2005 Silverado re-gear question

TacomaJD · Oct 21, 2019

I've gotten back into doing track days on my motorcycle, which means I am pulling my trailer and bike 1-2 hours away often. My truck is a 2005 Silverado 1500 1/2 ton with L33 5.3L HO engine, 4x4, 135k miles, extended cab and has 295/70/17 tires (33.5" tall). Since putting the tires on, the thing absolutely sucks balls trying to pull anything at freeway speeds. I have a 6.5x12 wood floor single axle trailer and a 500 lb motorcycle. I would estimate total weight of trailer, bike, and all the extra tools, gas, and stuff that I carry with me to weigh around 3000ish lbs.

Towing this setup on the interstate, the damn truck cannot maintain anything over 70mph on flat road without downshifting. The engine has plenty power, but it's clear its the 1/2 ton tranny gearing, paired with what I assume (I haven't verified) is 3.42 gears, and heavy 33.5" tall mud tires are what makes it suck on the highway. My fuel mileage is already ****, so I'm not worried about that. I've debated selling and finding a newer model 2500hd with 6.0L engine, but I hate to go through all that to accommodate towing such a light load.

I'm now considering regearing my truck. I don't know a whole lot about setting up gears or all the parts that are needed to regear the front and rear diffs. It looks like ring and pinion sets are around $300ish for Yukons on East Coast Gear Supply's site, other brands are cheaper. Master rebuild kits are around $130 per end. Do I need a master rebuild kit if I just wanted to move from 3.42 to 4.10 gears? Could I just swap the ring and pinions without replacing anything else? Is there anything else I may be missing?

My dad is pretty knowledgeable about setting up gears, so me and him would probably be the ones tearing into it and doing the gear install. I just wanted to ask here and try to get a parts list together of what all I would need to order so I know exactly how much it would end up costing me. And of course any advice on the whole deal. Other brands or places to buy from that may be cheaper than ECGS? What about Motive Gear instead of Yukon? They are significantly cheaper, but not sure of quality.

easleycrawler · Oct 21, 2019

Damn, that sucks. My wife has a 2008 Tahoe 4x4 with the 5.3. It pulls my 18' car trailer and my yota truggy just fine. Not sure what gear it has, but it must be a good bit lower than your truck.

TacomaJD · Oct 21, 2019

easleycrawler said:
Damn, that sucks. My wife has a 2008 Tahoe 4x4 with the 5.3. It pulls my 18' car trailer and my yota truggy just fine. Not sure what gear it has, but it must be a good bit lower than your truck.

Yeah it pisses me off, it's manageable everywhere but the freeway. It has plenty power when it shifts down into 3rd gear, but running 75-80mph in 3rd gear is turning more rpms than I am comfortable with for an hour or so at a time. It just feels like it's geared completely wrong at present for pulling anything between 70-80mph. 4th is too high geared, 3rd is too low geared. Has zero power in 4th in low rpms and has plenty power in 3rd but turns too many rpms.

When I first got the truck, it had 285/70/17 Terra Grapplers on it, which run small, and it pulled better then, but still wasn't the best. Once I put the aftermarket wheels and 295's on it, it got noticeably worse. Other than this issue, I don't have any other complaint about the truck, so I hate to get rid of it when I could just regear and fix the problem.

Also, been reading a little on the topic. I am seeing where some recommend replacing the carrier, is this needed? Why would you need to do this? Or is this just some of that GM forum gayness from people who don't know wtf they are talking about?

Beerj · Oct 21, 2019

Damn, you still have that thing? Lol.

You'll need master install kits for sure. As far as the carrier goes, there is a "break" that is usually in the 3.73 - 4.10 range. Basically means that a carrier will work with 3.73 gears and numerically lower or 4.10 and numerically higher. You can, however, sometimes use thick cut gears to avoid replacing the carrier but they're not all that expensive anyway. I'd reccomend talking to someone like ecgs and they'll set you up with everything you'll need.

