Calmini 6.5:1 transfer gears

[muppet_man67]

Just wondering who is distributing them in Australia and how much they are cost what kind of warranty is on them etc. Hopefully they have better backup then rockhopper. I dont think many people be buying rockhoppers if these turn out good.

[Bad JuJu]

Try PM'ing McZook (Sean),or Phone him, his contact details are here

http://www.abt4x4.com.au ....

[CanberraMav]

Just following up this thread.....
What are the prefered gears used by people???

So far i have found the Rockhopper brand, Calmini, Trailtough, and there was one other that i cant think of.

I would be interested to hear what people have paid for them and where thay got them from and whether or not it is cheaper to import them from the states yourself rather than going through a middle man. My understanding is there isnt a warranty so i guess that aspect of it doesnt affect where you get them from.

I know that Calmini offer the 8:1 's and they probably are considered the goods but would like to compare brands/prices etc.

Is it more expensive in the long run to get the cheaper 4:1 transfer gears then change the diffs to get further reductions?

[ofr57]

by changing your diff gears .. you screw up your road speeds to correct that you will have to put bigger wheels on

any ways

S1 rockhopper is about a grand
S3 rockhopper is about 1250

calmini ... I'm not quite sure i think its about 1300 ....

and i havn't heard of this Trailtough

[mud4b]

i worked out this a while ago..

i will not give prices but most of the gears are around the same money for the same type..

[alien]

s3 hoppers are around $1250 (22% reduction hi range)
my calmini 5.14s were $1080 (18.3% reduction hi range)

the 5.14's claim to bring a 32" tyre back to around stock, and if you calculate it, its pretty close. An s3 would be more suited to 33's up to 35's i reckon. This is purely for highway comfort though - if its a buggy go as low as you can =P

Basically though - work out what tyres you want to run, and then decide on the ratio that best suits the resulting difference in diameter.

26" tyre to a 31" tyre is 19.2% difference, i was very happy with my gearing on 27" tyres which is about 14.8% difference. i chose the middle ground with the 5.14's.

Dont forget also, that a tyre may not measure what the sidewall says... my 31's measure 30.7" tread to tread, and apparently the simex 31's measure closer to 32".

[derelict_frog]

Score, will be watchign for info on this one,

im saving for gearing atm, my cars to fast everywhere offroad. Just gota save 1K then shop around, so is buying overseas recommended as i rekon you would save a few hundred?

[alien]

buy the calmini gears in from the USA is around $700 or something plus shipping - and its a pretty weighty box and fragile (mines marked as fragile, sent first class on FedEx).. i think you end up paying an extra $100 or so to buy it locally, which is what i did... as now i have a receipt, and a place to take warranty claims to.. whereas if you buy USA youd need to post it over to get warranty, and even then you may not get it...

[derelict_frog]

Do they even have warranty? ive heard most of them don't?

[alien]

i just emailed calmini to clarify the warranty before i comment... so stay tuned =)

[cj]

http://www.worcester-networks.com/rsmfg/sj_tbox.htm

As I understand it he makes the gears for Calmini.

[sierrajim]

- if its a buggy go as low as you can =P

Now i'm no expert but i think that would depend on what type of terrain you're driving.

It seems that the QLD buggy guys drive more of an all terrain type rock and prefer an auto with less gears than the guys in the US who drive pure rock.

A vehicle with whacky low gearing can find it difficult to generate wheel speed that is often needed to generate traction.

[Gutless]

buy the calmini gears in from the USA is around $700 or something plus shipping - and its a pretty weighty box and fragile (mines marked as fragile, sent first class on FedEx).. i think you end up paying an extra $100 or so to buy it locally, which is what i did... as now i have a receipt, and a place to take warranty claims to.. whereas if you buy USA youd need to post it over to get warranty, and even then you may not get it...

Got my S3's for $1100 new.

Got a set of 5:1 calminis for $750, direct from the states to my door....all duties paid.

