For those of you that have a 4 cylinder 5 speed. Can you climb a hill in 1st gear 4 low at idle without it stalling?

 

Is this a trick question? Your signature cherokee is 4.0.

My 86 is a half a hemi, 4 speed and for the most part climbs anything in 4 low without stalling. Don't really know how big a hill your talking about, lol. Here in the panhandle of Texas anything taller than your garage is a mountain. If your in the Rockies of Colorado our mountains are considered speed bumps so......there you have it. I suppose everything is relative to where you are.

I think it's a trick question so you can make fun of my 2.5 Half Hemi.

I really enjoy my Cherokee, maybe just at a different level than the big 4OHS.

Happy Jeepin.

86 2 door, 2.5 liter, 4 speed, 3 inch lift, 30x9.50s15 tires, 3.54 gears stock

 

One way to find out.

 

Not a trick question at all, maybe I should have explained better. A buddy of mine has a 4 cyl TJ with 4.88 gears, 5 speed ,and 35s and in 4 low 1st gear it won't idle up the hill behind my house. The hill is maybe 30* at its steepest and it won't even make it to the steepest part without stalling. I figured with 4.88s it should have enough torque but maybe not.

 

His low gear ratio (crawl ratio) isn't that low. It would help a lot if his 5spd first gear ratio were lower. For instance a T-18's is 6.32 compared to his 3.92 (AX15?). Also 35's w/4.88's cuts down on the low gear ratio.

 

x2 for sure. You would have to get the formula and calculate the actual final drive ratio but with 35" tires and 4.88 gears, I'm guessing your back close to or even less gear than it was originally. The little half hemi is not really a torque monster anyway and generally needs a little rpm's to pull.

Not sure I would even have tried to run 35" tires with a half hemi. My 30" tires didn't seem to effect much but that's fractionally taller than the stock setup.

Thanks for not beating up my little half hemi. lol

Happy Jeepin.