Lone Star Toyota Jamboree Live! (2018)

@TRD493 The Auto LSD at least works, whereas in yesteryear you would have not had any help at all. But it teaches a really bad wheeling habit that I described at the bottom of my post here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bigmike’s-big-journey-new-2016-tacoma.427850/page-9#post-15172877 (Warning: It's a long rant.)

Having an actual rear locker instantly prevents Toyotas forced indoctrination of bad habits to new truck owners.

(Edit: I shouldn't say force. It's not fair and that's not their intent. But because the system relies on wheel speed, the driver actually is forced to rev the heck out of his or her truck which should never be the first instinct upon getting stuck.

Because my Marlin Crawler and my air lockers both can be disengaged, I can still demonstrates the stock Auto LSD and I'll put together a systems overview comparison video sometime this summer on the differences between all options and what to do and not to do.)

But still it's pretty cool what these Sports can do stock. If you ever get into the hobby more and go up in tire size increase the weight of the vehicle with gear and find yourself in more and more of some good inclines, you're going to find real quick that the Sport as well as the Off Roads become, in a literal sense of the word, a Limited.

 

Damn I have my girlfriends cousin flying in from Riverside area. He could have carpulled with you. Can’t wait to see it

 

@TACORIDER I originally had a co-pilot plus alternate and as luck would have it they both had to cancel for family reasons. I would have brought my wife but she is currently in Japan! I do like going solo at times. I'm busy every day so the open road is often my personal sanctuary

Ok everyone I've made it safe and sound to my hotel room in New Mexico and am about to fall asleep. Tomorrow will be another 13 hr commute (includes stops) & 1 hr lost to time zone change. It's after 1am here (last night I went to bed after 2am) so I'm still very much behind on sleep. I'll have some time Thurs to catch up so I should be good to go come vendor night Thurs

The Tacoma is making better gas mileage with 40s + 5.29 R&P + improved exhaust than it did with 37s + 4.88 R&P + stock exhaust. As mentioned in my build thread's first page's "Mega Post" I've always been against anything with more than four cylinders for off-roading, but when this Tacoma can make over 17 MPG with 40s which is only around 2 MPG less than my 4cyl powered Triple Case'd 1981 Hilux Rock Crawler's highway MPG with 37s, I'd say it's a complete no brainer which I'd prefer for a road trip.

17.3 MPG with 40s? Cruise for this stretch was set to 68 MPH.



Final pic for the day! Good night from the Land of Enchantment and cya tomorrow!

 

Another great thread, enjoying reading along! Safe travels

 

If you choose to stop in Albuquerque for any reason, please be aware of your surroundings at all time. As much as I love my home town, it has the highest rate of auto theft in the nation.

 

Thank you Dan!

Yes, I'll be stopping there next for fuel so a big Thank You for the tip Sir I did select my budget hotels using online crime statistics. Our home town is also high up on this unfortunate stat so we are definitely very careful with older Yodas that have worn out key cylinders: We use kill switches, truck alarms, and steering wheel club's. The Taco has the last two but I do plan to have all three soon.

@SubCultureNM Question: Where would you recommend along the 40 for fuel? I usually seek out truck stops such as Pilot, Loves, FlyingJ, Mavric, and so on. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

Good morning everyone!

I'm up and heading out now! Slept good and am primed for some gear jamming

Had awesome parking at my hotel directly outside my room door and shielded on both sides



Looking out from the room

 

Always happy to help. Like you, my wife and I always stop at the same places for fuel. I have to be selective because we pull a 30' gooseneck (our redneck toy hauler), so I look for places that are easy in/out (mainly truck stops). If you can fill up at the Route 66 casino immediately west of Albuquerque, I'd recommend doing that, then bypassing ABQ altogether. After ABQ, headed east on 40, you've got Moriarty, Clines Corners, Santa Rosa, and Tucumcari for fuel before you get into the Texas panhandle. Once you're in TX you won't lack for fuel options.

 

Hello,

Could you explain what you mean? I tow a small camp trailer with my 2gen and am trying to learn more about towing in hilly country with it.

 

Interesting traffic signals out here. Thru traffic is to the right of those turning left so why not place the green turn arrow all the way left? Who let a Brit manage the NM transportation department?



Beautiful Red Rock features to the north

 

LOL. That's pretty funny. I guess when we grow up with it that way, it's just normal and we don't question it.

It's good to see some rain falling somewhere in NM. I hope that it follows you through the ABQ metro area!

 

Good morning and thank you for the good question. If you wouldn't mind me breaking this down to the pure basics I would appreciate it as this is an extremely enjoyable way to pass time while driving

Toyota five and six speed manual truck transmissions have under-drive, direct-drive, and over-drive gears.

Under-drive gears are expressed by some-number-greater-than-1.00:1 (i.e. 3.00:1) and function by multiplying torque output at the expense of a reduced shaft speed (RPM). Both values are directly factored using the gear ratio. Using a 3.00:1 example, if the transmission input experiences a torque load of 100 lb-ft at a constant 90 RPM, it's output would yield 300 lb-ft (100 in X 3.00 = 300 out, theoretical) but with a reduced speed of 30 RPM (90 in divided by 3.00 = 30 out). In these gears we have lower speeds but higher rates of acceleration.

Direct-drive gears are just that: The input values are directly passed through to the output.

And finally, over-drive gears are the exact opposite of under-drive gears, expressed in a value less than 1.00 such as 0.85:1. Torque output is reduced but shaft speed is increased. In these gears we have higher speeds but lower rates of acceleration.

