18 Taco DCSB with lift and overland gear - underpowered?

Hello,
I'm new to TW and will be joining the Taco club in 3 -4 months, I am currently a 4runner owner. We live in the CO mountains and there are times where my v6 4Runner lacks a little oomph...

I'm concerned about the amount of power available with the 2018 V6 - can anyone comment on this?
Target build info- 2018 DCSB, Off road, Icon Lift, Truck Cap in the rear, RTT for some percent of the time, and/or an overland trailer. It will have full skid plates and sliders... long term possibly bumpers.

Targeting the OVTune mod. Possibly the TRD air intake, but I saw a post somewhere that you can add the more free flowing connection without adding the air intake noise.

I've got a couple main questions;
1. People with this setup, have you noticed that you're under powered? how does it drive on the highway? do you live in the mountains?

2. What size tires are people running on the 2.75" lifts? I've heard 33s, 285s.. I have 285/75/R18 on my 4Runner... but I think I want to go just a hair smaller on the taco. Suggestions? Pics?

3. Are there any other performance mods that I could consider? THe TRD exhaust? I'm not a fan of loud trucks..... so I'm not overly enthusiastic about that but if it would help free up some power I'd consider it.

Any thoughts on this would be really helpful! I've been browsing the forums and gotten a lot of good info about this build from here, so general thank you to TW.

 

Recommend the OV tune, skinnies work well on the Taco. I was ready to do gears until I uploaded the OV tune. Truck will still run up I-70 on 59 lb 33" tires in the fast lane even with the RTT on. But I don't have a ton of armor nor am I pulling a trailer. If I was towing and had a lot of extra weight, I would do gears.

 

Yes it will be. Going up 285 or I-70 is going to drive you crazy. I can't stand driving up 285 truck is all over reving up, down, etc and I'm running it pretty much stock. I'd insist on a manual transmission if you plan on weighting it down.

 

Save your self some headaches and skip the auto transmission and get a MT. The MT has lower 4.30:1 gears and is just set up better for grunt work. IMHO.

We just got back from you part of the world recently. Spent two weeks roaming about in the mountains of CO in my truck loaded down heavy for camping. The only time I felt any lack of power was above 11,500ft in elevation climbing grades.

OV tune is the go to for power concerns. I have it on my truck and have no complaints.

I have 2 sets of tires for my truck.
265/75r16 KO2 E Rated on the stock OR wheels and a set of 255/80r17 KM2 E Rated on FJ Steel wheels. Both are heavy but I don’t see much difference in the performance of the truck with either mounted due to the small diameter differences.

 

Just get 4.88 gears. Check out the 4.88 mega thread.

Also make sure you get the new tsb ecu update from the dealer.

Ovtune is great but it won't help with all the gear and the bigger tires.

 

If you think a 3rd gen is underpowered loaded down take my 2.7 for a whirl