My cuda weighs 3200 with me and a full tank of gas and with the 318 2bbl and 2,76 gears it was great in town and had a cubic inch to weight of 10.062 lbs per cube. Assumeing 1# tq per inch and adding the gear ratio into the equation I have 3.65 lbs TQ per inch at the axle at cruise speed.

Your barge has about 11.8 lbs per cubic inch. Assumeing both motors make the same TQ per inch then a 3.23 gear will give you about the same lbs TQ per pound of vehicle weight.

My cuda moved with authority through trafic and had plenty of guts on the freeway to pull almost any hill without downshifting. Personally I would have liked an even higher gear because of my time on the open roads but it was not a bad compromise with that gear ratio.