Regear shops in reno?

[CMore]

I was looking in another post on shops but it is about 10 years old and several places recommended for gearing are now out of business or no longer do gearing work... Can we get an updated list of shops?

I had Folbeck 4WD do mine a couple months ago and the gears front and rear are making noise and the gearing they recommended I go with and what I had them put in is way off from what will work... They are willing to change them if I pay again... But after spending $18,000.00 there I was hoping they would stand behind their work...

So, I really need to find a shop who can get it done right this time... Who is the best re-gearing shop in the area who will get it right the first time?

I am also looking for a good shop to do all the maintenance and repair work on my vehicles and my companies a, good go to shop for most of my work.

Who does good fabrication and custom work I want a swing out spare tire carrier for my Tahoe too.

Who can I depend on for installing a blower and tuning it?

Thanks...

[seal13il]

Dennis @ Reno4x4 garage

[Bubbadubrub]

Samco did my rear end after I destroyed it trying to do it myself. Took a while for them to get it done tho (parts took a little while to get). Price was right and no problems with it yet.

[WILLD420]

There are several in town but many of them are swamped right now with the boom in the economy.

If they are a little noisy, some gearsets are like that. I have a set of Motive gears that growl and whine despite having a near perfect pattern on them. I believe there are issues with the quality control of many gearsets on the market; especially when you find them on sale...

As for gear ratio, you have to be careful with certain things. Too deep (numerically high) can result in a weaker gearset, too shallow will lug the engine at our altitude.

Don't be afraid to ask up on here for recommendations as you have. Unfortunately, sometimes you have a bad experience with a shop that has a good reputation and has always done good work for others.

[CMore]

I went from 31 to 34 tires and the gearing went from 3.08 to 4.88 I was told that would be the best choice. It is about like running the transfer in low range. They even drove it and agreed the rear end needed to be redone. But wanted to charge me $800 to redo it. Are there any 6 speed Tahoes with 34 or 35 inch tires out there with better gearing?

[WILLD420]

4.88's would be about perfect for a 36" tire if you can fit it but they will work with 34's. They might be a little low for normal driving but off road you will like them a lot and if you tow anything in the mountains, they make towing much better than the 3.08's for sure. I have found that at our altitude and going over the passes that deeper is normally better since we lose quite a bit of hp as we go up in altitude.

If there is a failure of the gearset, then the shop should stand behind them if they screwed it up. Otherwise, if the install was good and the break in was done correctly but the gears are just noisy I can see where they are coming from. To go through a whole re-gear front and rear can be done but that is spending a lot of coin to change something that might work depending on what you want to do. If you are into wheeling it, then I would stick with the 4.88's and figure out how to get a little bigger tire under it. If you are commuting or driving long distances a lot then I can see the value of going to something like a 4.56 or so and worrying about some gear noise.

[Dennis]

4.88's would be about perfect for a 36" tire if you can fit it but they will work with 34's. They might be a little low for normal driving but off road you will like them a lot and if you tow anything in the mountains, they make towing much better than the 3.08's for sure. I have found that at our altitude and going over the passes that deeper is normally better since we lose quite a bit of hp as we go up in altitude.

If there is a failure of the gearset, then the shop should stand behind them if they screwed it up. Otherwise, if the install was good and the break in was done correctly but the gears are just noisy I can see where they are coming from. To go through a whole re-gear front and rear can be done but that is spending a lot of coin to change something that might work depending on what you want to do. If you are into wheeling it, then I would stick with the 4.88's and figure out how to get a little bigger tire under it. If you are commuting or driving long distances a lot then I can see the value of going to something like a 4.56 or so and worrying about some gear noise.

With 3.08 gears with 31" tires, the truck would run at 2336RPM at 70mph
With 4.88 gears with 34" tires, the truck would run at 3375RPM

To keep the stock like RPM, the shop should have regeared his axle to ~3.50 ratio, maybe ~3.90 to compensate for altitude. 4.88s are way too low for 34"s

[3rd Petal]

I don't mean to argue with you Dennis, but I come up with 1566@70 stock with 31's and 2262@70 with 34's and 4.88's.

I agree that for what it sounds like the truck is used for it's still way too low, I'd say 3.73 would probably be ideal. But with the double overdrive of the 6L80 he has, I can see where Folbeck was coming from putting 4.88's in

[FeCamel]

The math is absolute:

Going from a 31" tire to a 34" tire is an increase in DIAMETER of ~10%. To maintain the same RPM at the same speed, the gearing would have to be lowered (numerically raised) by the same 10%. So in going from 31" to 34" tires to maintain stock RPM, you would have to go from the stock 3.08 ratio to a 10% increase and would be looking for a ratio around 3.38.

