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Doubler cost vs. Atlas

if you were running a 454/400 with a 60/70 with 4.56's and 47's; would you go with the 5.44 or 10.3?
that is the truggy i am currently building. i am about to order the 10.3 case.


Jeff that is a tuff one..

I had a lot of thinking on mine and part of that was at to have a nice sand gear.


To me it seems you would just wind up using the low low and 1st is you did a 544 to 1 case where as I would leave it in 3rd or second.



You could wind up wanting more, but to get the same feel as mine you would surly have to regear the diffs.. :(
 
Finally got to wheel the buggy today and use my atlas 4 speed for a decent amount of time.

Shifting from low to hi on the fly was no trouble either and made going between low low or low high very nice.

This is a point we havent even considered yet...
When ya build a 203/205 doubler your still stuck trying to shift a 205:haha:
 
Id agree to a point.


But for me using the 2.72 range was to low for driving around in and i tried it, annoyed me quick. However running 2 to 1 was perfect, and when needed I could drop the 2.72 on the fly on top of it and I had three more setting via the trans to find a sweet spot such as mentioned above 2nd gear low low or 3rd gear low low for descending.

With my white truck I would just leave it in 2 to 1 all day and stayed under 50 mph. My diff gears are 5.38's.. Driving around its perfect and the off idle tq and munching the pedal is fun. Crawling sucks though.

I have to agree. The 2.72 is to low for just driving around and 1 to 1 is to high. 2 to 1 is perfect for going from trail to trail.
 
The Atlas-4 is expensive enough as it is..... no reason to "waste" one of those gear options by selecting the 10.3:1 range IMHO.


I'm all for using DEEP reduction in the transfercase to allow for more moderate axle gearing but if you are designing a driveline based on 10.3:1 in the transfercase, your axle gears would need to be down in the 2.xx:1 range to make that gearing useful offroad......and most of us already know that even a set of 3.08 axle gears are miserable on the street.

I'd go with a 5.44 Atlas gearset personally (and I acutally DID) :D Shawn's logic pretty much sums up the reasons.... 2:1 and 2.72:1 are different enough to each have value, and the 5.44 is the "stupid low" gear when you want absolute control and don't care how many people are waiting behind you on the trail! :haha:




:usaflag:
 
i really wish they could make the 4 speed in a 2; 3.8; 7.6 version.
then you really would have some disparity between the gears.
 
Id agree to a point.


But for me using the 2.72 range was to low for driving around in and i tried it, annoyed me quick. However running 2 to 1 was perfect, and when needed I could drop the 2.72 on the fly on top of it and I had three more setting via the trans to find a sweet spot such as mentioned above 2nd gear low low or 3rd gear low low for descending.

Always nice to hear real-world feedback from actual users. Please remember I'm not arguing about this point, rather just giving my personal opinions to further the discussion.

I am somewhat surprised at this comment after driving trucks with both 2:1 (NP203 and 205) and my current rig with the 2.72 NP241. I'm sure the trails are different but my opinion is based off never being in a situation where 2nd or 3rd gear (this is on an auto, so 3rd or 4th with a 4 speed manual) wasn't fast enough............and if I did need to go faster I would go to 4 high. Even so I still had overlapping gears with 1st gear high range still be lower than 3rd gear low range. Again, I'm talking Midwest style trails in which even the easy and straight sections are still usually pretty tight and snake around trees. If you have wide open desert and stuff that requires higher speeds I can see it, but you would also need to be getting into 4th gear (with a manual) before you would see the difference (4th gear and 2.72 is almost identical to 3rd gear and 2:1).
 
Always nice to hear real-world feedback from actual users. Please remember I'm not arguing about this point, rather just giving my personal opinions to further the discussion.

I am somewhat surprised at this comment after driving trucks with both 2:1 (NP203 and 205) and my current rig with the 2.72 NP241. I'm sure the trails are different but my opinion is based off never being in a situation where 2nd or 3rd gear (this is on an auto, so 3rd or 4th with a 4 speed manual) wasn't fast enough............and if I did need to go faster I would go to 4 high. Even so I still had overlapping gears with 1st gear high range still be lower than 3rd gear low range. Again, I'm talking Midwest style trails in which even the easy and straight sections are still usually pretty tight and snake around trees. If you have wide open desert and stuff that requires higher speeds I can see it, but you would also need to be getting into 4th gear (with a manual) before you would see the difference (4th gear and 2.72 is almost identical to 3rd gear and 2:1).

I think you make a very valid point.

Mine stems more from working through my gears as I drive. It no secret I like to beat my junk, so given a strait section in 2 to 1 im starting in 1st gear and slapping my way up to 3rd while on the rev limiter the whole time and trying to keep it strait:pimp:

This is petty much the case as long as im not tooling around at one speed, on a trail or following someone, which in case, 3rd gear 2 to1 feels just right or 2nd gear 2 to 1.


If I am understanding you right and with a 10 to 1 case, my option would be to leave the both sticks in high as there low would be too much? Thus forcing me to use the 2.73 to 1 then when I need more gear I could not do it on the fly.

One thing that made me attracted to the gears I chose was having a sand gear, driving in 2 to 1, then if I needed more I could toss the shifter from hi to low on the fly. With the sand or desert I think there is more wasted wheel spin that is revving the motor out quicker. I noticed this problem with my white truck when Im bouncing off the governor, the truck thinks its going over 100 mph and that certainly is not the case.

