33" w/ 4.56 Gears - Your Experience?

congrats ! I just ordered mine a few days ago and also went with 4.56.

 

What route did you end up going ? ECGS or local shop?

 

I just installed 4.88s with air lockers from ECGS, and am still running my 33s. I plan to bump to 35s in about a month, but for now this will do. 4.88s are overkill for 33s, I'm at about 3k rpms around 65-70mph, but it will be fine for a month.

 

ECGS. Going to save me about 1,200.

 

Nice !

 

sub'd

 

I understand the DD thing completely. However, is the overall difference in your mileage going to make that big a difference in your bank account at the end of the month? If so it might be worth buying a beater commuter car and save the miles on the Tacoma. Just a thought.

Of course I posted this before I saw that you just went ahead and ordered... Good luck, I'll be going the ECGS route with 4:56 in a couple weeks.

 

For those of you who have 4.56 gears running 285/75s what is your MPG on city/hwy? I just re-geared my V6 Tacoma and I'm still breaking them in with 450 miles to go.

 

I'm at 270 miles on my 4.56 so far. I got 15.9 MPG on my first tank. (Per odometer it was 14).

 

What are your initial impressions of the gears? Just right, slightly over geared, etc?

 

From a fuel economy point of view I'm definitely over geared! I've got one full tank so far and I got 15.9-16MPGs (after calculating to compensate for Odometer being inaccurate due to tire size). Based on revolutions per mile from the OEM tires to my current tires I calculate I'm off by 9% on the odometer! However, using Ultra Gauge and the GPS on my phone it calculates a 7% difference in miles driven. So it's hard to calculate TRUE fuel economy.

The truck runs very smooth so far. Since I'm about 300 miles into the 500 mile break in period I've yet to put my foot into it though!

With 33" tires and 4.56 gears I've found that 45mph and 55-60mph seem to be the sweet spots from a fuel economy stand point (based on Ultra Gauge's instant MPG calculations). I forget exactly but I think 75MPH is about 2,600-2,700 RPM.

Now from a power stand point - it feels very good. I haven't put my foot into it as I mentioned before but the truck doesn't bog down at all. Though it does run at higher RPMs than it did before due to the low gear ratios. I can see where someone with stop and go driving would get horrible fuel mileage with 33's and 4.56 gears. The instant MPGs on my Ultra Gauge are always 4-10mpgs while accelerating (if I'm light on the skinny pedal) depending on the gear. But so far I've yet to wish the truck could move better on it's own.

It's definitely a double edged sword. I've got the umph to move forward but it costs me to do so. I've pondered whether I should have done 4.10 as that would have been the statistical gear ratio to do with 33's. But I'm sure once I get to Moab in a month I'll be very happy about the 4.56 gears while I'm crawling!

I just have to suck it up and accept that 16MPG is likely the best I'm getting out of this truck anymore. Honestly the only 'regret' is fuel economy. Aside from that it runs fantastic. But my tires, bumpers, skids, sliders, have all contributed to the fuel economy issue. LOL

 

Thanks for the info. I watched this thread from the beginning. To be honest, I hoped you would go with 4.10s because there is so little info on 4.10s with 33s, and I wanted to hear a good review. Ha ha. Enjoy all that extra power!

 

well for what its worth ill be tossing some 33s on shortly here and will have the 4:10s in. i got the big heavy red letter 35s right now and the 4:10s turn them rather nicely

 

Nice! I hope you'll report back with some mpg and rpm data after you get set up.

 

what was your average before the regear? I'm around 17 combined.. around 15/19 city/hwy..

 

Shit. Like 14

 

I get about 12.5 mpg. But I also have a RTT on top of my bed rack that drags ass.

 

Before my 33s, before gears, before bumpers, before skids, I averaged 19.1MPG. Most of my driving is 55-70.

 

no i meant just before the regear.. .

 

Before the regear I was getting about 16.5MPG. Compensating for odometer inaccuracy.

Had I gone 4.10 I imagine I'd have gained MPGs...


Edit: Also important to note is that we JUST switched back to summer blend gas. So that could impact this slightly. I talked to our regional Conoco/Philips oil rep Saturday. He's the guy who sells the gas to gas station chains.