How does the 1st gen handle high speed highway cruising?

Sweet jesus, your engine must be howling at that speed

 

That is screaming for highway speeds. Old cars before overdrives typically ran @ 3K and 70 mph on the hwy.
Jump in a modern truck (or car) geared for mileage and they're turning under 2K. It's how a full size truck gets better mileage than us.

 

Oh whats up I'm over in BR area

 

I don't know your gearing but mine turns 3K @ 80. Sucking down fuel like an offshore boat

 

are you able to 'crawl' your truck in 4lo in drive (as opposed to first gear with clutch start cancel engaged) and stall it and keep turning key
how does that work for AT? I am needing to test my MT out and see what it works, its supposed to keep on running and just inch slowly forward

 

ah, yeah I've heard auto's are a little taller geared overall.

You know, our vehicles even with lots of new parts, are getting a little long in the tooth for those speeds anyway. Could be pushing these old engines to an early grave.

 

It will....'til it won't.
It does..'til it don't.
-Frank Zappa-

 

Mine is a manual as well and I can attest to this fact haha

 

yeah, shame about the oil incident. Would have been a great study of a highway driven life expectancy with all ya'lls spaces between.


And you couldn't get new rod bearings in without dropping the crank.....or couldn't get in crank bearings? Couldn't roll them in from below?

 

Yup, same here...manual v6 as well. The 33" tires don't help

Just came back from a highway trip yesterday averaging about 14.5 mpg, cruising at 75mph almost the whole time. About 25 miles of that was a steep highway climb through a mountain grade otherwise I probably would have done a bit better. But anything over 65 means at best I'll get maybe 16mpgs, if I keep it at 60-65mph (impossible in CA) I can do way better.

 

Just to weigh in from my 2nd gen tundra experience; before I put 35 m/ts and a light bar, it was a really nice and quiet ride on the highway. I could do just over 2k rpm going 80 miles an hour. That being said my 1st gen is perfectly fine on the highway for normal (5 or 10 over) driving.

 

My '98 has some small vibrations as the old truck it is. I've driven it for 8+ hours straight of highway and don't get too bothered by it though. Steering play is quite common in first gens and definitely don't have the creature comforts that a second gen will offer. Noise isn't great either. The first gens are lightweight too compared to the second gens. Around 3,400 pounds. Doesn't hold up to wind as good as other trucks. But on the bright side I have achieved around 30 miles per gallon several times. I have the 3.4 v6 with a manual tranny. Got from leadville to colorado springs on a quarter tank twice now (128 mile trip) and that's only about 3.75 gallons used. If you're nice to it a first gen will give you the better gas mileage.

 

Tack weld mod on the column plus the oil bottle spacer mod from @Timmah! too.

 

How does your cruise handle that? If I hit the normal 30+mph winds in this part of Texas or any intense hills the cruise control has me jumping up to 4000+ rpm for a bit. I've never seen a first gen cruise control react well to wind or hills. Of course you might be driving on flat straightaways.

 

@Chris_g_co
how!?! I want to know exactly how!
what is your secret in achieving this
I have experimented over the many years and cannot see how to get that kind of mileage.
the only way I can fathom this is to be in 5th gear @ 45mph with the best of best fuel

 

I've been thinking about doing this but people have scared me with the poly bushings saying they squeak

 

https://youtu.be/xsOptgpfshg
At about 16 minutes he starts talking about a shim he made cutting out from an oil bottle. I wasn’t aware the 95-97 had different steering shaft part numbers so it might be different.

 

What?! Nah. You just haven't owned it long enough, lol. My seats are perfectly molded to the shape of my ass. It's like when we got a new couch and now the seats are all uncomfortable because the padding isn't worn in yet. I miss my old couch...

 

Yeah, mine would down shift to 2nd on an overpass. It'll hunt for gears with the overdrive for a couple seconds, then go straight to 2nd. It would do that at whatever speed you're going. So if you're already going 80, 2nd gear is gunna hurt, lol.

So any time there's a hill (or an overpass), I turn it off and let off the gas a little bit. I'd rather slow 2mph than throw it in 2nd gear!

 

it seems to be a lot of work involved in driving AT
cruise control must operate differently in MT