[john in illinois]

Don S I have about the same setup as you. Touring,inserted,balanced engine. Stock Zenith carb. ,3.78 gears ,F 150 OD trans, 23 or 26 %.

The engine was built with an unknown touring regrind cam. I had the engine apart,so I decided to put in a new Stipe 330 cam,Which Bill told me would be a good torque cam for overdrive. Boy what a difference that made. It pulled better at all speeds. I was going to put a Weber carb on it and decided that I didn't need it after the cam.

I went to Montana last summer and crossed the Rockies at Helena,6500 ft.
I was able to maintain 40-45 mph in third . I only had to shift to 2cnd one time to get over the top of a hill without lugging.

I think 4.11 gears would make all the lower gears too low in the 4speed. More power would help a lot. If you don't want to change cam,a Weber or some other carb set up might help hill climbing. Good luck,each A engine seems different to tune.