Gears, who's interested??

[mrrpm]

I've been talking to some gear manufacturers, about making some different ratios for the front and rear ends in these things. The tranny gears idea has been kicked around, but that would put more strain on the driveshafts, which people already have trouble with.

This mod would really wake up big tire machines, and would increase belt life TREMENDOUSLY!! How many actually ride 29.5's at 60 mph? I'll go ahead and say IT WON'T BE CHEAP, but if I can get enuf people to commit to some, I can have more buying power to leverage price with. I won't speculate on price until I have some numbers to give them so they can give me a price based on numbers. I know you guys are shy about committing, without knowing a price, so we have to start somewhere. Post about what a reasonable price would be, and don't be shy, let's give them some real numbers. Made in enuf quantity, they could actually turn out to be really reasonable.

Richmond gear is one manufacturer I talked with yesterday. http://www.richmondgear.com/These people have extensive experience with making ring gears, and are the premier choice for gears in the racing world.

I think a ratio of 5 to 1 would be good for mud racing, or mud riding, (stock is 3.6 to 1) with really large tires 29" and larger. Maybe lower gear for taller. Leave feedback as to what gear you would like so I can have some info to work with. These would prolly be made in one ratio, to test the market with, with different ratios to follow, if the demand is there.

Looking at the microfische, it seems BRP has used this same diff in their machines from the beginning, so these gears would fitALL the shaft drive machines all the way back!! 2WD or 4WD. Correct me if I'm wrong on this, please. You wouldn't have to have a newer machine, or even a 4WD if thid is the case! More numbers means a lower price!

[007BF]

Great idea.. Keep us posted. Thanks Greg

[gator33]

greg, would the housing need to be modded to accommodate new gears of this size? and i agree i would LOVE a set and run 32 backs with more weight and not worry so much with burning off belts or exploding cv joints and btw if yall catch me doing 60 on my 29.5s PLEASE call the law cause someone is chasing me for real

[mrrpm]

gator33 wrote:

Quote:

greg, would the housing need to be modded to accommodate new gears of this size? and i agree i would LOVE a set and run 32 backs with more weight and not worry so much with burning off belts or exploding cv joints and btw if yall catch me doing 60 on my 29.5s PLEASE call the law cause someone is chasing me for real

Well, the gears haven't been made yet, so I can't say for sure, on modding the case. I'm thinking they case will stay the same, but we'll just have to see. The gears shouldn't be any bigger, maybe a smaller pinion, depends on how the tooth count works out.

[got wake?]

gator33 wrote:

Quote:

greg, would the housing need to be modded to accommodate new gears of this size? and i agree i would LOVE a set and run 32 backs with more weight and not worry so much with burning off belts or exploding cv joints and btw if yall catch me doing 60 on my 29.5s PLEASE call the law cause someone is chasing me for real

i don't think we'll need new housings to hold the gears, but greg might have something up his sleeve to make the stock case stronger to prevent it from blowing out. this gear change should help with the gearboxes, U-joints, and CVT strain, but the CV's are still gonna feel it, since they are just transfer devices. i've gone up to about 55 mph on my 29.5's, and it got a bit squirrelly.


greg, you know i'm down for a set. glad you made it home from your long drive last night.

[mrrpm]

Yep, we drove all nite, got back at 5:00 am this morning. I would guess that a machine with 29.5's would still run 50mph with 5.00 to 1 gears in it, in high range. Then you'd still have low for real nasty stuff.

got wake?, have you ever ran yours wide open down the road, without the cover to see where the clutch is at? I'd guess it was about half way up the primary at around 50mph.

[rkc05]

I'm no expert by any means, but I used to do a lot of off roading with Jeeps, saw lots of guys run BIG tires (40's to 44's). They would run 5.38 gears in Dana 44 cases to get the axle strength up but the problem when they broke something (and they did), was always the pinion end of the gear set up. The lower the ratio the smaller the pinion. It may not be a prob with wheelers as the tires aren't as big as above, but relatively speaking 29.5 and up are BIG tires with lots of weight to be turned. IMO five to 1 might be a little much gear, something in the low 4's would give you more pinion strenghth and would still make a huge diff in turning big tires. A comparison to the auto world would be 3.73 gears to 4.11's more nuts on the bottom with 4.11's (everything else being equal) but still big enough pinion to not worry about reliability. When I watch the big tire quads on you tube fly around mud pits and the swampcross tracks they work very well with the ratio that is installed now going to that low a ratio would slow them WAY down, and you would have to throw more motor at them to make up for the losses you may encounter. Like I mentioned I'm no expert but just watching my buddies tinker with gearratios and motor sizes in trucks I saw a lot of cool stuff. Just my 2 cents.

[dgarmon]

I'm interested in a set, 5:1 or 6:1. I'd like high gear to be close to the same ratio as low is now with the stock gearing.

[mrrpm]

rkc05 wrote:

Quote:

I'm no expert by any means, but I used to do a lot of off roading with Jeeps, saw lots of guys run BIG tires (40's to 44's). They would run 5.38 gears in Dana 44 cases to get the axle strength up but the problem when they broke something (and they did), was always the pinion end of the gear set up. The lower the ratio the smaller the pinion. It may not be a prob with wheelers as the tires aren't as big as above, but relatively speaking 29.5 and up are BIG tires with lots of weight to be turned. IMO five to 1 might be a little much gear, something in the low 4's would give you more pinion strenghth and would still make a huge diff in turning big tires. A comparison to the auto world would be 3.73 gears to 4.11's more nuts on the bottom with 4.11's (everything else being equal) but still big enough pinion to not worry about reliability. When I watch the big tire quads on you tube fly around mud pits and the swampcross tracks they work very well with the ratio that is installed now going to that low a ratio would slow them WAY down, and you would have to throw more motor at them to make up for the losses you may encounter. Like I mentioned I'm no expert but just watching my buddies tinker with gearratios and motor sizes in trucks I saw a lot of cool stuff. Just my 2 cents.

I'm not a gear engineer, but I'm hoping to actually get a bigger pinion, for this reason, just have to let the experts tell me. And yes hopping up 4WD vehicles always seems to break stuff, I've also seem lots of them broke, even with the best money can buy.

The big tire guys can't hold their quad at wot in the pits, they are actually in a lower range in the clutch, they just don't know it. When they gear it lower, the cvt will just go to a higher ratio, and make up the difference. The big difference comes when trying to go slow in a really tough spot. It's either really gas it, or slip the belt some and burn it. On a modded motor, in the pit, they have so much power that the belt burns from the cvt staying in low for so long. If it could shift into a higher range, and transfer speed, rather than torque, the belt would last longer, which is what will happen with a lower gear.

[rkc05]

Man there are so many things to take in with this stuff. I want to see someone do it just to hear some results. I'm more of a putter than anything so a lower ratio would help with me. I'm in low range prob 70% of the time, so if I could run in high I'm sure less heat, less fuel at a minimum. I'll certainly be watching. TKS.