I reckon the US stuff is a better deal.

[alien]

very good deal on the calmini gears! $750 is cheap as chips..

Got a very swift reply from calmini regarding warranty:

Sir-

All of our gears are guaranteed for life against manufacturing defects that cause the gears to fail. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Best Regards
Sales Department
CALMINI Products Inc.
Ph: 800-345-3305
sales@calmini.com

[jeep97tj]

U cant really go to low, unless u end up with something like 400:1, but i think even then u should get wheel spin in top gear .

There is nothing wrong with a 200:1 crawl ratio, that is why u have 5 diffrent forward gears in your gear box to choose from. Pick the right gear and u will have no problem getting wheel spin or a run up. Who cares if u are crawling around in 2nd or 3rd gear, if u are atleast u still have 1st to get u through or out of thoses harder than they looked sections.
With a road going zuk u cant go to low other wise u will stuff up your high range gearing, u dont want to be doing 6000rpm at 90km/h, but with other t case gears that change low range only i think the lower the better

[zookjedi]

i disagree , you might have 5 gears forward but only 1 in reverse , unless you only drive rocks , or you never get stuck .

also the extra low gearing puts more pressure on the tcase and mounts etc running bigger rubber and std centres , i personaly would opt for r/p and transfer gear changes lessening the stress on the t case , in saying that it all comes down to what you wanna drive , if you do alot of mud and shalely hills put more horses into your engine and leave the gearing but if you wanna do only rocks go low as , but if its abit of everything you'll be best to compromise and go midway .

just my thoughts and experiences

[CanberraMav]

Gutless wrote:
Got my S3's for $1100 new.

Got a set of 5:1 calminis for $750, direct from the states to my door....all duties paid.

I reckon the US stuff is a better deal.

Teach us your ways. As far as i can see you must be taliking US dollars?

Did you buy them second hand?

[CAP51Z]

i have calmini 6.5:1s, & a crawl ratio of 119:1, with 36s. My top cruising speed is about 85 kph, or revvin its tits off, approx 100 kph. I have found the calmini gears to have a whine/howl, but only in a certain rev range in 5th gear, once past this range, they go quiet again. I dont know what rpms, as i dont have a tacho. anyway, the reply i got from calmini re: warranty is below.

"Quite honestly, we do not ever deal with breakage issues. If you manage to break a set, we will warranty them. Let me know if you have any questions."

this was one part of an email, which also covered my zooks specs.

[Gwagensteve]

U cant really go to low, unless u end up with something like 400:1, but i think even then u should get wheel spin in top gear .

There is nothing wrong with a 200:1 crawl ratio, that is why u have 5 diffrent forward gears in your gear box to choose from. Pick the right gear and u will have no problem getting wheel spin or a run up. Who cares if u are crawling around in 2nd or 3rd gear, if u are atleast u still have 1st to get u through or out of thoses harder than they looked sections.
With a road going zuk u cant go to low other wise u will stuff up your high range gearing, u dont want to be doing 6000rpm at 90km/h, but with other t case gears that change low range only i think the lower the better

Really? how much low range do you have? This seems like the sort of "more is better" comment that is based pretty much 100% on theory. How would 400:1 make a car more capable than 100:1?


How much gearing you need depends on how much wheelspeed you need to do the driving you have around you, your tyre size/traction and power/torque.

Lets say you have 400:1 1st low and drive sand. You'd better hope that you can drive everywhere in high range or lots of gearing options, because if your 400:1 crawl was all you had, even 4th low would be 100:1 which would be useless.

I was driving OZ rock with 147:1, and this was stupid low, even with 39" tyres - I was busting mocks cv's like twigs- and this was on a surface with so much traction that it was almost impossible to spin a tyre on the rock.

400:1 (as a figure) would be able to bust pretty much any driveline part at idle - how is that helping capability?

