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I have an old 3/4 ton Chevy Suburban right now that I use for hauling the boat, camper, utility trailer, as well as runs to the lumber yard and anything else I need. gets a whopping 15MPG running down the freeway at anything below 70MPH. Above 70MPH and that figure drops like the proverbial rock. It has the 350 V-8 and the Turbo 400 tranny. The "Beast" will never win a drag race, but it will tow anything, and haul anything I need to. Plus it is a brute out in the pickers as long as you have decent tires on it. Looks like Hell, runs like Heaven; which is far better than the other way around.
Ahh yes Quigley, that's the name!
You should throw a 4L80e in that 'Burban or an overdrive unit at least, mpg's will pick right up.
You should throw a 4L80e in that 'Burban or an overdrive unit at least, mpg's will pick right up.
Like a Gear Vendor's overdrive/underdrive?
I've read good things about it and they come with 0.78 gear reduction.
To install one you have to shorten the driveshaft though.
One of the most interesting things about units like these is they are engaged by a button,
so they can be used with any gears, giving you "...1st, 1.5, 2nd, 2.5, 3rd, 3.5, 4th, 4.5..." and even Reverse, and Reverse 1.5
I'd love to try backing one up and chirping the tires from the shift into another reversing gear.
I have an old 3/4 ton Chevy Suburban right now that I use for hauling the boat, camper, utility trailer, as well as runs to the lumber yard and anything else I need. gets a whopping 15MPG running down the freeway at anything below 70MPH. Above 70MPH and that figure drops like the proverbial rock. It has the 350 V-8 and the Turbo 400 tranny. The "Beast" will never win a drag race, but it will tow anything, and haul anything I need to. Plus it is a brute out in the pickers as long as you have decent tires on it. Looks like Hell, runs like Heaven; which is far better than the other way around.
Honestly, I couldn't tell you off-hand and I'm not about to go lay in the snow to search for the tag on the axle. My WAG would be quite low, in the 4.11 range someplace, but that is just a Wild a$$ Guess.
Honestly, I couldn't tell you off-hand and I'm not about to go lay in the snow to search for the tag on the axle. My WAG would be quite low, in the 4.11 range someplace, but that is just a Wild a$$ Guess.
4.11 would make sense in a 3/4-ton, though it seems 3.73 and 4.56 were also common.
If I were looking to gain highway mpg with your vehicle, I'd forget the 4L80e and go with an auxillary overdrive. The Turbo 400 is a very-strong transmission, perhaps stronger than the 4L80e, so it'd be worth keeping. Gear Vendors overdrive units were also rated very high too, maybe 22,000 lbs load? Dont remember, but it seemed overbuilt compared to the transmissions they can mate to. Plus having an auxillary overdrive available at the push of a button for any gear sounds more fun than replacing the TH400 with a 4L80e instead.
I don't know about Toyota's All-Track, but I do know some of the domestic mini-vans with "AWD" actually had what I would call more of a "pseudo-AWD" that would transfer a limited amount of torque to the rear wheels for a limited time, then would give up before it overheated itself. Depending on what you want, this might or might not be good enough.
I would appreciate a "pseudo-AWD" if it didn't change the maintenance costs much and the option wasn't too expensive new...
but I would not pay $2000+ for that upgrade on a new vehicle.
That to me would be like the function of having a "fancy" limited-slip differential.
*To pay a few hundred more for a used one might not be a bad idea though, if it still worked.
I don't think Subaru has ever built a minivan type vehicle, if they did I have never seen one in the States anyway.
Probably the closest to a minivan would be the Tribeca, which has not really drawn rave reviews for being such a great car. It's more of a cross-over than a minivan. The Outback and similar station wagon cars are wagons, not minivans, but they are really very satisfactory and have a "true" AWD system.
If you are open to an older rig if you can find a VW Westphalia with AWD, they are from what I have heard pretty capable.
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