got back from my trip, advice needed

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Travis Stevens

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ok so i recently drove 520 miles round trip to the beach and back towing a 2000lb camper (no electric brakes) with @800 lbs of food firewood and other equipment and @900 lbs of human and dog weight so thats a total added weight of 3700lbs going down the road on my trac, and got about 11-12 mpg:throwup:... now for those of you who dont know my trac is currently lifted about 10 inches and running on 35 12.5 15s... it pulled fine but was a little sluggish (as to be expected), i think i will regear to 4.56 or 4.88 from 4.10 to solve the sluggishness (ive been told 4.88 wont fit without some grinding inside the differential cover but i dont think that will be an issue... based on some calculations ive made using the {old tire size [30.1] / new tire size [35] X old gear ratio [4.10]=4.72 as the needed gear ratio} it seems that the 4.56 would be @.20 short and the 4.88 is @.10 extra... this is why im thinking of going with the 4.88 cuz a little extra never hurts IMO, also any idea on how this would affect gas mileage... not that its of major importance just curious). stopping was a bit of an issue (as to be expected), stopping quickly was out of the question so i needed to make long slow stops to be sure not to overheat the brakes and rotors... so to aide in this area im thinking of getting some drilled and slotted rotors and performance pads as well as possibly changing the rubber brake hoses for some metal braided ones for extra strength and for towing purposes getting a trailer braking system... i would like some input from other folks as to what they think i should do... any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance. :supercool::supercool::supercool:
 
I've got 4.88s in mine and no grinding was needed. As for gas mileage, I've never really gotten great mileage out of my truck...maybe 13-14 mpg with the stock 4.10s and about 12 with the 4.88s.



With the brakes, I'm currently running a 285/75/16 tire (just under a 33" tire) with the stock rotors and a set of ceramic pads and haven't had any issues. Once these wear out and I up my tire size (to a 35" or 36 equivalent), I plan on running the same brake setup.



Hopefully there will be someone else on here that could help more with your brake question, though.
 
Based on the pictures in your profile it looks like your trac is 2 wheel drive mine is 4 wheel and the grinding that was referring to is on the front dana 35
 
Travis, 4.56's are the max for the Dana 35 in the ST's/Explorer's. You'll be good to match your speedo with 4.56's, 4.88's is gonna be too harsh for your dd and won't really make much difference in towing. As for brakes I would pass on the fancy cross drilled/slotted ones, I had a set on mine and they didn't last me a year (this was before any lift too). Since we live in the salt/ rust belt the road salt, debris found its way into the holes in the rotors, lodged themselves in there and destroyed the pads and rotors. JMO from experience. Invest in a good transmission cooler like Todd Z has since you tow alot like I do, I still need to get one and soon, I might need to rebuild my trans in the next couple years because of all the punishment I put it through.
 

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