Sure, my next build will run around 120:1, but that will be with a 660 and Q78's, so I will need gears. If I was biulding somehting with bottom end, it would be pretty hard to justify more than about 90:1, otherwise you are getting nothing out of first low.

[redzook]

Lets say you have 400:1 1st low and drive sand. You'd better hope that you can drive everywhere in high range or lots of gearing options, because if your 400:1 crawl was all you had, even 4th low would be 100:1 which would be useless.

I was driving OZ rock with 147:1, and this was stupid low, even with 39" tyres - I was busting mocks cv's like twigs- and this was on a surface with so much traction that it was almost impossible to spin a tyre on the rock.

lets hope no one that drives sand is stupid enough to gear to 400:1


ozrock the first time u have driven on rock?

im at around 110:1 on 37's id kill for lower on weekend wheeling but in comps i think my gearing is pretty much spot on

i wouldnt mine somwhere around 200:1

so what has 500:1 and 50:1 differnet about breaking stuff?

500:1 ur gunna attack stuff alot slower and with alot more finess
were 50:1 ull be bouncing and have a fair amount of wheel speed

ohh and u dont think u were busting the mq cvs like twigs cos u were running 39" tires? i dont think it was the gearing

ha ha welcome to rock

[CanberraMav]

Im looking at the 6.5 Calmini or the 6.4 rockmonsters and will be wheelin on 31's with standard diffs.........if this sounds wrong please correct me. I do mostly rocks etc.

Back to the point though i am trying to find out what people are paying for there gears and where from. If you are getting them from the states, where from, is it true that import duty or whatever its called doesnt apply after Jan 05 as this i what i have been told.

http://www.worcester-networks.com/rsmfg/sj_tbox.htm

This link that Cj posted is in UK and if my currency converting is any good these gears are $$$$ even without freight included.

[cj]

http://www.worcester-networks.com/rsmfg/sj_tbox.htm

This link that Cj posted is in UK and if my currency converting is any good these gears are $$$$ even without freight included.

I never said it was cheap just thought it might be of interest to some to know where Calmini gears come from and that price is for those in the UK on a swapped entire t-case basis.

[jeep97tj]

U cant really go to low, unless u end up with something like 400:1, but i think even then u should get wheel spin in top gear .

There is nothing wrong with a 200:1 crawl ratio, that is why u have 5 diffrent forward gears in your gear box to choose from. Pick the right gear and u will have no problem getting wheel spin or a run up. Who cares if u are crawling around in 2nd or 3rd gear, if u are atleast u still have 1st to get u through or out of thoses harder than they looked sections.
With a road going zuk u cant go to low other wise u will stuff up your high range gearing, u dont want to be doing 6000rpm at 90km/h, but with other t case gears that change low range only i think the lower the better

Really? how much low range do you have? This seems like the sort of "more is better" comment that is based pretty much 100% on theory. How would 400:1 make a car more capable than 100:1?


How much gearing you need depends on how much wheelspeed you need to do the driving you have around you, your tyre size/traction and power/torque.

Lets say you have 400:1 1st low and drive sand. You'd better hope that you can drive everywhere in high range or lots of gearing options, because if your 400:1 crawl was all you had, even 4th low would be 100:1 which would be useless.

I was driving OZ rock with 147:1, and this was stupid low, even with 39" tyres - I was busting mocks cv's like twigs- and this was on a surface with so much traction that it was almost impossible to spin a tyre on the rock.

400:1 (as a figure) would be able to bust pretty much any driveline part at idle - how is that helping capability?

Sure, my next build will run around 120:1, but that will be with a 660 and Q78's, so I will need gears. If I was biulding somehting with bottom end, it would be pretty hard to justify more than about 90:1, otherwise you are getting nothing out of first low.

Do u read befor u open your mouth? read the first line again, i hinted that 400:1 probley isnt the best for any thing.

are u serious, gearing is about how much wheel spin u need if your spinning your wheel u have no traction. Gearing is about control mate.

