3.5 Gutless? Eh, not really. 10,000 mile review

No. Im at about 2500 in 6th at 75. And that's an mt.

 

So you can put the cruise on at 75mph, in 6th gear. Do you have to down shift going up hills or will it hold it at 75mph?

 

The manual would pull any hill at 80 in 6th. It does all of the passes at 70 pretty easily.

 

Except all the power is in the higher end of the powerband. I have a manual too, and you really don't go anywhere until after 3,500-4,000 rpm. I'm not climbing hills at 4k rpm or driving on sand.

Off-roading sucks with this combo. I've been stuck and when i needed some power to bump the truck out, you need to make the engine reach for it at those high rpms. Where's the torque when you need it? It's near the redline -_-

 

Auto is better for off roading. Did the offroading thing for many years with 2003 taco manual...much more challenging

 

did I just read that right? With how much you complain about it I would've thought you hated it.

 

in 4lo even still not enough?

 

Hey Joe... Welcome back...!!

 

Well, I've got almost 25K miles on mine. No noises, squeaks, rattles or structural, road, or wind noises except for cross-wind kazoo in strong winds. I have crossed the country in both directions, everything from Sonora Pass and Ebbetts Pass in the Sierras (8-9K+ feet above sea level on tight twisty roads) to I-80 in Wyoming and Utah with 80 mph speed limits, plus the Blue Ridge and Poconos and Cascades, and Rockies at over 11K feet. Power is not a problem. Torque curve + gearing + trans shift point and CC programming aren't ideal. But again, power is not a problem. I easily pulled 90-95 mph passing some trucks at 7000' going uphill. With a bed full of heavy furniture and an RTT on the roof. I certainly have a few complaints about some of the interior design features, switch locations and Entune, but power is not a problem. BTW, all things being equal, longer wheelbase should ride better in most situations, but when I was a chassis engineer for a heavy-duty truck (i.e. "Semi truck") company, most ride complaints came from owners of long wheelbase trucks. The cause was invariably what we called "beaming" ... the frame flexing more at a natural frequency different from the springs, causing poor ride at freeway speed. Honestly, if the LB and SB/AC trucks have the same spring rates and shocks,and the same frame C-channel geometry (bending stiffness), they will have different ride characteristics and the LWB won't always be better. However, I've only driven my own DCSB.

 

I am going to try that tomorrow, great idea

 

^This. I'm an AT and I often do 75-80 mph on I-95, and the truck stays around 2200-2500 rpm cruising in 6th. My last trip I averaged 19.2 mpg at those speeds.

I will say that I typically don't use the cruise control and stick with my own throttle control because I think that it downshifts too quickly at the slightest rise in elevation, then wants to stay in 5th for a while before upshifting into 6th again. It is better now than before I did the TSB, but still finicky enough that I prefer driving without it.

 

My only complaint is the truck floats at 80, I have a TRD sport ACLB, the power is fine might need different shocks.

 

The sport shocks are stiffer than the TRD Off road. So if the sport floats.....the TRD OR will be worse.

 

Think it would be worth it to swap Trd sport springs and shocks for off-road springs shocks local guy selling his set dead cheap would be easy enough to do then sell my sport stuff after cause damn my sport rides rough as hell off-road and on shit roads. Or I could buy ome 888 springs and 5100s but the first option is lot cheaper.

 

But how is the power?

 

I hear it is not a problem.

 

Yes

 

I heard the 3.5 is a minivan motor/car motor.

 

OP, glad you are enjoying the 3.5. My short experience with that newer powertrain was pretty positive. I certainly don't think it was gutless. People have different expectations of these motors. None of the mid-size trucks are powerhouses in any form, so there will always be bickering about that.

 

Exactly