To front locker or to not to '19 6mt trdOR w/ 35 and 5.29 gears

Howdy,

I apologize if this topic has been covered, but with my lack of patience and searching, I really haven't found a concise answer to help me make an educated decision.

My truck is manual with 35's (or 34 ish 315-75-16)
It's a dog, so I'm about to regear to 5.29.

Although this is a bit tight for freeway driving, it will give me all that lost torque and then some while crawling with all my auto having buddies.

Since I'm tearing it all apart, I'm really debating throwing an eaton e locker up front as well. I'm aware of the axle breakage issues etc, but if I'm doing something, I don't want to limit myself.

My question is:

Will this be a 1200 dollars better than A-trac that stays engaged under 3mph in 4lo with the rear locker engaged??????????

Will A-trac still operate without the diff engaged for snow driving? My understanding is; A-trac provides its LSD through the brakes and not the actual locking of the differential, so changing out the diff won't affect A-trac when choosing to use this option.

Thanks!

 

An aftermarket ecu tune will address the low torque at low rpm better than any other mod. I have the 6MT specific Coyoza Tune and it makes the truck so much more drive-able and throttle responsive in every gear.

 

Absolutely $1200 better. A-TRAC will function as normal, though it has nothing to do when the front diff is locked, only when it's left open.

 

I second this. A great thing to try prior to doing gears. Even then, if gears are still wanted, there are benefits to having the tune.


On the AT / MT wheeling mix, I simply drop in to 4Lo about the time that the AT folks are going into 4Hi. It really helps in both the slow stuff, and places that you really don't want to stall. Stock, we have all six gears available to use and ATs have only the 1st four, I believe. Although, a tune can unlock 5th and 6th.


To your main question, if I was getting gears, I would get lockers.

 

Thanks for the input...

I will def look into a tune for optimizing the engines tune/ torque curve.....

Another reason to go 5.29 for me, aside from the loss of power etc, is the speed of crawling. These clutch pressure plates suck and slip when trying to clutch at all while loaded in crawling conditions. This leaves me driving a bit more committed fully clutched out and bouncing more than the auto homies that have a transmission to do the slipping for them. I'm definitely not trying to do a clutch any time soon since I have 45k on the truck.

 

i dont mean to derail OP's thread but i am considering a tune for my 2021 TRDOR 6MT and looking at options so i have to ask... did you try any other tunes besides Coyoza to compare?

 

Yes, sort of. My tuner guy downloaded OV Tune (not sure what version or whatever) then he says to me: "Oh, you wanted the Coyoza tune, hang on". So he goes to then download Coyoza and just then the server goes down across North America. Long story short, tuner guy is from out of town and I end up with OV for a couple of months before a subsequent meet up where I got the Coyoza installed.

The OV tune was a big improvement over stock but I found the throttle response just a bit too touchy in 1st gear, requiring a bit of careful feathering of the clutch. Coyoza Tune corrected that and I highly recommend getting it.

 

Wheel with somebody else that has a front locker and you will see that it is worth it.

 

thanks for the info! would you say Coyoza provided improved low end torque in a noticeable way?

 

Yes, absolutely there is noticeable improvement in low end torque. The stock ecu provides an Atkinson Cycle which creates efficiencies by lengthening the burn duration. The negative consequence is a resultant lowering of available torque at low rpm. Aftermarket tuning eliminates the Atkinson Cycle.

With the stock ecu tuning I ended up driving around at 3,000 rpm to get a decent throttle response. With the Coyoza tune I am driving around at 2,000rpm with much improved torque and throttle and better fuel economy.

 

Whether ATRAC is better or worse than a locker depends on the context. I don’t have a front locker, but I do have a rear one. In situations where wheel spin is unavoidable (snow, mud, etc, the stuff we have in cold and wet areas) I have not found any advantage of the rear locker over ATRAC. In other situations I have noticed a small advantage.

The disadvantage of the locker is that it interferes with steering. I tend to leave it off unless needed. ATRAC on the other hand is always on.

In the end, it doesn’t matter because you will still have both.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-traction-control-modes-explained.530695/

 

If you have to ask if you need a front locker, then you probably don’t need one. And anyone who says you don’t need one, has probably never owned a vehicle that had one.

 

I’m definitely with you on this, it’s tough hanging with my AT friends on the rocks! I did the KDMax Pro tune and it helped but I’m planning on 5.29’s also. Need as much help as I can get with these clutches. I tend to have to bounce over stuff instead of crawling, drives me crazy. But I do love my MT, wouldn’t trade it.

 

Do it.

 

Do you rock crawl? I was talking to the owner of a offroad shop and I asked him the same question about a front locker when they change my gears out. He drives a huge gladiator with the hellcat swap and said you would be surprised what just the real locker can do with a tacoma. At the end of the day he said it was my money. Air locker need the compressor so that adds more money and come out the same as the elocker aftermarket unit. Question is have you ever in your life thought MAN i wish i had a front locker.

You guys with questions really need to go out and talk with guys who do this like it's an addiction.

 

Thankyou everyone for chiming in!


Have I ever wished I had a front locker?

Yes! I've been stuck unable to get up a steep rock face or loose section with the rear wheels beginning to hop etc a few times where a front locker would pull me right up.

Do I rock crawl?

It tends to happen more often than not on the trails my buddies coax me into. My truck is amazing with the setup it has, but in the few situations where I have to be pulled up or have to use an alternate route, the rear locker isn't enough.

The premise of this post is to help me justify the expenditure at the moment.
I know if I don't do it, I'll regret it in the future when posed with another similar situation. -------this being said, my mind is pretty much made up.


"You guys with questions really need to go out and talk with guys who do this like it's an addiction."
I was under the impression the forum is a place to ask such questions to others with the same vehicles who might be in the same situation??????

You're the first to relate with me over this! All my friends have autos and don't get it....
I"ve been crawling some things and stalled out trying to go so slow causing rocking and body damage, thus a big reason for going 5.29 to slow the thing down. But just like you, I wouldn't trade the manual for anything.
I do have a buddy with a long travel 2nd gen who I've been drifting cars with for many years. He actually converted to manual after having seen the fun I have in rwd, standard handbrake, etc. These trucks drift quite well in dirt! I'm also going to trip the wiring to the rear locker to engage in rwd for additional slidey fun

 

I’d say if you have the extra money and it’s already apart do it, latter you’d have to spend the extra on labor. It’s only money right lol. I’m still on the fence while I wait for the rest of my armor to be built.

 

I’ve definitely been in spots that I wish I had a front locker. Then thought about the extra load it would put on the clutch… It’s a give and take with the manual but the rewards (to me) are completely worth it! You definitely have to DRIVE these things, very unforgiving on big obstacles. I’ve been thinking about putting in line locks, maybe

 

I'm hoping the extra load will be offset with the slower wheel speed of the 5.29 to keep the motor spinning at low wheel speed and minimal clutch work.... I guess we'll see in the near future when I get this all going!
A line lock setup is an interesting thought, but I'm really not sure how that would help out while in 4wd... wouldn't braking the front or rear only slow all 4 wheels due to the center diff being locked? Thus bog down the motor and force the same issue of needing to clutch, or keep speed and bounce etc?

BTW---how is your tune? I'm definitely planning on a tune as well. The Coyoza 6mt sounds like a great map to load and go.

 

The line lock idea was for more of a “hill assist” concept to hold the truck when I let off the brake. Easy to double foot an auto, not so much with a MT!

I’m headed back down to NH tomorrow for a retune, apparently the software was corrupted when I got the tune. It’s been blah since I got it. Hopefully this will clear it up because all I hear are great things but mine definitely isn’t