As for the sand comment and 400:1 U cant just end up with 400 with out knowing, u have to aim for it, know what your doing and spend a few $$ to get it, if your smart enough to know how to get 400:1 then your smart enough to know its gona be no good in sand

A 400:1 would be better than 100:1 when u want the best in control and smoothness, I would rather drive a rig with 400:1 on a rough, steep up hill, off camber slope than 100:1, just think about it.

I didnt go to OZ rock so i do not know what the terrain was like, may be 147:1 on 39s was to slow for the terrain but where i wheel it wouldnt be to low. May be u were busting so many cvs because it wasnt your rig? mayb if it was your own u wouldnt of been as rough? or it could have something to do with so much traction like YOU said imagine that, high traction surfaces breaking parts, who would of thought

As for 400 busting parts at idle, where running a high craw ratio not only to slow us down and get more control but to also get more torque out of the little zuk engine, a zuk engine doing 3000rpm probley has about as much torque as a V8 at idle. So we could have a 150:1 and swap in a V8 to get the torgue back but then the extra weight would now be braking the parts, take away some of our climbing ability, raise our center of gravity etc.

[Podge]

http://www.worcester-networks.com/rsmfg/sj_tbox.htm

As I understand it he makes the gears for Calmini.

I haven't seen this company out of the UK previously, it's an interesting site.

Did a comparo on info with the US sites and I reckon it's not Calmini but Rocky Road that sell these gears. Both Rocky Road and RS Manufacturing advertise that they have 6.1 and 8.1 ratios. Quoted on the RS Manufacturing site is the 6.1 ratio @ 525.00pounds which I make being equal to about $1250.00AUD which is very expensive considering Rocky Road have the same ratio advertised @ $745.00USD which equals $993.00AUD. Reading the RS Manufacturing website, these guys would have you beleive they are the be all end of Suzuki products.

To ad some detail on pricing, I recently got the 6.4:1 ratios from Trailtough. I wasn't exactly happy with dealing with them. Whilst the gear set cost $719.00USD, they stung me $179.00USD for freight. It cost me a little more than what I had hoped.

[CanberraMav]

podge wrote:
To ad some detail on pricing, I recently got the 6.4:1 ratios from Trailtough. I wasn't exactly happy with dealing with them. Whilst the gear set cost $719.00USD, they stung me $179.00USD for freight. It cost me a little more than what I had hoped.

Thank you. This is some constructive feedback. I was going to go with the trailtough so i may think again after your comments. Did you have to pay duty?

Was your only problem with them the freight?

[Podge]

podge wrote:
To ad some detail on pricing, I recently got the 6.4:1 ratios from Trailtough. I wasn't exactly happy with dealing with them. Whilst the gear set cost $719.00USD, they stung me $179.00USD for freight. It cost me a little more than what I had hoped.

Thank you. This is some constructive feedback. I was going to go with the trailtough so i may think again after your comments. Did you have to pay duty?

Was your only problem with them the freight?

The freight aspect is my only complaint, so if you were to get one of these units from Trailtough I would firm up the freight price before doing business with them. I didn't ask the freight cost as I wasn't expecting it to be any more than $100.00USD. I had to pay duty but was expecting that.

The gears themselves are quiet and are fine.

PS If you are speaking to Trailtough, I'd be keen to know what they are going to quote you for freight.

[mach.25]

I did a little bit of research on all this not too long ago. Cutoms will charge duty after Jan 01 if cannot be shown to have been manufactured in the USA with whom we have a Free Trade agreement with they will only charge you 10% GST but that is on freight etc as well as the parts.
BTW I was told by Calmini to ring Perth for their Aus distributor who was less that helpful and with whom I would not deal with after that very short phone call.
Let us know what you decide as I am in the market also in the New Year.

[alien]

mach.25 - some people have that with eddie at 4wdusa... i never got it personally but id say its better to persist... he is a nice enough guy he must just get busy =)