Going 3.73's, looking for made in the USA, have always run Richmond in the past without issue. What brand are you running? What to stay away from?
Already had an oem set, I bent the pinion on a 1-2 shift, it was my own fault had trans set a little too aggressive.

 

Richmond has been bought out from what I've heard. I believe Yukon doesnt make their own but they only select very gears with high tolerances. I have Motive 4.88's in mine and they are just as quiet as the factory 3.42. Buy any name brand and triple check the installation clearances.

 

I run 4.56 USA standard gears in my truck. No noise and have held up fairly well with all the hell i put them through.

 

Never installed a set of motives that whined.. Only thing ill ever use.

 

Motives are cut in Italy, Last time they stopped into work to do a demo they stated there gears are ran on the same lapping machines supercar gears are matched on.

 

I run usa standard gears as well. No problems, no noises.

 

After some google searching last night it seems Yukon's have a good following, they are higher priced than most of the others. Some say they are made in USA and some say they are made in Italy, also several people say the USA Standard gear are Yukons that didn't quite pass inspection.

 

I have and always will run Richmond gears. When I had 4.10's in my 97 reg cab sb 9.5" 10 bolt SF, I did an accidental neutral drop with 325/50/15 DRs installed and it busted parts of te spider gears, but I was able to get it home.
Upon disassembly, the ring and pinion were maked up from digesting the shrapnel, so I cleaned them up a bit with a file and reinstalled with a Lock rite locker and another open dif.

I then broke, 3 (THREE) of these Powertrax Lockrite (lunchbox) lockers. The ring and pinion ended up looking quite ugly, but they just kept tickiing. After the 3rd Lockrite locker, I just left the rear opeb with a stock open carrier.
I broke that carrier, it actually split in 2 furthur damaging the ring and pinion. I cleaned them up againj with a file and put them back into service with a stock used G80 locking rear differential.

2 years later, I developed a nasty vibration over 120 kph, which was being caused by a worn pinion gear. So after 6 years of abuse, including the digestion of 5-6 rearends after breakage, teh same Richmond ring and pinion required replacement. They owed me nothing. I was the best $200 I had ever spent on gears.
These were the same ring/pinion gearset that combined with 285/70/15 BFG radials allwed me to "po-wheelies" in my truck. If I selected 1st gear and slowed down and timed application of WOT followed by letting off the gas would pull the front tires off the ground. All of that force was being handled by 1 or 2 teeth of those gears, the neigbours at my buddies place loved the shows. Those gears took a BEATING.

peace
Hog

 

I have USA standard gears in my 05 because I stupidly didn't specify when I bought them. They are kinda rough to put it lightly. Had to fiddle around a lot to get them to set up correctly. I wouldn't buy them again, just go with Yukons or even Quality gear. They are quiet for the most part at least.

 

I use Motive 4.56's. They're nice and quiet.