The 5.29 Mega Thread!!

5.29s no questions asked

 

cool story bro.

 

5.29. For sure if you plan on any towing or adding more weight. 4.88 would be OK, because you didn't mention any trails or OR.

 

I want to install 4.88 or 5.29 gears but need to find a reliable/knowledgeable shop.

Anyone have suggestions for a good shop in the Southeast Georgia or Northeast Florida area?

 

Buy a 3rd member and front clamshell from ECGS. Much easier to find a shop who can handle installing an already built F+R, plus they come with a 5 year warranty. Then send back your old F+R for a core refund. Make sure you select the option for a front bushing to replace the stock needle bearing if you haven’t already as well.

You’ll save money all around and a 5 year warranty to boot, even running 35s.

I trust ECGS over any shop in my area, hence I went this route. Plus I like to save money and don’t have to have my Taco in the shop all day(s).

Good luck!

 

Just pulled the plug after 500 miles.
Metal shavings were negligible, and put Lucas 85/140 vs the Royal Purple that the shop used on install. I must say this Lucas is super thick. I am pretty sure this will help prolong the life of my gears as I pull a loaded Offroad trailer.

Anyways just wanted to post an update for those in the process.

 

Looks good!

 

As mentioned you can go with ECGS or you can ship them to @ZUK. You can check out his website. http://gearinstalls.com/

 

Now that I have a couple thousand miles on my 5.29s with a variety of different driving, I figured I should add my .02's. I'll start off with a little bit about my tacoma. It is a 2019 AT with 255/85/16 yokohama g003's on stock wheels, I also have a demello front bumper with a winch and a full set of skid plates and sliders. I just recently added a bed rack. I also have the OVTune. I also think its important to note that I live at 5500ft and frequently drive passes over 12000 feet.

Now to start off with my "review" I think a lot of people may over hype themselves on the gears. Re gearing by no means makes the truck a race car or makes up for a lack of displacement or forced induction; obvious I hope. However what it does make up for is the inability to keep the truck moving due to the lack of low end torque these motors are plagued with. With 5.29s I quickly experienced something the truck has never done; pulling in sixth gear. When you start to ease into the throttle cruising down the highway you can feel the truck begin to accelerate and a nice little surge of power. This is enough to keep it in sixth through stretches of highway I used to have to lock into 4th or it would just dance the 4-5-6-5-4 dance. I think this has been the best part about the gears so far. Enough torque going to the wheels in sixth to keep speed or even speed up. Another huge plus has been 3-5% grades where the truck would immediately need 4th gear no matter what, it now generally stays in sixth on the same exact grades, maybe 5th if I am not paying attention to throttle input. If it does find fifth it is quick to go into lockup which is great. The truck is hardly ever out of tc lockup now. I think the last big plus for me is off road use. The truck is much slower now in 4lo. Big plus, going down steep grades where it used to surge form 7-4 mph over and over again now stays at 2-3mph with no surge at all. It is much more controllable on obstacles too, another big plus.

Now I want to talk about something I was less impressed by; big mountain grades. I think this is the part where I over hyped myself, I thought the truck would have no problem cruising up these brutal passes in 5th gear which it maybe could if you were okay with going well under the speed limit. The truck still needs the high rpm to keep it moving up the passes. This is still an improvement however because before it would gear hunt between 4th and 3rd which totally sucked. Now it will just grab 4th and pull up to fuel cut off if you wanted to. Also, I wanted to add that the truck does govern out at 85mph which is about 92 on 33s which is not an issue for me but worth noting for others.

I guess people care about mpg. So to keep it simple my gas mileage overall went up. Short trips kill it however. Before gears I would average 13 city 16 highway. Now I average 14.8 city and 19.5 highway. It seems like the truck never really pegs out the mpg bar like it used to when it was in Atkinson cycle. It will when it is in 6th gear around 40mph. However, I never really see the bar below halfway anymore either.

Overall gears were a big win, I am beyond glad I went with 5.29s because I know I would have been disappointed with 4.88s. I would highly urge anyone thinking about getting 4.88s to reconsider no matter if your truck is stock or not. Rpms are totally fine in all situations and the tacoma needs all the help it can get, hence get 5.29s.

Edit/Update: Driving 80-85 mph on the highway for 50 miles+ equated to 17.8 mpg. Truck loves that speed, holds speed uphill no problems and runs about 2500rpms it never shifted out of sixth the whole trip.

 

Asking for a buddy of mine. @Pablo8 I have read a good number of your posts regarding this. My buddy is on the fence in his MT between the two ratios.
He is lifted, armored and tows a boat to FL a few times a year. He isn’t a lead foot kinda guy either, he could keep it at 70 on the HWY I am pretty sure. My thought is most of his driving is intown and trails.
I just want to have a better idea as to what RPMs he would be rolling being that he is on 255/85/16s

I don’t want to recommend anything to him regarding the MT until I feel confident to do so.

Thoughts?

 

Nice write up. I like how you actually discussed the pros in detail to elaborate your switch from stock 3.91 To 5.29. Much better than just the ole ' whole new truck, factory shoulda coulda woulda' how are you liking your yokohoma's?

Also since it was mentioned, that is not bad mileage considering elevation and what you're carrying. Hell that looks like a pretty big win in that area.

Edit for correction and addition: since you are able to stay in the power band more, and taking into account elevation and truck mods, when you're at your living altitude of 5500 are you usually at 4kish RPM in 4th ?

 

I would lean him toward 5.29. While 4.88 would most likely be fine, the towing and the driving style and the weight - with 33" tires he is going to love 5.29 much more, and feel it right away.

I don't think anything you mentioned screams high RPM's. http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html

 

I did come from stock 3.91 gearing. I absolutely love the Yokohama’s. They have been awesome.

 

I appreciate your thoughts on it. I feel the same, and more importantly so does the owner of the truck.

I would also like to say that this thread has been straight up awesome. Stays on point and I agree, the reviews are getting better and better.

 

I follow alot of @ZUK guidelines for setting up gears. Alot times I'll have his site up to get pinion depth shims and pinion seals set correctly.

 

Fantastic input, thank you!

 

Thanks for all the assistance. So after reading some more plan to go with 5.29s. Now just to figure out how. I sent an email to @ZUK and ECGS.

 

Yea, I guess I should have stated that I've already had it off-road and intend on doing plenty more!!

 

5.29!

 

Pulling my 4.88’s and swapping to 5.29’s as we speak. This plus some twin turbos should really make these big tires spin! Can’t wait to feel the difference