DeLifting the tacoma

Ive been tossing around the idea of delifting my truck for a few weeks now, with my 25 mile commute to school and home, then my 44 mile commute to work and home (part time job) 4-5 days a week, then my internship 20 mile commute everyday.....will taking my truck down and running 265/75s help my mpgs enough to tell? or should i just suck it up and deal with my 400-500 dollar gas bill? which is hard making about $800 a month (college student budget)

 

Running smaller and lighter tires will help with the MPG. I would leave the lift on, it prob won't make much of a change. I would either go with a smaller tire set up or buy a little beater to drive in the mean time. Something between $500-$1000.

 

yea. just put on smaller tires rather than take the whole lift off.

 

yah go back to stock tires... the 75s will still suck up... go down to 70 series tires...

 

You could try changing all your fluids to synthetic, if you haven't or ready...
And If your o2 sensors are still from factory then I would change those to get better mpg's as well... Just a thaught! I know I got back a couple mpg's when changing my o2's bc they were shot. But smaller tires would also help...

 

the only thing is smaller tires will look goofy with the lift IMHO but if you got pics with smaller ones im open to see em, but imma keep the lift, this is just temporary until i get out of school, if i do go back to stock i was gonna go with wheelers type b 15x10s on 31x10.50s or is that way to small??

 

The lift im sure is not doing much damage to your mpg. Its the tires, go to a smaller size and keep the rpm's below 1500 when accelerating.

 

I didnt think the truck moved at all without going to atleast 3000 lol

 

I will 2nd that notion

 

Granted that there is going to be a weight difference between 285's and 265's, I have a feeling that for the most part, any mpg gain/loss has more to do with the tires being different sizes and throwing off the speedo and odometer. Sure, you may gain some from the weight difference and less contact surface, but I'd wager that the cost to replace the tires (unless you have them already, or need to replace them) will outweigh the cost of gas savings and at the end of the month, you wont notice much difference in the amount you spent.

Lets face it. You're driving a Dbl Cab truck with a V6. You aren't going to get great gas mileage compared to alternatives. I think the best recommendation would be to pick up a throw away commuter car for cheap. It wont be stylish, but it'll get you around. Even something from the early to mid 90s (a metro, civic, corolla, etc) will end up getting you mid to high 30s, maybe even into the 40s pretty easy and shouldn't cost more than $500-1000. The key here is small, lightweight, and low number of cylinders (everything the truck isn't).

 

Ive pretty much decided to suck it up and deal with it because i love the truck the way it is, rides good and theres now way in this world i can keep in under 3k lol

 

heres a picture of my 3'' lift with stock tires. it looks a little goofy but I was getting about 19mpg with those compared to about 15mpg with the 285s I have now.

 

You are probably right about the tires not saving alot of money, but with the econobucket what about insurance,registration, and plates even on a POS these can add up plus the cost of the "bucket" you probably wouldnt be money ahead either in the short term. Just my opinion though.

 

Thats what i was thinking also, buy the time all that goes through thats a couple months of gas...plus cost of repairs for the bucket...cause you know a 1000 car has problems

 

I ran my stockers for about 2 or 3 months cause i didnt have the money for the tires lol

 

Are you really driving 100 mi/day? That's a lot, and there's not much you can really do to save your fuel bill except buy a car that gets great mpgs. Other than that, I'm surprised nobody suggested that you change out your ring/pinion gears to get your truck back to a more "stock" mpg rate. Yeah, the lift will hinder your aerodynamics a little, but changing out your gears will get you back really close to that stock mpgs without sacrificing your lift or tire size. It'll probably cost you about a months gas bill though...

 

Yeah the local shop i hang around here where im interning, told me to think about regearing and yes i really drive 100 miles a day...sometimes more, i leave out a about 7 for school, then work, then my internship, and get back around 8 or later at night