The 5.29 Mega Thread!!

No is my vote

 

After 5.29 regear in an Automatic, what gear are folks using when towing? I believe with stock gears folks recommended staying out of overdrive gears. Does that still apply after a regear? Thanks!

 

So I would upgrade if I used my truck to tow on the regular or if you have weighed it down so much that it needs it.

If your looking for the transmission to not up shift so quickly, and your wanting your gears to hold longer than I would say a tune.

I did both. Gears and then the Tune. The gears helped me with the weight and gave the truck some more pull down low.
I did experience that the trans didn’t up shift so quickly with the 5.29s, in the end I still tuned the vehicle so the shift patterns were to my liking.

 

Thanks @JoeCOVA, @Texoma, and others for the valuable info. I dropped off my truck yesterday to get 5.29 gears installed and pick it up tomorrow morning. So excited, can't wait to see what the buzz is all about!

 

I'm having one heck of a time getting my rear 5.29's, obviously everything is running low on stock or backordered. My question is this, would it NOT be advisable to run 5.29 gears from two different manufactures front to rear? I ask because I have the 5.29's for the front diff, but the rears are no where in sight yet, and I need to get this done. Would running the Revolution 5.29 gears up front and say Motive 5.29's in the rear be a bad thing? What would be the con's of doing so if I did?

 

I dont see a problem with 2 different manufacturers. It's the same ratio.

 

Just an update - 1200 or so miles on my 5.29's.

Did my first full highway road trip, 340 miles or so straight, averaging between 65-75mph. Truck averaged 18.2mpg, with speedo correction.

Truck has 34's, and about 400 extra pounds over stock. For this trip it was carrying an additional 350lbs.

This is on the latest version of the OTT tune. Truck drives very good in the current state.

 

What throttle setting from OTT did you go with? I recently got 5.29 and still breaking them in. Will be getting OTT in a couple weeks and just want to hear thoughts on throttle settings. Thanks!

 

Whatever one down from max throttle sensitivity is. Could probably use to go down another notch to be honest. Gotta be real easy off the line or it gets a little jerky.

 

It was well packaged. I recommend this option.

 

I believe my shop used Valvoline 80w-90 when installing my gears. After the 500 mile break in, I changed it and replaced it with Lucas 85w-140. I feel like my gas mileage dropped a lot. I was able to get about 20mpg on the highway and just cruising 50-60mpg with 80w-90. However now I get about 16-17mpg with 85w-140. I am on 5.29s with 33s. Has anyone else experienced a drop in MPG going with 85w-140? I am thinking about switching back to 80w-90. Thoughts?

 

About 150 miles into my break in on 5.29 with 33s. Truck should of come like this from the factory. I also did a Ott tune 200 miles before the gear install. I live at 6,500ft elevation and before the tune the truck was a dog.

When I went off-road i would immediately put into 4 low just to have some power to climb steep dirt roads on mountain passes.

After the tune the gear hunting calmed down significantly but it was masking the main issue we all have.. the truck needs gears.

Before I was getting 10.5mpg in town after the tune I was getting about 13.7mpg and after the gears about 15.4 in town.
I haven’t done a lot of highway because of the break in period but I have been driving on dirt roads in 4high to break in the front diff. Putting around town the truck keeps up with other cars effortlessly.

Tested 4 low on a flat dirt road ( the installers said no serious off-roading until the 500 mile period )
And first gear is pretty low. But for now in trying to get through the 500 miles, 50 miles at a time with 1 hr cool downs… takes forever.

 

Should only need about 15-20 min cool downs

 

I drained the 85w-140 after the initial break in and went back to normal spec fluids. The thick stuff 100% hurts your mileage.

 

Phew glad I'm not the only one. Thought I was crazy for thinking my MPG dropped. Normal spec as in 75w-85?

 

I can’t remember if I used a 75w-85 or

$29 75w-90 Synthetic Gear Lube - 1 Quart (Pack of 2)

75w-90. It was thinner at ambient temp that the 85w140 after 30 miles of driving.

 

Just as a second update, my second long highway drive of about 140 miles. Minus the additional 350lbs that was in the above post. Steady 60-65mph on hilly Western North Carolina highway (caravan of rigs going wheeling). My average was 20.2mpg.

This is with the heavy fluid that ECGS recommends.

 

Good question…wondering since s-4 locks out the TC stock gearing, does a lower ratio cause s-5 to always lock out the TC at cruising rpm’s. Maybe overthinking this since the manual states towing in s-5 is okay.
Im on 4:88’s KDmax pro+ XT tune on 32’s and tow in S-5….works great at 65-70 and doesn’t lug. TC seems locked out and rpm’s are in the 2300-2500 range. There’s no way I’d want to use s-4 towing with my 4:88’s as the rpm’s would be screaming.

 

Woo hoo! Picked up mpgs switching back to 80w-90 Valvoline dino from 85w-140 Lucas dino. Back to 20 hwy from 16-17hwy. Noticed that revolution gears also has 80w-90 listed as an alternative alongside 85w-140.

 

Other trucks with tow specific modes will use all overdrive gears when they can