TacomaJD · Oct 21, 2019

Beerj said:
Damn, you still have that thing? Lol.

You'll need master install kits for sure. As far as the carrier goes, there is a "break" that is usually in the 3.73 - 4.10 range. Basically means that a carrier will work with 3.73 gears and numerically lower or 4.10 and numerically higher. You can, however, sometimes use thick cut gears to avoid replacing the carrier but they're not all that expensive anyway. I'd reccomend talking to someone like ecgs and they'll set you up with everything you'll need.

LOL yeah man! I love the truck. Sumbitch has a sweet oil leak though, not sure where from. If I'm lucky, oil cooler block off plate or oil sending unit. If I'm unlucky, rear main seal. Hadn't had time to tear into it yet, just been pouring oil in every time I drive it. Which isn't often.

EddieHall · Oct 21, 2019

If u decide to re-gear I have a brand new yukon dura grip,for my sons 04 but he couldn't wait on me to get home to set up so he just put a used in it, u can have it for my cost 320.00 shipped .
Most had 3.73 a few have the 3.42 or 4.10

TacomaJD · Oct 22, 2019

The more I read on this, the more I think I might try tuning it first. Reading up on the torque management gayness and it sounds like a good tune might take care of this issue. Would def be a lot cheaper and quicker than regearing.

EddieHall · Oct 22, 2019

I'd unleash that beast injectors,cam,springs,intake then tune

Zjman · Oct 22, 2019

I'd slow down. Be a lot cheaper all the way around

onepieceatatime · Oct 22, 2019

Put stock size tires back on. Had the same truck and it pulled on my 1 ton buggy great. If you want to keep those tires I would just try and get it geared to where it's running like stock. Tunes do really help those trucks but it's mostly get up and go type stuff. Torque management should pretty much be off once your towing down the highway. Best mileage my truck ever got towing was when I kept it in 3rd and drove about 250 miles home through Kentucky once.

TBItoy · Oct 22, 2019

I have the same "issue" with my truck. 05 1500 CCSB, 5.3 w/ 3.42 gears.

Gearing the front diff on these trucks is a bit more difficult because you have to do the setup (backlash/pattern check) through the drain plug hole. But the diff will be out of the truck, so it's not bad.

I'd like to have 4.10s (I had an 04 1500 with 4.10s and it was a big difference).

on my daily drive on small county highways, it shifts to OD at ~40 mph and feels like it is that spot of barely being able to pull itself. Annoying. I'll just put it in 3rd if I'm not maintaining 50+mph.

For now,
I decided to just run in 3rd when towing and stay about 70mph or less.

If I do go to 4.10, I'll most likely try to find a 9.5" semi float 14b rear to swap in

Dan_Goodwin · Oct 22, 2019

TacomaJD said:
The more I read on this, the more I think I might try tuning it first. Reading up on the torque management gayness and it sounds like a good tune might take care of this issue. Would def be a lot cheaper and quicker than regearing.

I have a 2003 Silverado with an LM7 5.3 on 285s, so essentially the same truck. I had 285s on 3.43 gears and it was indeed a pig, so I swapped to 4.10 gears via a 14bsf swap and it was a noticeable difference. What made a night and day difference was doing a tune ,getting rid of the torque management and getting the transmission shift points dialed in. I went with Blackbear and have been pleased with the results over the last 100k+ miles. You're on the right track to tune it first and gear it later.

On an unrelated note, does your trailer have a tailgate?

ridered3 · Oct 22, 2019

My thoughts have already been mentioned above via slowing down some or smaller tires, or tuning all before regearing.

If the trailer has one of the mesh style tailgates vs using ramps to load/unload the bike, those tailgates create awful wind resistance and may be part of the problem at hand.