Under-drive gears are traditionally 1/2/3, direct is 4, and over-drive is 5 (and 6). For the 3rd gen Tacoma V6 both five and six are over-drive but on your truck Toyota broke tradition by having the first four gears all under-drives and 6 as a lone over-drive.

When it comes to high load demands such as jammin through the hills and/or towing, our goal should be to utilize gears that are both the most durable and run the coolest. Gear ratios closest to 1.00:1 are going to be both the strongest as well as run the coolest because they will be of the larger diameter gears in the transmission and will cause lower levels of axial torque loading which minimizes friction (heat).

Over-drive gears are both (1) the smallest and therefore weakest of all, and (2) beings they are loaded at the highest speeds they generate the most amount of heat. So when we are subjecting them to very high levels of stress by being nearly or completely floored and lugging the engine up a hill (demanding the most torque from the engine since it's being reduced by the over-drive) instead of downshifting, we are causing the highest amount of stress possible.

Does this mean the transmission is going to blow up, no. But it does mean the life of that over-drive gear is going to be reduced and maybe you would experience gear or bearing whine and associated noises beginning at 150,000 miles instead of 200,000 miles.

Especially when we have the option to downshift to a direct-drive gear, which is the strongest and coolest running of them all (the torque path is directly transferred from input to output using one shift hub and no gears at all) or the gear just below it which is the strongest and coolest running of all under-drive gears, sacrifice five minutes out of your commute to maintain longevity out of your drivetrain.

Regards,
BigMike

ps. That has got to be the most hands free speech-to-text input ever done in my life

 

Still above my head but by far the best explanation I've run across yet.

 

@Nateclimb To continue more on towing, the best advice I could give would be to always properly judge the slope and challenge of each hill to give your truck an honest chance at maintaining a descent speed without having to lug the engine too much or lose too much speed from having to downshift more gears than necessary.

To explain, here is my mindset upon approaching hills while towing.

In California the speed limit while towing it's 55 mph. I'll usually tow cruising 3 to 5 mph over this, which our highway patrol don't seem to mind. While approaching the base of a hill I'll firmly roll into the throttle judging the distance and my rate of approach to gain 2 or 3 mph more, hopefully up to 62 or 63. I do this in anticipation that the hill will quickly zap my speed, while also not gaining too much speed so that cops understand I am simply hammering down to settle in for a long climb. I'm not saying to pin it & hit 80; Even just a few mph more will help with what I do next.

Knowing that the hill is going to zap my speed, I'll try to hold it above cruising speed for as long as I can deep in the throttle but never floored. Once I've lost ground and am back to 60 there's no sense in lugging more so I'll quickly downshift to fourth and get back on the throttle hard at no less than the posted speed limit of 55. Fourth gear for me is a direct drive so I'll just hammer it to the floor and see what she's got.

If I make it up without losing too much RPM then great. That's why I tried to keep my speed up in the early going of the climb. Otherwise, at this point it becomes important to know the torque and power curves of your engine to be able to judge when is the appropriate time to downshift to third.

If you downshift too early, you will be engaging the clutch at an engine RPM too high and too far away from peak torque causing the engine to lose RPM before it can recover. You would have been better holding it in the taller gear a few more moments.

If you downshift too late, and this is especially a problem if your gears are spread apart wide like gears 3 & 4 of a five speed trans, then you will re-engage the clutch at or below peek torque which won't provide the engine sufficient time to settle back in to have a warrior's shot at holding the gear up to the summit. In this scenario you're going to lose too much speed and have to downshift twice back-to-back. Now you're at a speed which is too slow and won't have enough RPM for an attempted upshift, so you're only downshift again and so on and will be stuck in a gear that has plenty of torque but hardly any speed stuck in the granny lane get'n pass by everyone for the rest of the hill.

Hope some of this helps!

BigMike

 

Seriously? 55 mph speed limit when towing? Makes me appreciate TX even more. I'll have to keep this in mind when we eventually make it out there to run Fordyce and Dusy/Ershim. The Super Duty loves to run 75 - 80, even when pulling 13k lbs.

 

Just cruising along out here. Cities are becoming smaller, fewer, and far between.







I've gone through many const zones

 

Here comes a random internet image search. California's motto: "Welcome, we don't have enough regulations, now please don't ever return, thank you" I never get political on public-facing platforms but many aspects of life here could be much better. It's a really pretty place to live with amazing wheeling.

 

Thank you, that was the perfect stop for me!





120 miles 17.7 MPG with 40" tires. Come now, surely some out there can change their negative opinions about the new 3.5? ...

 

Random pics

 

The climb out of Albuquerque was pretty brutal but I managed to hold it in 5th all the way up at 67 MPH with power to spare.

Once up top we hit serious cross wind and I saw my first ever big rig trailer get all four wheels off the ground on the cross wind facing side. I could see light under the tires reflecting off the ground, probably got them two feet air borne. The driver did an amazing job of swerving to prevent a massive roll over. It was intense!

I just stopped in Santa Rosa, NM to take a break. Ended up just sitting in my chair a good ten mins uninterrupted to just relax a bit

Upon turning off the engine here is my next 134 miles after the last 17.7 MPG report above. Seriously guys, isn't this great? I bet with locking hubs I'd be over 18 MPG on 40" tires. Given the fact that Toyota keeps sticking it to us with inefficient spark-ignition engines that run on vacuum, I'm very impressed.