The 5.29 Mega Thread!!

Yes. 5.29s 285/75R17 with Speedo recalibrator. I can hit indicated, Waze shows 90 as does Gaia gps speed 90.

 

Had 5.29s installed on my 2019 TRD Sport DCLB on 35s a week ago. Truck shifts flawlessly now! Can definitely feel & notice the difference. I’m 200 miles into the break in period & just started switching to 4H while driving around town to give a break in on the front diff. Just going to the grocery store or small errands etc. Definitely avoiding HWY use to prevent anything from getting too hot & puss footing the gas pedal is an understatement. It is an annoying break in period but protecting the investment is worth it!

 

5.29's with 35's, wouldn't have it any other way.

 

Might be better to use 4wd on the highway... you don’t want to be turning much on dry pavement in 4wd, really easy to bind up

 

You’re rite I shoulda clarified...definitely not driving in 4H while in parking lots or neighborhoods. Just the straight roads

 

(Hopefully I’m not the only one asking these questions) I’d like to regear, but do you loose top speed after regear? Or does the regear make it easier to reach top speed? Saw a YouTube of some dudes only going 89mph after a regear and saying if you want speed buy a Supra. If someone could help me get out of this doubt. Is it worth it? (As a person who sometimes need to speed up quickly when entering Texas highways)

 

It probably limits top speed but it helps with acceleration. Unless you need to go 85 on an on-ramp I don’t think you’ll have many issues. I’ve driven 75-80 with them but no faster so I can’t speak on top speed

 

Think about it this way. If your transmission tops out at 6000 rpm in its final gear at 100mph on stock gear, then you regear to a much lower gear, what do you think is going to happen? Yes, you lose top speed.

 

From Nitro-gears website: The Tacoma has a very tall overdrive in 5th AND 6th gear to turn low RPMS. The new 3.5l V6 makes plenty of horsepower, but needs to reach it's power band. Even with stock tires we have found the 6th gear is nearly useless, the gearing is so high that the transmission is constantly shifting. In a STOCK Tacoma Automatic 6th gear puts you at ~1500 RPM @ 60MPH. This simply does not work. You may not realize it, but you probably are hardly ever in 6th gear unless you are almost going downhill. By regearing you can bring the motor back to the RPM it needs to be.

 

My pig did great making it from Denver to Telluride. Pulling up the passes in 4th gear at whatever speed you want to go with all this armor and 35s, was much better than the drive last time with stock gears and hardly any weight where it would dance between 3rd and 4th and struggle to go 55. I even averaged 21.7 mpg which is honestly unbelievable so I had to do the math a couple times.

 

Getting my re-gear done as we speak.

 

Nice! Who did them and how did they turn out? What size tires are you running?

 

Welp, gears are in! Took us about 6-7 hours to swap the pre-assembled third/clamshell from ECGS. Installation was relatively smooth with only one brain fart that cost us about an hour to resolve. The rear is so easy it's pretty much cheating. The front is easy too, it just takes quite a bit longer while to get everything out of the way so you can pull the diff. We even finished in time to drop the cores off at UPS and go camp for the night.

I'm about 300 miles into the break in and also just flashed OVTune 2.0 with the 5.29_33_THX_Premium tune. I'll be honest, the result of all of this is not super exciting. The truck just finally drives well. It hasn't magically turned into a race car, it just has an appropriate amount of low RPM torque and overall drives better than ever. Definitely worth the effort though and I can't wait to get this thing off road!

Also - can anyone explain why ECGS doesn't pre-install the intermediate shaft on the ADD side of the front differential? We ended up having to crack open the clamshell to pop that out from the inside. Not a big deal, I just didn't understand why they don't include it. Maybe it changes depending on the year/model?

 

They don't include it because you are expected to re use yours. I take a long skinny flat head screw driver and hammer to punch it out from the other side.

 

Right but why? They include everything else. Seems like they just want to make sure you're paying attention

 

Same reason they don't include the entire ADD tube, extra shipping weight and another piece that can possibly get damaged.

 

Got them on there group buy thread installed at Premier Gears in Riverside. Super happy so far, still breaking them in so I haven’t put my foot into it yet. Running 35’s and glad I went with the 5:29’s.

 

Has anybody else been told by the shop/installer that there’s really no need to drain your diff fluid after the 500 mile break in & wait till about the 25,000 mile mark?!

 

No.

 

Didn’t think so