I might go back down to 35s on my Ram 3500. Thoughts?

Bayou Boy

Adventurer
I'm running the 315/70r18 Toyo MTs right now. They are loud. I'm doing ATs next time. My original thoughts were a set of 37x12.50 Nitto Ridge Grapplers or Falken AT3Ws. However two months ago I came across a screaming deal on an Outdoors Rv 23DBS that I couldn't pass up. It's over 7000# dry and we are using it twice a month. I still have stock gearing and frankly, the Toyos are fine pulling it if I lock out 6th gear.

Since we are towing decent weight so often these days I'm torn about moving back down to the Falken AT3W in a 285/75r18 or Cooper St Maxx in a 305/70r18 to pull a little better and give a little better mileage. I've always known I was going 37s next tire but now I'm a little scared of towing so often with the stock gearing. Thoughts or experience would be helpful.
 

Darwin

Explorer
I am assuming you are running the stock 3.42 gears, if that is the case I can see going with a 305/70/18. I had really good luck with the Cooper StMaxx on my prior truck with the 295/70/18 StMaxx tires and got over 50k out of them with some really hard use.

My current truck came with 4.10's and I put 37/12.5/18 AT3W's on it. Compared to the dually tires that it had on before I actually gained a noticeable amount of MPG increase.
So far I like the Falkens but don't have enough time to say how good they are. The truck also has stock suspension so it's not lifted which also probably helps with the MPG, even at 63 mph I am at 1600 rpms and it pulls highway 7% grades empty in 6th no problem.

Bottom line, I would say either do gears or drop down a size and go with a lighter more AT type tire. Just my experience.
 

Bayou Boy

Adventurer
I keep thinking about doing gears but can't make the money make sense. I can build a 2019 truck just like mine on the Ram website and it will let me add 4.10s with the diesel. I'll just order a new truck before spending $3000 on gears.
 

Darwin

Explorer
I could be wrong, but I don't think you can get 4.10 gears in SRW on the 2019 unless it's either GAS or Dually. I ended up with 4.10's because my truck was a dually, but it's a 2018 so, not sure.

Either way, if you keep the current truck I would probably go down to a little shorter tire that is lighter. I know Toyo MT's tend to run heavy.
 

Bayou Boy

Adventurer
I could be wrong, but I don't think you can get 4.10 gears in SRW on the 2019 unless it's either GAS or Dually. I ended up with 4.10's because my truck was a dually, but it's a 2018 so, not sure.

Either way, if you keep the current truck I would probably go down to a little shorter tire that is lighter. I know Toyo MT's tend to run heavy.

That's why I'm confused. It lets you build it SRW with the 4.10s. I need to go down to a dealership and see if I can actually order one like that. I'm also tempted to order an SRW C&C and build that. Tons of fuel, the gears I want... I can't bring myself to pull that trigger since I'd want to do a Norweld bed and box and those together add up to an additional $20k on top of the truck.
 

Darwin

Explorer
Skip the Norweld, not worth it. Christopher at @mountainguildguildoverland can build you what you want for like a 1/3 of the price or less than Norweld, and a lot stronger. He does Aluminum or steel. Tell him Aaron Wydra sent you. I am picking mine up tomorrow.

I prefer the cab chassis by far, love the 55 gallon tank, I can drive like over 800 miles on it. I needed the capacity that's why I went with the dually to SRW. but If you don't than a standard SRW is probably fine. I still don't think you can 4.10's in SRW if you get the Cummins though, but ask your dealer.
 

Bayou Boy

Adventurer
You can get an SRW C&C with 60”CA with the big tank and aux tank. That would be most of the reason to go that route. That and the guaranteed availability of the 4.10 gears.
 

ATCws

New member
Skip the Norweld, not worth it. Christopher at @mountainguildguildoverland can build you what you want for like a 1/3 of the price or less than Norweld, and a lot stronger. He does Aluminum or steel. Tell him Aaron Wydra sent you. I am picking mine up tomorrow.

I prefer the cab chassis by far, love the 55 gallon tank, I can drive like over 800 miles on it. I needed the capacity that's why I went with the dually to SRW. but If you don't than a standard SRW is probably fine. I still don't think you can 4.10's in SRW if you get the Cummins though, but ask your dealer.
did you convert to SRW from a dually? If so, did you just bolt on the same wheels at each corner? I follow @mountainguildoverland on Instagram but can't find a website in their information or even an address. Do you have any contact information for them? Where are they located?
 

Explorerinil

Observer
I’m up in northern Ontario now on vacation, I am pulling about 6k, hauling 4 people and a ton of gear and food for 2 weeks. Running 37 Toyo MT, I couldn’t emagine how many times my trans would be downshifting and how much bad fuel economy I would get if I still had 3:42 gears. If your towing and hauling and running big tires, you need gears, if you don’t want to swap gears, go with 35’s.
 

PwrWagon

Member
I'm running the 315/70r18 Toyo MTs right now. They are loud. I'm doing ATs next time. My original thoughts were a set of 37x12.50 Nitto Ridge Grapplers or Falken AT3Ws. However two months ago I came across a screaming deal on an Outdoors Rv 23DBS that I couldn't pass up. It's over 7000# dry and we are using it twice a month. I still have stock gearing and frankly, the Toyos are fine pulling it if I lock out 6th gear.

Since we are towing decent weight so often these days I'm torn about moving back down to the Falken AT3W in a 285/75r18 or Cooper St Maxx in a 305/70r18 to pull a little better and give a little better mileage. I've always known I was going 37s next tire but now I'm a little scared of towing so often with the stock gearing. Thoughts or experience would be helpful.


I've got an Outdoors RV 23KTS that probably weighs very close to what yours weighs being towed by a 2018 Power Wagon. Because of towing it regularly I went with 35x12.50 vs 37x12.50. Even with the 4.10 gearing it still hunts its way down to 3rd on some steep grades. Granted that's with the 6.4 Hemi not the Cummins. Long term I am thinking of re-gearing but for now I am happy enough with the trucks performance. I am able to keep up with traffic and get decent enough MPG (8.5-9.0 overall average towing).
 
Do you really need 37s? I mean do you actually use the truck to go wheeling, more than a dirt road? In my youth I did a lot of exploring in a toyota on 35s that I set up for crawling, and realistically could have done all the exploring with the stock tire size of 27s.

I feel most on here want to spend money on big tires they'll never use.

Kevin
 

Buliwyf

Viking with a Hammer
It's the cheapest, easiest way to get a full extra inch of ground clearance. Maybe priceless, maybe not.
 

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