[sanddrag]

Edit, don't put too much analysis into this post. I forgot about crucial center to center distances. See my "fixed" recommendations on the next page of this thread in my next post

I'm thinking you could drop that 60T gear down to something like a 45T. This would keep your high gear ratio the same but increase your low gear rpm (decreas the ratio) and decrease the ratio between them making for a 3:1 difference.

I'm fairly confident that you could even fit a 40T in between the CIMs if you wanted to as long as you keep the axes of rotation of the CIMs and the 40T gear all in the same plane. (my rough calculation shows you should still be left with about .080 between the CIMs).

This would give you a 2.67:1 difference between high and low which I think is pretty much optimal. This would bring your low speed up to around 4.5-4.8 fps which I think is much more useful.

Have you determined that you must be geared for a low 3fps before you can slip the tires without tripping breakers? I'm thinking you can gear a little higher than that and not trip breakers and still slip the wheels.