TacomaJD · Oct 22, 2019

Amazing I get the "run smaller tires" and "slow down" advice from you buncha heathens! Y'all sound like a buncha old wimmens! Lol

Dan_Goodwin said:
I have a 2003 Silverado with an LM7 5.3 on 285s, so essentially the same truck. I had 285s on 3.43 gears and it was indeed a pig, so I swapped to 4.10 gears via a 14bsf swap and it was a noticeable difference. What made a night and day difference was doing a tune ,getting rid of the torque management and getting the transmission shift points dialed in. I went with Blackbear and have been pleased with the results over the last 100k+ miles. You're on the right track to tune it first and gear it later.

On an unrelated note, does your trailer have a tailgate?

Trailer has tailgate but it is mesh, so very little wind resistance. I think I read somewhere that torque management wouldn't let the throttle body open all the way if below 3k rpms, which is where its at when running 75-80 on interstate in 4th gear. But that could be wrong info.

I had a Diablosport Predator tune in my old 2006 2500hd 6.0l gasser and messed with the shift points and it made a noticeable difference, but it wasn't near this bad before the tune and had 4.10 gears. So I wasn't sure if a tune would help my current truck without regearing.

Either way, I ain't slowing down and ain't downsizing tires. I want the mf'r to do what I tell it to do with my foot. And ain't none of y'all any different! LOL

TacomaJD · Oct 22, 2019

ridered3 said:
My thoughts have already been mentioned above via slowing down some or smaller tires, or tuning all before regearing.

If the trailer has one of the mesh style tailgates vs using ramps to load/unload the bike, those tailgates create awful wind resistance and may be part of the problem at hand.

The mesh ones create bad wind resistance? I wouldn't have thought they made much of a difference. Either way, I don't want to remove it, its way too handy. I also have a few yards to keep mowed so I haul my mower on this trailer all summer and don't want to lose the gate.

Dan_Goodwin · Oct 22, 2019

You would be shocked how much drag that tailgate has. I removed mine and built some equipment style fold up ramps and a set of mesh ramps for everything else. They also double as a tail gate.. Picked up 2-3mpg and the trailer is noticeably easier to pull. I still have my gate for when I absolutely need it.

jeeptj99 · Oct 22, 2019

Before you go through all that trouble, maybe learn to tie the bike down :dunno:

TacomaJD · Oct 22, 2019

jeeptj99 said:
Before you go through all that trouble, maybe learn to tie the bike down

Maybe, just like all other net ninjas on facespace, you can **** off too. Homo. LOL

TacomaJD · Oct 22, 2019

Dan_Goodwin said:
I have a 2003 Silverado with an LM7 5.3 on 285s, so essentially the same truck. I had 285s on 3.43 gears and it was indeed a pig, so I swapped to 4.10 gears via a 14bsf swap and it was a noticeable difference. What made a night and day difference was doing a tune ,getting rid of the torque management and getting the transmission shift points dialed in. I went with Blackbear and have been pleased with the results over the last 100k+ miles. You're on the right track to tune it first and gear it later.

On an unrelated note, does your trailer have a tailgate?

Also, which black bear route did you go? Did you do the data logging where you drove around with their junk plugged into your truck then send the pcm back to them to tune it (or however it works)?

I've been looking at them, looked at them back in the day for my old truck too, but got a good deal on the Predator tuner from a buddy on here and went that route. I think the Diablosport i3 tuner has torque management adjustability, but not sure if the Predator 2 does. Predator 2 is cheaper. But from reading on Diablosport forums, the Diablo tunes all have torque management reductions built into the tunes, which makes me wonder if there would be anything else to gain by buying the i3 tuner, or could I pretty much do what I needed to do with the Predator 2 tuner. The Predator 1 tuner I had allowed for installation of a few different preset tunes, and had advanced options to adjust shift points, shift pressure, and seems like there was some fuel injection options and ability to adjust speedometer for tire size/gear ratio change. I'd figure the Predator 2 does the same ****, might even do the same **** as the i3 tuner, further research is needed.