Fo by Fo

I just wanted to get some feedback from anyone out there who had replaced the first gear of their 5 speed R150F with the lower first gear from a turbo 4runner tranny, the R151F. I know Marlin crawler has it on their website, they say its 13% lower than the regular first gear (4.31 vs. 3.83). If any of you guys have it does it make a noticable difference while climbing hills? Are you happy with it? Does it negatively affect how the truck drives on road?

tc

I don't have one, but can relay some thoughts based on my experience with dual cases and lower gears.

While I think it would help a lot offroad, the gap 1 -2 is pretty big already, the lower first gear might be a problem if you had to downshift going downhill.

I think it would make 1st gear amost worthless on the road, because my the time you got moving, you would be tached out.

In the end, I think it's quite a bit of money that could be better spent elsewhere.

What I would like is a lower 4th gear, as there isn't much difference from 5th to 4th, but a big difference 4th to 3rd...

Diesel_Freak

I agree, while it might make a stock T-case seem lower in 4Lo and be nice off-road, I think it might be a little too low for street driving. Odd that they put a lower first gear in Turbo trucks seeing as they have more grunt. maybe it was just because the turbo laged too much, dunno...

Coming from the VW world, I was real used to swaping out gear's for better spreads (GTI Close Ratio Box With a Diesel 5th gear in a 202hp MKII YEEHAWWWWW!!!), but I haven't seen people doing it with these trucks. 3rd to 4th feels like you jumped 2 gears to me, so personaly i'd like to have a tighter spread between 1-4 and than a Tall OD 5th for flat H-way cruising.

Napoleon047

first of all, all turbo 4runners were automatics, only the pickups had 5spd turbos

second, yes, it is to help overcome the turbo lag. the stock low compression results in a lack of low end torque

between my turbo pickup and my stock 4runner, there isnt much different in the first gears. i have an aftermarket turbo on the pickup though and it spools much faster than stock so first gear is literally useless in the rain or snow.