1st gear on Manual gearbox

[dickandjill]

Hi
Is 1st gear on the manual gearbox a crawler gear or is it a bit higher geared?
I ask because I've read that you could put bigger tyres on the rear of a 2wd Bongo to raise the gearing and was wondering if it would make 1st gear too high geared
Thanks

[David Edwards]

Well strictly speaking and I daresay someone on here will explain it in more technical detail, first gear is soley there to get the gears and the vehicle moving from stop and second and subsequent gears selected as soon as possible for optimum efficiency. At least that what was in the theory of driving when I did my course. I would not use it as a crawler gear unless you were nose to tail in traffic, although I suspect we all do but you will not get any benefit from it really. Happy motoring.

[clogger]

agree with david
my old hi ace was a case of first gear just to get moving then it was right into second as soon as

[Captainsideways]

Have to agree the manual ones are awful for this, stupidly low geared considering the amount of torque they have. The Auto's are 10 times better in comparison.

Taller tyres sadly won't help much as the gearing effect will be minimal unless you went for tractor size ones!

[trevd01]

I've read that you could put bigger tyres on the rear of a 2wd Bongo to raise the gearing

Did you read that here?

Of course fitting bigger tyres on any vehicle will raise the gearing. No need to limit this to a 2wd, bigger tyres all round on a 4wd would work too.

But what will fit without fouling something?

In theory a 255/70r15 would give you about 11% higher gearing, I suppose. You would also be 1.5 inches higher off the ground at the back than standard. If you were to try something like that on the front it may well reduce your steering lock.

Most tyres of this sort of size seem to be offroad pattern, but Kumho go a 'general purpose' in that size thats not too chunky.