjunction with the size tires you have
and on what vehicle with what engine.
Just be really great to get that feedback from all of you
to help all of us out
and would be greatly appreciated as well.
Don't forget to check out our website for the new tires.
Plus, remember, all of those savings when packaging them
with a set of wheels as well.
And, guys, to stay up-to-date
with more videos relating to everything offroad,
make sure and hit that Subscribe
and the little bell next to it.
As always, guys, we appreciate all of you
for watching and all of your support.
I'm Josh from TrailBuilt
and we'll see you guys out in the trails.
(upbeat music)