Feedback on 3rd. gen Tacoma ECU tunes' performance while towing heavy loads

I am looking around for a tune that will help me with all the gear shifting while towing my 19' travel trailer. I have a 2016 Tacoma 4X4 sport 3.5L long bed with the OV Tune 2.0 04B04_reg_stock tune installed. Right now the truck keeps shifting up and down to maintain 65 mph on flat highway towing my 5,100 lb travel trailer.

Anybody out there have any experience with towing heavy loads on any of the tunes out there in TW. If so did it fix the constant shifting issue and what else did you experience while towing?

I have already PM a few folks but now reaching out to all of TW.

Any tune developers want to donate their tune to a retired engineer to test how it impacts my truck while towing?

 

If you're towing that heavy, you should just lockout 5th/6th gears. The truck is unlikely able to maintain converter lockup in the overdrive gears. There's nothing wrong with that either, it's common to need to lockout a gear or two. On my second gen, the consensus is to tow in 4th (only 5 gears for us). I was unable to pull 5th gear unless the ground was flat or slightly downhill, until I re-geared. After that, I'm back to using all 5 gears.

 

Not to suggest getting everything you can out of your tune - by all means optimize your tune as far as you can... but at some point you may want to consider giving your Taco some mechanical advantage with 4.88 or 5.29 gears.

 

my 3.73 to 4.56 has been AWESOME for towing and hauling my camper. Going to 4.88 I'd thing would be similar on a 3rd gen, but that's assuming not bigger than a 32 inch tire. If so, 5.29 might be the answer. But expect high RPMs and a sizeable loss in mileage when empty!

 

I have towed my 5k lb tt 14k miles in the past 2 years with my stock A/T 2020 OR.

The only advice I can offer is to learn how and when the torque converter locks/unlocks and use the gears as you would a manual by utilising ‘S’ mode.

 

Dumb question here. I looked at the truth be told dyno graphs and not sure what the "Stock" red graph represents for a test vehicle. If stock means a truck right off the lot with NO tunes or modifications then the results are pretty good. How is "Stock" defined in these graphs for ECU parameters?

Dyno graphs were mentioned in another post and can be found here https://overlandtailor.com/truth-be-told-dyno

 

A tune is not going to “fix” towing. Are you towing with the shifter moved to S4 and ECT turned on? You need to be in 4th max and if it shifts down to 3rd beyond that, let it, that’s what it’s supposed to do.

 

Yes using S4, something I discovered after loading the VF Tune 2.0 with ECT activated. I don't think the constant gear hunting is good for the truck so trying to find a tune that will improve torque around the 3000 rpm range. I am hoping and dreaming that the little increase in torque will stop the gear hunting issue.

After looking at all the dyno graphs on overlandtrailer.com "truth be told", it seems there is a small difference between the tunes for torque around the 3K range. If Stock (red line) in the graphs means a truck with no modifications and right off the dealer lot then those results are pretty good for 3K torque.

So perhaps the VF Tune 2.0 is giving me the most I can get then I will have to live with towing in S3 (4100 rpm) on flat and S4 (3100 rpm) on downhill slopes or lighten the load by leaving the wife and all of her stuff behind as well as the beer and just take Whiskey?????

 

Most of my towing is done in 5th at 63mph on the flat or 4th if there’s a headwind or climb. Rarely in 3rd for any length of time.

 

You are not going to turn it into a great tower with a tune, it is not meant to do that. If you tow frequently, buy a half ton. They are unbelievably better at towing.

 

In my experience, the actual felt difference in torque from any of the tunes I’ve tried is very minimal. I have strong doubts that any tune is going to give you enough of a boost to make it have enough power to change how towing pulls at 3K. The gear hunting is pretty much harmless…annoying maybe, but I’d personally just leave it as is and let it shift.

 

I printed out the dyno test results of the 3 major tunes shown in the "Truth be told" graph and from an engineer's point of view the OTT tune provides on the average of 10-13 ft-lbs of torque increase over the stock tune. In the 3K - 3.5K range (which is where I tow the trailer at on a good day) OTT and stock are both the same ft-lbs of torque.

It seems the bottom line is, will the $325 for the OTT tune pack be worth it to have that small increase in torque outside of the 3K-3.5K rpm range as well as the improvements in shifting points and throttle response????

Too bad OTT doesn't offer a try before you buy option (like one of its competitors has) so we can buy with confidence knowing if the tune is not performing as hoped we can get a refund.

Thank you all for your help and feedback.

 

I tuned my 22 and had no noticeable difference towing. A half ton is a much better tow vehicle than a midsize could ever be.

 

Will a tune help with shifting? Yes. However as others have mentioned it'll still be a 1/4 ton truck. Getting tuned made a big difference but it doesn't turn the truck into a V8 per say.

Also even tuned you want to be using ECT. Depending how often and how committed you are to towing a special "tow tune" can also be provided for you.
Reach out to your local tuner and see if they'll let you try it out. Maybe even have the trailer dropped on the hitch for the test drive.

Also if you're curious this is an actual dyno run of our tune, it's also posted on our page in the performance section of the forum. We do our dyno runs in 4th (1:1 gear)