Re:Which gear reduction to get for a JB74 on 30" tires?

My manual Jimny JB74 has a 2" lift and 30" tires.I drive it almost exclusively locally, where I live in the mountains. Lots of mud, hills, ruts etc. A lot of technical stuff here, which I find very difficult right now with the stock gears.But sometimes I'll take it camping. Lots of flat dirt roads and some freeway at 110km/h.Then sometimes I'll take it to the beach and drive in the dunes.So I'm looking at the three options for the JB74 available from ProTrack:

• High -17% / Low -87%
• High -7% / Low -77%
• High -0% / Low -70% (then add a supercharger??)

Does anyone with some experience have any idea which of these I should choose? Or am I expecting too much, and perhaps should just trade it in for a Jeep? (don't get me wrong I love the Jimny, but don't have a lot of space for multiple cars that do different things).Cheers!

7% is about right for 30" tyres

Your tyres are 10% bigger than standard. Personally I'd go for the 17%/87%. For me the greater torque at lower speed would easily make up for the slight increase in revs when cruising. But other people hate their engine to rev any higher than necessary. If that's you then the 7%/77% will still make a positive difference, but less so in the slow stuff.

sounds like you use it most of time off roads in mountains with the odd long flat road.
I would have gone for 7 / 77 one to accommodate both scenarios.

the 17 / 87 might be not pleasant drive on long flat roads. if almost only off road in mountains then I might opt for 17 / 87

end of day, it very much is personal decision.

Thanks all, this has been a big help.

I'm one of those people that doesn't like the high revving so I've decided to go with 7 / 77. My 30" tires are pretty worn so I was thinking I could upsize to 31" and get the 17 / 87 but then I remembered they probably won't fit under my 2" OME lift as there is already some slight rubbing with the 30"s.

Also I'm thinking of putting some 235 A/T's on the stock rims for short touring and 17 / 87 would be too high for this.

Cheers!

Definitely 17-87. (you have MT gearbox, right?)

JB74 has same gears in gearbox and transfer as JB43, but axles have lower ratio (4.09 vs 4.3 on prev). On the other hand in has more torque on engine and by 1" larger wheels.

Do not forget that 30" will be much wider tyres, that stock ones. They will have more resistance to roll, especially on dirt and when deflated for offroad.