315's vs 285's, R16

[offthebeatenpath]

Thanks guys - this is exactly why I asked here and not at TTORA. I love this place!

Yes, I know I need some armor as well, but right now my hand is being forced towards tires because of the Montana winter weather, so that's why I'm addressing tires first. Since I bought the truck, my mpg's have been steadily going down as it is, so I have some maintenance gremlins to chase there as well. I'm starting with the least expensice and working my way into the rest.

X2 on the excellent videos freeze, very well done! Much more fun to watch than 95% of the stuff on youtube, excellent shots and editing. Can't wait til I have time to go back and watch the rest!

 

[CYi5]

If you have the V6 it's not necessary (however, encouraged) to run gears, performance mainly suffers on the trail and climbing 3'+ obstacles. The V6 has enough grunt to carry you at a very good pace on the highway and still pass people at 150KM+ whilst running medium difficulty trails. You can do lower gears in your transfercase and leave your thirds stock if you wish. The weight of the tires/wheels/rotating mass power loss can't be regained fully without re-gearing your thirds. It'll put you in the proper rev range.... If it's in the budget do both... gears and transfercase. If you have an automatic... it's mandatory to re-gear.

Gonna disagree on a couple things here. Might be able to get away with 315's on stock gears with an 05+, but no way with an 03. Running 255's with 4.10 5spd V6 you pretty much lose 5th gear on any sort of incline. With an auto you'll just be dumping fuel. He also mentioned it's a daily driver which would put his mpg's in the low teens for stop and go's.

Also, there is no transfer case gear swap that can be done on tacomas without switching to the chain driven case (adding a doubler) of the older pickups. Alternatively running a lefty setup from marlin or inchworm.

I'd say with the heavy Dcab + the weight you say you are expecting to carry, 5.29's will be mandatory to get you back in the rev range like freeze mentioned. BTW, the white 3rd gen freeze posted...siick!

 

[freeze]

Gonna disagree on a couple things here. Might be able to get away with 315's on stock gears with an 05+, but no way with an 03. Running 255's with 4.10 5spd V6 you pretty much lose 5th gear on any sort of incline. With an auto you'll just be dumping fuel. He also mentioned it's a daily driver which would put his mpg's in the low teens for stop and go's.

If it's an auto... re-gear is mandatory.

The manual you can get away with it. The person that I posted his photo of his Tacoma... he can still pass on hills without a problem with stock gears at 130KM+ on 35's He has 310,000KM on his motor as well.

So in theory you're correct... auto mandatory re-gear (which was stated). Manual not mandatory.

Also, there is no transfer case gear swap that can be done on tacomas without switching to the chain driven case (adding a doubler) of the older pickups. Alternatively running a lefty setup from marlin or inchworm.

The Tacoma is a chain drive case. All he'd need is a MC09 adapter with a used gear drive behind it. Lengthen the front and shorten the rear driveshafts.

If you go lefty you still have to add 4.7 gears as well... then you lose your faster low range for deep snow. Twin cases provide some better options. Especially for Montana terrain being locked into 4.7's would be too low.

I'd say with the heavy Dcab + the weight you say you are expecting to carry, 5.29's will be mandatory to get you back in the rev range like freeze mentioned. BTW, the white 3rd gen freeze posted...siick!

5.29's for an auto with 285's might be a tad on the low side. Perhaps 4.88's or even 4.56's would be better; especially for highway cruising. If he went with 37's then the 5.29's would be perfect.

The photo is one of our instructor's first gen Tacoma.. it's pretty awesome!

 

[tacollie]

I am with CYi5. 255s and stock gearing are pushing it. My 00 V6 manual spends a lot of time in 4th at 75mph. I end up having to ride the clutch a lot on steeper obstacles just to keep from stalling. My buddy's 98 4runner with an V6 auto on 285s was a dog on road but did fair off road with stock gears.

 

[TangoBlue]

If it's an auto... re-gear is mandatory. So in theory you're correct... auto mandatory re-gear (which was stated). Manual not mandatory.

5.29's for an auto with 285's might be a tad on the low side. Perhaps 4.88's or even 4.56's would be better; especially for highway cruising. If he went with 37's then the 5.29's would be perfect.

Your first statement is spot-on.

The second is close but not as accurate. For 285's or 33's, 4 cyl with AT will require at least 5.29's, especially so if it has any off-roading enhancements, e.g., armor, suspension changes, camping gear (ask me how I know). With the 4 cyl MT you can get away with 4.88 comfortably. The 6 cyl AT or MT will appreciate gearing to 4.88 or 4.56 respectively. These figures aren't just mine but from the collective responses from a variety of forums and over a year of research while trying to wisely spend my limited treasure for a re-gear I only chose to do once. I chose wisely.

My experience since regearing, with the modifications in my sig line, is that I'm squarely back in the power-band for my engine; my gas mileage returned to stock performance between 18-21 MPG; on highway my tach indicates around 2800-3000 RPM at 75 mph reflected on GPS rolling on 285 BFG KM's. I can actually pass vehicles on the highway if I choose to, albeit slowly.

Prior to that my AT was down-shifting at the mere hint of an elevation change on the highway; gas mileage was slightly better than a poorly-tuned FJ-60 at around 15 MPG. I could pass elderly wheel-chair bound people if they were in the gravel if I so chose.

If you ever start to tell yourself, "I can live with it," it's time to re-gear.