"and if I did need to go faster I would go to 4 high."

my only argument against this is if I needed to go lower "like when I came to a climb or a obstacle" If I was just in 2.72 "low" I now cant shift on the fly, id be forced to stop and put both shifters for the diffs into low. Where as before in 2 to 1, if it not enough, no biggie, just shift on the fly and have 544 to 1, plus 3 gears on the trans to find a sweet spot to keep the rpms happy.

For waterfalls here it seems many also require some wheel spin and not always a just a deep crawl gear. So being able to choose between 2 to 1 or 2.72 to one, then being able to shift up to second or 3rd as my rev limiter requires should prove to be a nice asset as well as simply shifting on the fly as mentioned.

I can say that with only 4.56 gears in the diffs and low low, even with massive brakes it takes some effort to hold it to a stop. I can not imagine trying to use the brakes with 10 to 1:eek1:

10 to 1 would be a fun gear to get out and just watch it crawl though lol
 
Old thread I know.... Still trying to justify getting the Atlas. (probably just because I have not driven it yet) :D

But I was in limbo on the whole doubler vs atlas thing. I opted for the latter after weighing lots of options.

Cost was a big deal to me but I still feel the Atlas is worth it.

My 5:1 low range Atlas was right at $3200 shipped with everything I need to put it in including a rear pinion disk brake setup. :waytogo:

The ONLY thing I am concerned with at this point is my 4.10 gears with 39.5's for the highway. Hopefully I will be OK there.

(shameless pic whoring)
IMG_20100819_193551.jpg
 
Old thread I know.... Still trying to justify getting the Atlas. (probably just because I have not driven it yet) :D

But I was in limbo on the whole doubler vs atlas thing. I opted for the latter after weighing lots of options.

Cost was a big deal to me but I still feel the Atlas is worth it.

My 5:1 low range Atlas was right at $3200 shipped with everything I need to put it in including a rear pinion disk brake setup. :waytogo:

The ONLY thing I am concerned with at this point is my 4.10 gears with 39.5's for the highway. Hopefully I will be OK there.

(shameless pic whoring)
IMG_20100819_193551.jpg

Who did you order from?

and how much was the brake option?

Reason I ask is my case with a 1350 front, cable shifters and fancy knobs was 2800 or 3200 shipped, cant recall but it was around or in between those numbers.
 
Old thread I know.... Still trying to justify getting the Atlas. (probably just because I have not driven it yet) :D

But I was in limbo on the whole doubler vs atlas thing. I opted for the latter after weighing lots of options.

Cost was a big deal to me but I still feel the Atlas is worth it.

My 5:1 low range Atlas was right at $3200 shipped with everything I need to put it in including a rear pinion disk brake setup. :waytogo:

The ONLY thing I am concerned with at this point is my 4.10 gears with 39.5's for the highway. Hopefully I will be OK there.

(shameless pic whoring)
IMG_20100819_193551.jpg

Who did you order from?

and how much was the brake option?

Reason I ask is my case with a 1350 front, cable shifters and fancy knobs was 2800 or 3200 shipped, cant recall but it was around or in between those numbers.


edit,

just pulled my quote, granted they are not currently selling the 4 speed and my quote was from june of 08

"Thanks for the chance to quote your Atlas purchase. The case you are looking for would retail at $2945, plus shipping. We have two options for you on this. If you pay by check or money order I could do $2650, shipped to your door, or if you need to use a credit card or Paypal we would have to add processing fees to get to $2725. For adapters, most 4WD TH350s can use part number AS-6800 that would add $175."

so that would have been 2850 shipped, sounds about right irrc
 
Old thread I know.... Still trying to justify getting the Atlas. (probably just because I have not driven it yet) :D

But I was in limbo on the whole doubler vs atlas thing. I opted for the latter after weighing lots of options.

Cost was a big deal to me but I still feel the Atlas is worth it.

My 5:1 low range Atlas was right at $3200 shipped with everything I need to put it in including a rear pinion disk brake setup. :waytogo:

The ONLY thing I am concerned with at this point is my 4.10 gears with 39.5's for the highway. Hopefully I will be OK there.

(shameless pic whoring)
IMG_20100819_193551.jpg

secksy!
 
Who did you order from?

and how much was the brake option?

Reason I ask is my case with a 1350 front, cable shifters and fancy knobs was 2800 or 3200 shipped, cant recall but it was around or in between those numbers.


I ordered mine through High Angle Driveline. Jess is great to deal with!

The driveline e-brake setup is about $300. Ordered my Atlas with the TH350 adapter, shifters and 32 spline outputs with High Angle 1350 flanges for CV driveshafts.
 
Well after having my junk out with the Atlas a few times I am sold. I am glad I went with the 4 spd over a 2 spd. 2 to 1 is great for just tooling around and hitting some mud, 2.72 to 1 is what I was used to and works great for milder trails and when you need some wheel speed, and 5.44 is great for crawling and steep decents. The only issue I have is with the rear Detroit and the truck getting bound up and not wanting to shift easily out of rear drive to do a front dig. I will eventually go to ARB's to take care of that.
 

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