3rd gen regear?

drive in s-4, s-5 for the freeway.

 

I’m not sure what to add here. 3G taco was born into the digital shitstorm of negative emotions we call our world in 2022. It turns out the truck doesn’t solve all problems for people who go looking for problems. Not all can be saved, unfortunately.

 

Loving the 4.88 regear I just did. So far has solved all my issues with gear hunting and pulling hills.

 

Yeah I agree with this. Gearing and tune will go a long ways, but you will never fully escape it.

Go trade it for a f150 tremor or gmc at4

 

Regearing is an absolute last resort if you love everything else about the truck but can't get over the constant shifting.

The first thing you should do is explore driving with ECT Power turned on (it's a button down and left from the climate control area). ECT power makes the engine stay in the power band more often by telling the transmission to stay in a lower gear longer.

If that doesn't seem to work, you can shift to S mode and set the gear to S6. If it downshifts, shift to S5. If it downshifts again, shift to S4. Repeat until it stops hunting for the "right" gear (which is almost always a gear in between 3rd and 4th or 4th and 5th, more on that later). If the terrain changes visibly, shift back up by one gear. If it downshifts again, you shifted too soon, so shift back down, try again when the terrain changes more. This is what I do to make my Tacoma drive the way I want.

If that doesn't work, or more accurately, if you're still not satisfied, regearing will help a LOT. There are 2 issues with the Tacoma's 6 speed auto, a hardware issue with the gear spacing and a software issue with the tuning. 3rd, 4th, and 5th gears are very widely spaced and often you need a gear that's in between them. The gaps between 3rd and 4th and 4th and 5th are 48.87% and 45.45% respectively.

Regearing from stock 3.909 to 4.875 (4.88) will shift all the gears by 24.7%, which gives you the gears smack in between the stock 3, 4, and 5 that you need. This would also put your 6th within 100 rpm of where your 5th currently is. The grand result is the truck is MUCH more likely to "find" a gear that makes it happy while you're driving in any given situation. That resolves the hardware problem.

That is easily enough for most people, but regearing is expensive, especially if you have a 4WD, but there is a cheaper option that solves the software issue instead. Getting a professional tune can be a sub-$500 investment that is otherwise risk free and alters parameters on the truck that make it drive more how you'd expect it to drive rather than how Toyota thinks the average buyer will be happy with.

 

I spent lots of money on tunes. They are a great bandaid but you will never be happy without gears. The truck will still shift going up hills. It's not a low rpm motor. I run 4.88 on 33s with stock tune and it runs great. I didn't like highway manners stock. S5 will let you see how 4.88 will feel at highway speeds. Gears make stop and go much better. Off road is much improved as well. It won't get better without gears. I tried it and wasted half the price of my gear swap on stuff that didn't solve the problem

 

Cheapest fix is just put it in S5 on the highway and not spend anything. Same net results cruising on the highway as having 4.88s and being in 6th but its free.

 

I have a question on your speed to, Tacomas hate speed, my tacoma is great but I maybe go 65 to 70 on parts of the hwy, if im trying to maintain 75 to 80 it constantly downshifts and searches for a gear above 80 rarely will stays in 6th to much drag on my truck with the all the added weight but also did this stock. But for me maintaining a slower speed stopped the gear hunting. I will be rear gearing the taco but mainly to improve off road driving for the 33s

 

This is very true for my truck, 65 to 70 it's great, 75 to 80 it will occasionally shift 5 times in 20 seconds. My 1st gen never did that, but at 80 my first gen got about 13 mpg. Makes it difficult considering Texas 75 mph speed limits (80 on some stretches and 85 mph on SH 130). If speed is what you want, a Ranger or Colorado might be the best option.

 

FRIDAY THREAD

 

If I'm driving up a steep hill and my truck starts to slow down I clutch in, rev match, shift to a lower gear, clutch out, proceed up the hill comfortably at a higher RPM.
Your truck is doing that automatically for you.
So?

 

The problem is that will do this every 2-5 seconds in really bad conditions, which gets really aggravating.

 

That is how the truck drives. 5th gear feels great on the highway, 6th gear is for 1-2% grades, flats, and downhill. No reason to expect the truck to stay in 6th on the highway going up and down hills, gaining speed, making passes. Its not a CVT.

- 6MT driver

Cliffs: truck is slow

 

Oh. I supposed if it happens that frequently it would get irritating.

 

I have the 4 cyl with the factory standard 4.30 rear diff so maybe it’s easier for me, but all I do is go to S5 or S4, whichever I need if it’s shifting back and forth. And if high rpm’s is needed so be it, this engine purrs.

S mode- it works, select the gear you want that does the job to minimize shifting. It’s just not that hard!

 

Okay smart ass, I live on a farm and almost daily drive a semi usually loaded to 80,000+ Hauling corn and beans to the river. Why is it I don’t have to shift it’s 13speed manual transmission once at speed because it’s so flat here yet this Tacoma is constantly hunting between 6th and 5th doing 65-67 mph. Some of us drive manuals every day also! We know your proud of your ability to drive stick, but trust me being a smart ass is not helping solve the problem.

 

It’s that torque monster, truck engine v6.

 

I'm sure the inertia helps with the big rigs, but also apparently I didn't understand the frequency at which the auto Tacomas are shifting up and down.
I've seen so many comments about the truck downshifting to go up a hill or whatever I thought everyone just disliked the high RPMs. I love getting out of Nebraska into Colorado and screaming up winding mountain passes in 2nd or 3rd gear. Makes me feel like a race car or something.
But I think I can understand being bothered by rrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRR every few seconds if it's really like that.

 

Based on the pic I’m going out on a limb here and saying if anyone knows how to drive a manual it’s you Fred lol.
Not sure why your Tacoma is dropping to 5th on a flat road at 60-65 unless your carrying some weight, but I would go ahead and play “manual” by dropping it into S5 when the shift back and fourth starts.