The amp is a peavey valve king. The mic is an audix I-5 and the pre's are just the pre's on my firepod. I dont think im over loading them tho cause we tried all sorts of amp volumes and i set the levels on the firepod accordingly so it doesnt clip etc.
sounds like your signal chain is pretty decent, nothing to be worried about here.
next step would be to get down near the speakers and adjust the tone while listening down where the mic is going to be. make sure that you aren't scooping out all of those precious mids, you can play with that sound after tracking if you need to, but you can't easily put them back in after the fact.
you want to start your miking journey with your mic in the center of the cone, the area surrounding the dustcap, but not on the dustcap itsef, so halfway between the center and the outer ring. as you may have already found out, moving it outwards gives you a darker sound, while moving it inwards gives you a brighter sound.
if you have another dynamic mic on hand, a second mic on guitar cabs adds a whole new dimension to the sound. but it also brings in phase relationship problems that aren't too fun either.
but good luck with your tone search and post some clips if these basic techniques don't change anything.