Portland Area Gear Installation

Waking this thread back.up.

Where are people going for regears these days?

 

I think MULE is one of the only games in town. Good thing is they are really great, bad thing is they are really expensive.

I had mine done at Gearworks in Prineville (they moved from Bend) and they are now no longer in business. The owner retired.

They did my Yukon 5.29’s for $1700 installed including the gears themselves which was crazy cheap imo. Bad thing was they forgot to swap the stub gear from the center diff, so my 4WD wouldn’t engage. I wasn’t driving all the way back to Prineville for that so I went to Mule and had them do it.. cost me $700 for labor and part.

I reached out to the owner at Gearworks and told him, and said I wanted him to pay for the repair, and he said he would but I haven’t seen a dime and I’ve asked him several times over the last 6 months. I gave up… but $2400 for Yukons installed.. I’ll take that as a win.

MULE I think charges north of $4000 for parts and labor. I wanna say I got a quote 2 years ago from them and it was $4600

 

I emailed Mule and should get an estimate on Monday. I'll post back with the estimate.

 

Also.. I wouldn’t even bother with anything other than 5.29’s in a 3rd gen. Maybe personal preference.

 

Please post price with/without sales tax.
Mule is solid (from what I’ve heard) and their price included the first fluid change. I assume their price will come in around $4k and for those of us in WA state, where Mule has a location, it could be $400 more just in sales tax.

 

Yup, and get that front locker in there while you’re at it

 

Yeah, definitely. I was just thinking the same thing.

I've been on the fence about a front locker, but now's the best time to do it.. and I'll have it if I ever want to use it.

 

Found my old quote from them, from Sept. ‘22.

18 hours of labor imo is highway robbery for this job if you know what you’re doing. Shouldn’t be more than 10 hours of labor.

Like I said, I like the crew at MULE, they’re great, and they do great work, but you pay for it (especially at a $150/hr shop rate too).

 

18 hours seems crazy. I was thinking that they just did clamshell / third member swap? (I was going to ask when I get the quote)

 

oh, boy. Price with front locker = $5,703.92

They do the kit install (and not just a swap).. and "perform initial heat cycles on the new set of gears".

 

I realize the E-locker adds $1600 but damn, that’s the price without sales tax if this was done in WA state which I would guess is similar price.

 

They probably do great work and stand by it... but I think I'm going to call around and see if I can find a better quote. Most places seem to have closed recently / during covid, tho.

I wonder if Paden is bored of retirement yet I really should have just done this back then... I just didn't realize that all the shops were going to close.

 

The Offroad shop said "5.29 gears and Front E-locker installed about $4910.00"

That seems reasonable.

I am waiting on a few more quotes. I'll keep posting my results.

 

Gresham 4 Wheel Drive & Alignments -> $6,234.44
- 17 hour install

Wanderlust Overland -> $6,734.30
- $4,534.31 for the regear
- $2,199.99 for front locker

Still going to call a few more places...

 

I appreciate the updates, but DAMN, regret prices are nuts these days!

 

100%. If I could go back in time...

 

I talked to a few other places that definitely could do the work, but hadn't done it for newer Tacomas.

I feel like the Offroad Shop is a pretty good deal. That price means labor is around $1,300 - $1,600. They knew right away what I wanted.

I'll probably try to move forward with them (in a couple weeks) and report back.

 

Damn this is crazy. I too was experiencing all these price quotes as well about 1.5 years ago and decided to drive to LA to the west coast gear group buy for 2k OTD with polished 5.29 gears.

made a trip out of it and went to Yosemite after where the gears truly shined on the mountains. 4k is nuts!

 

Yeah. I almost joined the group buy this/last year... but was thinking it was too far away to drive. But now I am thinking it might be worth it. Since I'm not in a hurry, I might think about waiting until the next group buy (I think they will open it back up in Nov/Dec) Idk tho

 

https://www.drivelineservicebellingham.com/ Get a quote from Rich. I supplied my gears and locker and labor was $1200ish