Six Speed

[MNTAIR]

Hey Guys
I'm told that towing in 5th gear is hard on the ZF-5. I'm running 4:10 and 35's, so I find that I'm always wanting to run down the highway in 5th when I have my trailer behind me...will this give the ZF-5 a short life?

If I find a six speed, would it hold up any better ?

[rankroddin250]

The 6 speed has a second granny gear. over drive is the same. wont do you any good.

[redneckabbott]

Don't kno where you got your info but zf5 is about as good as they come. zf6 does have a bit lower gear starting out which would help with towing but don't think it's any stronger and the final gear is the same. The only bad I've heard about the zf5 is the syncros won't last long if you slam gears speed shifting. My zf5 has 271,000 with zero problems and has towed heavy loads from jobsite to jobsite but I had 265/75/16. Still don't see 35s being an issue

[Mutley]

Dunno bout that...sounds like bogus nonsense to me. Got the ZF5 in my 94 CC 2wd draggin a 30' travel trailer down the road in 5th with no issues at all. Of course ya don't wanna be out of rpm range and use the clutch to shift. Maybe do the synthetic mod to the tranny and diff. I did and all performed awesome on a 1500 mile trip a few weeks ago.

note: I did have an issue going down a steep hill in 3rd and it popped out of gear a couple times. Not sure what that's all about but not a big deal to me.