Going from 3.08 to 4.88 is a 58% increase in gearing. That means to maintain stock RPM you would have to run a 49" tire.

That being said, there are a few other minor variables and it's normally better to go lower (numerically higher) than the calcs determine and since there are limited gear rations available. It looks like there are 3.42 and 3.73 ratios available, both of which would give you a little more low end with 34" tires but would maintain stock-ish RPM at speed.

[CMore]

The stock gearing was 1700 rpm at 70 and the gearing now with the new tires is 2500 when you increase rpm you also increase fuel consumption dramatically as well. I think I will be going with 3.73 or 3.90 and putting in a 2 speed transfer replacing the single speed in there now. To deal with the altitude I am looking at putting a blower on it in the future too. I need to find a shop I can trust to do it right and who will stand behind their work if something happens.

[CMore]

So, anyone with a 6 speed and bigger tires on their Tahoe with suggestions on gearing?

[lkd4x4]

Back on subject...

Had my gears done by Just Rear Ends. Small father son shop. I dealt mostly with Jim (the son). Super friendly over the phone and in person, and they have a super friendly well-behaved shop dog(+1 in my book).

I'm sure like a lot of us on here, I'm one of those customers that most automotive type shops dread. I ask a ton of questions and if I'm unsure why something needs to be done I say so. 100k miles on my JK and no one has ever turned a wrench on it but me, so I was understandably a little nervous letting someone put the wrenches to my ride.

I came into the regear, parts in hand, and needed only the labor(strike one). Jim was super patient whilst I asked(interrogated) him about his experience working on JK lockers (strike two). Had some special considerations in that I needed the front to come back dry, as I had the front axles and driveshaft out of the vehicle(probably strike three for most shops).

Work was completed in a timely manner and within the parameters of the quote given to me. I feel I received a fair price of around $900 for front and rear regear, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this shop to friends and colleagues.

[CMore]

Back on subject...

Had my gears done by Just Rear Ends. Small father son shop. I dealt mostly with Jim (the son). Super friendly over the phone and in person, and they have a super friendly well-behaved shop dog(+1 in my book).

I'm sure like a lot of us on here, I'm one of those customers that most automotive type shops dread. I ask a ton of questions and if I'm unsure why something needs to be done I say so. 100k miles on my JK and no one has ever turned a wrench on it but me, so I was understandably a little nervous letting someone put the wrenches to my ride.

I came into the regear, parts in hand, and needed only the labor(strike one). Jim was super patient whilst I asked(interrogated) him about his experience working on JK lockers (strike two). Had some special considerations in that I needed the front to come back dry, as I had the front axles and driveshaft out of the vehicle(probably strike three for most shops).

Work was completed in a timely manner and within the parameters of the quote given to me. I feel I received a fair price of around $900 for front and rear regear, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this shop to friends and colleagues.

I tried to check out Reno 4x4 first but, I never found anyone at the shop... So, I decided to use "Just Rear ends" I spoke with Jim and had a very good feeling about it and I decided one good point about this shop is that it is a father son operation so the same guys doing the work today are the same guys who have been doing the work for the last 14 years... Other shops seldom keep a tech that long so you never know who the current tech is who will be working on your rig... Just rear ends recommended a much shallower 4.10 gearing because the 4.88 gears were way to deep for my measured 33inch tires. They actually took the time to measure everything to be sure to come up with the right gear ratio for my Tahoe. I dropped it off yesterday and it should be ready tomorrow.

Folbeck 4x4 re-geared my Tahoe a few months ago and I had taken it back to complain about excessive gearing noise in the rear end and how I thought the gearing they recommended was way too deep for my 33-inch tires. They didn’t think it was a big deal and downplayed anything being wrong. They initially offered to re- gear it for $1100.00 a few weeks later I also complained the front was making too much noise also. This is how well they stand behind their work and I no longer could trust them to do additional work on my Tahoe… It was time to find another shop.

So, I took it to the shop “Just rear ends” and the following is what they found inside my differentials?

The rear gearing was not set up correctly by Folbeck and the gears were burned, and the differential was full of metal so it was going to hand grenade in the very near future.

My front gears were also set up wrong with extremely excessive back lash and were destined to fail soon too.

Good thing I decided to re-gear it now or I might have ended up getting stranded off road in the middle of nowhere.

The shop Just rear ends thought the 4.88 gearing recommended by Folbeck was way too deep and they recommend 4.10 would be a much better choice for my set up.

So far Just rear ends looks like a good choice and I look forward to them doing all my gearing in the future... I will update this post later on how my gearing does.

[Totastech]

Two words!! Nate’s precision!!

[slopoke]

Two words!! Nate’s precision!!

Nate is probably the best in town. Glad to hear you had good luck with another shop in town, it's never a bad thing to have more than one good place to go