What gear is everyone running

Then your setting is wrong. The gear settings provided with the gears is only a guideline. You always go by the gear pattern left by marking compound.
I installed some gears outside under a truck based off of tech supports recommendation of whatever grouping of shims. Got it together, and brought it to a shop, it was right on. Never heard a noise from that set of gears. No, I'm not an expert, more of a hack that got lucky?