Hmm. I use 52/14 gearing with big ole M2K's, and I haven't thermalled anything...yet. I haven't run in the hot summer sun yet, though. I usually do it early in the morning. I still need to go to the lhs to pick up a few replacement parts to get it running again.
Hmm that's odd Cart. Maybe because you have a 540 and mine is a 380? 9t seems kindof low combat. I'll see how the 13 does but it already has enough torque with that so I'd hate to sacrifice the speed by going even lower. Even with the 15t it has a decent amount, enough to spin all 4 tires for a while.