 

[sasaholic]

stock gears stock gear stock gears, these trucks come with more than one gear ratio so to say one truck is fine stock so this one will be is bs. i have a 2.7 with 5 speed and 5.29's with 35's and its great. ive also had 4.88's with same tires and it was very comparable except for passing and very steep hills. also the crawl speed is a touch better with the 5.29's. docmcoy's(white tacoma previosly posted) truck must have 4.56's in it to be passing on hills, because i have drivin many many differently setup tacomas and ive never seen one that would be able to handle 35's well with stock gearing although ive never drivin one with 4.56's so thats out for speculation for me. also its not all about having the power to roll big tires, u also have to worry about the constant stress ur putting on the tranny if an at and clutch ur always burning to get them moving if a manual.

 

[RusM]

4.56's and 35's and it's ok, not great but okay. I also had 4.56's and 255's and it was good, but I wanted 4.88 or 5.29 even with the auto. I lust after 5.29's, but I'm not spending another dime polishing the IFS turd. If everything goes according to my plotting, I'll be joining the SAS club this summer/fall. :coffeedrink:

 

[offthebeatenpath]

Just make sure I'm following everything (I'm still learning all the Toyota idiosyncrasies, I know all the answers to these questions for XJ's...) the available gear ratios for the Toy diffs are 4.10, 4.30, 4.56, 4.88, and 5.29. Tango, you're running 5.29's, but you've got the 4cyl. Because I have the V6, TRD, yada yada yada, I most likely have 4.30's stock. As I said before, I'm currently running 265/75/16's, and like you said Tango, my AT downshifts at the scent of an incline as it is right now. I'm am planning a re-gear in the future, I just don't have the funds to do them at the same time as the tires. For the time being, I think I'll just drive a gear lower than usual My commute is only about 8 miles, and Bozeman traffic is really chill, so it won't bother me too much.

Since we're on the topic of re-gearing, can somebody give me a quick link to some guides or descriptions on the process of regearing a Toy rear or front diff? Like I said, I'm coming from the Jeep world, so a re-gear means new ring and pinion, and it should be professionally installed, though it can be done in the garage if you have the tools and the patience. I know the Toy third's add a new variable to that, which I'm still trying to grasp. Sorry for all the elementary questions, with two kiddos now, I don't have near the time to burn reading thread after thread on forum after forum like I did with the Jeep.......

 

[sasaholic]

also 3.58's came in early tacos(what i had stock) and 3.91's. most people unless there stupid will tell u to take the truck in to get the diffs set up. toyota diffs have to be just right or they will blow. dont ask about my 4.88's or why i know that haha, and that was with a shop doing the setup. the magical thing about toyotas is its easy to pull the diffs and take them to a shop and save urself a few hundred bucks by doing that part of the labor urself and its not hard at all. or you can go with eastcoastgearsupply as i did this last round and have them send u build diffs and return yours to them for the core. they even have a 5 year warranty on gears and labor if ur running 35's or smaller.

 

[sasaholic]

its also easy to check what gears u have. just get the code off the door jam and compare it to the charts that are all over the interweb

 

[offthebeatenpath]

Good thing I checked. After an hour of reading and deciphering, I've determined I've got 4.10's

 

[sasaholic]

i can tell u 2 buddys of mine have identical trucks (ext cabs, outfitted the same, same size tires and rims 33 12.5 15's) but one is a 2.7 auto and the other is a 3.4 manual both with 4.10's and the 2.7 cant get out of its own way, but that 3.4 paired with the 5 speed and 4.10's feels pretty good honestly.

 

[offthebeatenpath]

Oh, well then all I need to do is swap out my auto for a 5 speed Piece of cake.

 

[freeze]

docmcoy's(white tacoma previosly posted) truck must have 4.56's in it to be passing on hills, because i have drivin many many differently setup tacomas and ive never seen one that would be able to handle 35's well with stock gearing although ive never drivin one with 4.56's so thats out for speculation for me.

He's still on stock 3.91's in the diffs. We're also at 1,100m in altitude as well. He drive's with a very lead foot... I was impressed with how he was able to get a move on with his Tacoma on 35's. He can definitely pass on hills and keep a very high rate of velocity on the highway

At 5.29's on 33's with a 5th gear ratio of .838 you'd be screaming at 3200RPM just to do 70MPH. Pretty close to 4000RPM just to go 80MPH. You'd almost obtain the same net result just leaving the gears alone and driving in 4th! (minus first gear launches)

Gary (winch) runs 5.29's on his SAS'd Tacoma same year but a double cab (dark red) with 37's. He spins on the highway in the exact rev range as a stock Tacoma. 5.29's on 285's would be overkill unless you don't drive faster than 100km/h. Again he has a manual though. 4.88's on 285's would be max.

V6 Auto's come with 4.10's and the manuals come with 3.91's.

 

[CYi5]

Offthebeaten: I had never seen a V6 toyota with 4.30's until I got my e-locked 4runner. Not saying they don't exist, but from my common tacoma knowledge (mostly 01-04), I've never seen a doublecab with 4.30's.

And prettty sure all V6's (manual or auto) came with 4.10's. Start getting away from that (smaller stock tires, smaller engines, etc.) and you get into the weird 3.58, 3.91, 4.56, 4.88.

You're right freeze, 5.29 is too much for 33's, I was directing that more towards his quest for 315's.