97 4x4 pickup, I think it's weak

mightymouse · Mar 24th, 2004, 03:43 PM

Hey all, I have a 97 4x4 SE pickup, 2.4L 4 banger, that seems weak to me, or maybe it's my imagination. My dad has an 87 4x4 2.4L and in high gear he can pull hills I have to downshift for. The part that really bothers me is I have a 4.6 gear and he has a 4.2 gear, so it would seem to me he'd have to gear down before me...Is there something I'm missing? Thanks in advance,

Carter

P.S. Oh yeah no SES light on right now either

jadcock · Mar 24th, 2004, 07:43 PM

You have at least 20 hp and 20 pounds of torque over him, plus the shorter gear. But you may also have more curb weight (SE model comes with lots of power accessories) and you also have "auto hubs", which pretty much mean they're locked all the time I understand. Your truck may not be out of whack. It's kind of hard to diagnose subjective things like this though...sorta like trying to give a haircut over the phone. Unless you can "quantify" how slow the truck is, it's hard to determine if something's wrong with it. If it's so slow that you can't keep up with traffic, something is definitely wrong. But comparing two Nissans from very different years is almost like comparing apples to oranges, due to weight and equipment differences.

I've gotta downshift mine to pull some hills (especially when in 5th gear), but I know that's part of the territory when you've got a 3800-lb vehicle powered by a 4-cylinder engine. I just let it rev...it gets up the hills just fine.

mightymouse · Mar 25th, 2004, 08:57 AM

Thanks. All I needed to hear was that I wasn't alone when it comes to high gear, plus I didn't take into affect the curb weight and hubs either, it's all coming togather now.