YOU KNOW WHAT GRINDS MY GEARS? POOR RATIOS

WHY PROPER GEARING MATTERS

- JERROD JONES

Years ago, before a giant automotive aftermarket emerged and gave us almost limitless options for how we can modify our trucks, old gearheads were figuring out how to retrofit non-original (but factory-made) parts from other vehicles to customize their own rides the way they wanted. By increasing the engine power and changing gear ratios using parts that were made for other models, hot rodders were figuring out how to effectively increase their vehicle’s rate of acceleration. There were a number of ways to increase the power output of an engine, but proper gear multiplication was how to really take advantage of the engine power. Changing the overall gear ratio of a vehicle changes the top speed, the rate of acceleration, and the power to the wheels (the ability to do work). With no gear multiplication, vehicle speeds would be limited to whatever the engine was churning out throughout its rpm band. That is why we have transmissions in vehicles that start us out in a low gear that revs the engine up quickly when more torque is required for acceleration, and then shift up to reach taller gears that keep rpms lower at higher speeds.

SOME TERMS