Road Trippin!

Just took the taco on a 3000 mile roadtrip to the Grand Canyon from the Big D. I was hauling 6 guys gear in my bed with my softopper up the whole time.

The truck did amazingly well, but I did find out a few things. First, when everyone said that the 4banger was useless on hills i thought it was an exaggeration, not so. it was interesting to have my foot planted and actually loose some speed up a hill. Second, my hwy mpg is the same as city. Third, i really need to upgrade my speakers.

Overall though, it did great. Now I need my oil changed and I'll get the rear spring TSB at the same time

 

Glad you enjoyed it. My 4 Banger is a manual and with a quick downshift to 4 (3 on a huge hill) my truck does fine without mashing the throttle. I assume you're driving the auto?

 

Yep, my 2.7L, 5spd does fine going uphill... do have to downshift into 4th sometimes though. This is on a 70mi road from Fountain Hills AZ (ie, Phoenix) to Payson, AZ, from about 1200ft elevation to 4800ft... so it's a pretty good long drawn out consistent climb out of the Phoenix valley and a good road to test the 2.7's uphill capabilities.

 

I am driving an auto. I can see the advantage of manual in the hills though.

 

haha LMAO! That hill sucks, then there is the long drawn out mountain into Flag as well! sucks

 

Yeah, the hill up I17 to Flag sucks even worse!

The Payson route (Highway 87 or the "Beeline Highway") is one I drive a lot. And I mean a lot... we own some land up in Apache, Co AZ (about an hour east of Show Low) and I drive up there a lot. Have done climbed that hill in a variety of vehicles over the years:

• 2005 Chevy 2500HD 4x4 6.6L/auto Duramax diesel: truck in general was a constant trouble maker, in and out of the dealer's service department constantly & I got rid of it after 2 years... but it could climb the crap out of this hill without even noticing
• 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 5.9L/auto: went up the hill fine, but it downshifted aplenty (& got 12mph doing it!)... best done not in OD
• 2004 Jeep Liberty 4x4 3.7L/auto: went up the hill fine, did downshift quite a bit too... best done not in OD
• 2008 Jeep Commander 4x4 4.7L/auto: climbs the hill fine, but downshifts a lot too during the process... best done not in OD
• 2008 Hyundai Accent 1.8L/5spd: 108hp (or something like that) and does a surprisingly decent job... yeah downshift a lot but it is a very light little car & handles it okay... gets about 35mpg doing it!!!!!!
• 2003 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 2.7L/5spd: does a find job of it as mentioned above... does require downshifting, etc and gets about 21mpg on the climb up (25mph coming back down the hill)

I need to take the Taco to Flag once just to see how it does!

 

Manual FTW!

 

man i feel sorry for the guys who had to sit in the back the whole way! lol i can only last about 10 minutes back there

 

I just tell people it's a 2 seater my friends won't go back there and I don't blame em. Owell she still takes me on all my west coast surf/camp trips. The grape vine is the only area she struggles a bit in.

 

i find my 2.7L 4 cyl with the 5 speed has adequate power. On the interstate where you go 70+ i've never had to down shift to 4 to maintain speed. I run about ~2500 rpm @ 70 mph which at that rpm the engine is make enough power & torque.

Although I travel from upstate south carolina to western north carolina often and there is a few big hills going up in between the mountains on US Hwy 25 that i do have to shift down to 4th to maintain 60 mph.

Overall for me the gearing seems very short in my truck which causes higher rpm overall and enough power usually. I think toyota did this on purpose to make sure the 4 cylinder was pumping out enough power/torque.

 

Not mine. I get 20 to 21 city. Just took a 350 mile trip from 4500' to over 7000' with a lot of up and down in between & back. Mostly hwy and some 40 to 65 mph dirt roads and got 23.5 mpg.

Manual is the way to go.