Quote Originally Posted by Snarf77 View Post
I think the 4.88 v 4.56 is a matter of how much you intend to take her off road. My jeep is for weekends, bad weather, and whenever I feel like it. The only time I'm above 70 with her any more is on the way to drive her off road in PA. That being ssaid, I'm perfectly comfortable with my 4.88s at 70mph. I don't feel the RPMs are too high and crusing is a breeze. The low-end crawling benefits of 4.88s with the MT are great. Very low crawl ratio.

If I had the turbo before the gears...I may have gone 4.56, its hard to say. I'm with ross that if you DD your vehicle and spend a lot of time on the highway at 75mph then 4.56 may be the better choice. Gears are a leap...you really just have to read enough about them to make a decision you are comfortable with. Either way, I think the only mistake would be to spend the money on something like 4.10s. You'd be happy 4.56 or 4.88.
Well dang, now you have me questioning if I should go to 4.88. Since I don't have a Rubicon, I will say the low-gear range on the Jeep has never felt low enough to me. When I had my 35" tires and I would go off road with the kids to some places, I just never felt like I was able to crawl as slow as I really wanted to (it wasn't horrible, I just liked a bit more crawl-ability to it.)

It is a DD for me (though I have my other vehicle as needed, it's only a DD because it's fun to drive.) I really don't drive 75 Mph very often. I just ran to the airport yesterday, and shoot, the highway speeds are only 60-65mph. I'd pretty well have to drive to Idaho to get to 75mph speed limits. I do that on occasion, but not a ton.

Here's my percentage driving (if it helps anyone to help me pick the right gearing.)
40% - 0mph-40mph
40% - 40mph-60mph
10% - 60mph-80mph (my sedan makes up any other highway driving as needed if it is for business, etc.)
10% - Off-Road (hopefully this number will increase as I learn the area a bit more.)

I do plan on putting a supercharger in, but unfortunately other things keep getting in the way of finances for this. I'd love to say it will go in this year, but every time I say that, it seems to just always be out of my grasp slightly.