No, according to your figures, the advantage still goes to the Disco against a standard JK. Also, you state that the I-6 TJ has 4.10's which is inaccurate. All sixes besides the Rubicon came with tall 3.07's standard. The 4.10's were only on 4 bangers and the Rubicon. This changes the picture considerably for the TJ:
First: 4.01
TC: 2.72
Axle: 3.07
Crawl Ratio: 33.49
Certainly possible. I'm "magazine racing" on this stuff. Still, the option was there (Rubicon or axle ratio) if a customer wanted. With the Land Rover, nope, 3.54 is the only ratio.
And let's throw something together. Guessing at some of this as I don't have all the vehicle details. But for a mid-80's Bronco, let's say you have the T-18, you've got the granny 1st at 6.32, say you've got a "bad" TC at 2.0, and horrible 3.55 gears. That still gets you 44.8!
Compared to the LR's 39.84 with the R380. (BTW: Your figure of 39.0 for the Disco is also wrong . . .)
How is it wrong? I rechecked it.
Auto-boxes enjoy a roughly 1.5x multiplier from the torque converter in 1st gear. You can't compare the ratios on the gear value alone when looking at auto vs. manual shift transmissions and effective "crawl" ratios. In that light, the Disco / RRC / DII comes out to a bit over 40:1.
I've seen up to 2.0:1. Just depends on how you figure it. Full stall, or partial. I doubt many people are doing full-stall on anything off-road. At least not for long.
But it's not just those number either. If you need to go ultra slow on an obstacle with an auto, the crawl ratio can be infinitely slow. Just go easy on the gas and let the converter work, or even left foot brake if you have to. With a manual, if you want to go slower than your crawl ratio, your only option is to burn the clutch. I'm talking about climbing, or trying to pop a tire over a rock.
To get back to where you were at with the autobox, you need to re-gear the diffs to 4.11's
Ah yes, but then I'm turning too many RPM's on the highway. IIRC, the R380 5th and ZF 4th are equivalent, so when the torque converter locks, they're the same.
So back to my original point. I think it's better to regear the axles and leave NOT change to a 1.4 Tcase. Changing the axles, you can get the ratio you want, AND lower your crawl ratio.
I really prefer this range over the Rubicon's 73:1 for general purpose off-road work. Even in 6th gear the low range was often too low for a good chunk of being in the dirt. It's great for rock crawling, but when you're just heading up soft dirt roads while loaded up for a trip it gets very tedious. You also keep getting out-run by your Land Rover driving buddies and find yourself swapping between high and low range to keep up
I dunno. I can't think of a single time I used 5th gear low. I used to occaisionally use 4th with the ZF, but never 5th with the R380 yet.