4.30 vs 4.88 on an auto with 34's

Yes I spent money on the truck. No it doesn't have to make perfect sense to you. Yes I want more mileage so when I drive home the few times I get to I don't spend 200-300 dollars on gas and more around 100 to 150 to get home. I haven't laid out all the facts here on the mileage I get driving through the mountains but I've seen as low as 9 screaming up the hill in third to maintain speed. So it would be nice if it wasn't doing that but I don't want to settle for better mileage going up hill and mediocre mileage on the highway without figuring out both sides first. Thanks for your input though.

 

Sure thing, you can PM me if you have any specific questions.

 

exactly my thoughts

 

I would go 4.88 all day long with your setup...but here are some 4.30s for sale if you haven't seen them...

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/trd-off-road-factory-4-30-gear’s.528996/

 

I'm probably gonna buy these and see where I stand. I would rater be slightly under geared and maintain what mpg I'm getting now then over do it. from what math I'm doing, I went from a 31 to a 34 which is a 10% change. With the ring and pinion being a 3.9 going to a 4.3 would be as close to a stock gearing as I could get. thanks for the link though!

 

a word of caution from my experience. check with your installer before you buy - no installers in my area will install owner provided gears. They provide the gears and do the install - that ensures they get max $ and are responsible for warranty of product and install.

 

would it be different if you took the third member out and took it to them to just set the gears? if I cant get someone to do it at a shop, I'm going to just set them myself with someone who has done if a few times.

 

You can probably find someone to do it, you'll just have to call around to a few shops. If you tell them they are OEM gears, that might put their minds at ease on installing customer supplied gears.

 

that's what I'm hoping. I don't want do it myself and mess it up. it would be nice to have a little bit of warranty on it.

 

The shops I discussed the work with would not do the caskets for owner install. They were all one stop shops. May not be the case where you are but ask before you buy just to be sure. ECGS does swaps so that might be an option for you.

 

ill be sure to do that, thanks for the info.

 

Well went with the 4.3's. got the gears used from here for 350, rear master install kit for 350, front mini kit for 100 and 4wheel parts let me pull the diffs myself and they set swapped and set the gears for 700. first drive this morning was pretty good. cruised in 6th for the first time in over a year. I'll post updates on gas mileage and driving when I drive it around more.

 

Went for a 60 mile drive round trip today and saw the instant mpg gauge show 20-24mpg. Between driving around town for a bit and on the highway doing 65 I got 18.1. Truck was still a little hesitant to go I to 6th at the beginning of the trip, which is because of the learning I'm gonna assume. 6th gear seems to be a friend again and overall driving is wayyy better.

 

Welcome to the 4.30 and AT club. We are the only members that I'm aware of

 

I'm really happy with the results of doing it so far. Cost me the same as if I were to just buy the 4.88 master kit too. Hopefully on my next drive to Oregon here in about a month I'll see better than 13mpg haha. We gotta get more people on the wagon now

 

I've been running 4.88s and 285-70-17s (32.8s) for a year now and have been looking at going to a 4.30 or 4.56. What has been your consistent highway (72+mph) and mixed driving (40-62 mph) MPGs? 4.30s put me at a mild upgrade but 4.56s would be an upgrade. 4.88s is an overgear for 33s and unless babied produce 16.5mpgs...

 

I see about 19 mpg doing 55-60 mph on short trips(10-15mi) and doing 70 on the highway I see about 20-21mpg. In the city it varies a lot, depends on how much skinny you use, but I can manage about 16-17 in the city. My tank average is between 18-19mpg is I go easy and 15-17 if I'm get on it a little more. I'm running 285/75r17 (33.9") Toyota open country at2 that are load E. I'm also running the ovtune as well which helped quite a bit.

 

Yea, I'm tuned as well. What are you runnin 1.04 87 or 91?

 

285/75/16's, 4.30's, AT, & 75-80mph highway = 19.5mpg...mixed driving or heavy traffic days = ~18mpg

 

4.30s it will be then!