Safe engine RPM

What's the speed rating on the trailer tires, that's going to dictate how fast your going to safely drive.

 

^^ Agreed. OP will be fine.
My A340F converter does lock up in 3rd as well.

While my smoked trans was being diagnosed with a Snap On OBDII machine, it was over 250 most of the time. Tech told me that it must have seen temps over 300 which is why I had trouble.
Once apart, the snout on the converter was an awesome blue color from the heat it suffered through and the clutches were definitely burnt.

After all was repaired, a leaking water pump was discovered. On a wheeling trip, the truck did run warmer than normal but nothing drastic, or so I thought. I added an external TRD trans cooler.

All good now.

 

You don't need to rev the anything out of anything to tow heavy loads with 2TR. 3RZ sure, because it doesn't have much torque off peak. Just calm the heck down when you're towing heavy, it'll get the job done. The first heavy tow I did was roughly 200 km with about 7000#, never went over 4krpm the whole time, never had to drop more than 1 gear on any incline I faced. Average speed 100 kph (speed limit).

 

I really hate it when people read only the first sentence and then assume the rest. I addressed ALL of that. Go read the ENTIRE message I posted.

 

Well known practice is to shut off overdrive during towing. It all depends on the load and driving conditions but typically overdrive clutches are smaller.
On a side note the A340E/F is a stout transmission. A similar variant was used in the Supra. Just to give you an idea of what the A340E/F can handle.

 

Known practice? What is that even supposed to mean? Just because a whole lot of people know how to do something WRONG, does not make that thing good.

The size of the clutch is irrelevant.
You only take it out of overdrive if it is having a hard time staying in a gear ("hunting").

 

Up to the early 90's it was common to disengage overdrive. Many trucks had two Drive settings, one of which had a circle around the letter D and the other a plain letter D. This was drive with overdrive and drive without overdrive. Some vehicles had buttons to disengage overdrive. In the owners manual it was recommended to tow with overdrive off as the transmission overdrive clutches would slip. Some late model Ram diesels with the 47RE or 48RE would say Tow/Haul which would disengage overdrive and change shift timing. It takes more power to operate overdrive than it does in 3rd or 1:1, again this depends on the gear reduction and final drive ratios.

It was not a wrong way of doing things it's just and older way of doing things. The A340E can possibly take the extra load through overdrive but the OP is doing the right thing and locking overdrive out. I know second gen Tacoma's have an electronic line pressure solenoid for the transmission not sure if the OP's truck has this or not. Again I do believe he is doing the safe thing by locking it out for hauling.

 

Its *NEVER* been correct. Doing that is and always HAS been a complete misunderstanding of WHY you would take it out of overdrive. You take it out of overdrive WHEN IT IS HUNTING BETWEEN GEARS.

 

Not incorrect or correct. Just an old practice due to older equipment.

 

No. It is INCORRECT. Nothing to do with the age of the equipment.
The only reason why anybody ever did that was IGNORANCE.

You downshift when it HUNTS FOR GEARS.
Dumbdumb says "it hunts for gears when I pull a heavy load, so I should downshift when I pull a heavy load". WRONG. Leave it until it ACTUALLY hunts for gears.

 

Please refer to a few older operators manuals and owners manuals for vehicles predating 1993.

Nothing wrong, it was recommended by the manufacturer. I say again it is an old practice. Now relax and have a beer.

 

Man you need to relax.
OP is not a 'Dumbdumb' as you say. He merely asked a question and doesn't want to mess anything up.

Burn your trans up, you'll get it.

 

Hmm, why do owners manuals say to stay out of OD while towing? Hauling heavy loads are one in the same.
When 'hunting' as you say, you're hunting for failure.

 

OP,
Here in CA, the speed limit is 55mph while towing anything.
What are your rpm's at that speed?

 

You're right. But most on this forum, I think, want to get the 300,000 miles out of the engine that they can easily get. Beating them, revving the shit out of them and using them for a real work truck or towing at their max won't get them to the 3 or 400,000 mile mark. I rev mine up pretty high a few times a month but I know if I want to hit 2 or 3 or 4 hundred thousand miles with it revving it up past 2500 rpm all the time isn't going to get me there. That being said. With regular maintenance and a very good quality synthetic oil I don't see where a thrashing with weight is going to hurt anything once in a blue moon. Me personally? My 2004 4X4 with the 4 banger is rated to pull 3500 pounds. I'll never do that except across town. I'd limit it to 2000 lbs if I was going to be doing it a lot. I can put 1700 lbs in the bed but I'll never go above 1000 or maybe 1500 if I was only going across town and my town is only about 3 miles wide.

 

In my experience 55mph is about all I can get even in 4th gear without towing a load or loading the bed with anything. I'm lucky to get that even. I do live up around 7000 feet though but let's face it. With the 2.7 you're not towing and getting out of 4th gear unless you live where it's flat like in Floriduh and even then I highly doubt it. I don't own an auto but I suspect what I just said can be multiplied with an auto.

 

Revving to 4000 rpm IS "revving the shit out of it". My Toyota manual is pretty clear once I read through it. They recommend 2500 rpm shifting except from 4th to 5th where it revs to 2750. They say anything above that increases the wear. Yes, you can rev them up to 3 or 4 or 5000 rpm quite regularly but the engine will wear out accordingly. Especially when tugging around heavy loads or any real load for that matter. We've all seen how many hundreds of thousands of miles these 2.7's will go but none of the real high milers up around 3 or 4 or 500,000 miles were hauling heavy loads all the time and constantly revving them above 3000 rpm. That I can guarantee.

 

Kinda sorta correct. You take it out of OD to prevent it from heating up. With OD off, it'll make the trans pump flow more fluid cooling the trans better. The owners manual and the towing thread here all say to keep OD off when towing. I leave it on as I'm in FL, but when I was in NC in the mountains I had it off the whole time.

 

OP,
Here is a link to the "Towing Bible" from TW: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-tacoma-towing-bible.4031/
Go to post #5, it tells you everything you want to know for a 1st gen and auto trans.

Good luck.

 

My uncle has a 97 T100 with the 3rz-fe with 410,000 miles. Original engine, transmission, and most parts. Timing chain and valve NEVER been adjusted, and it runs perfect. He works it HARD and constantly revs that truck to 3000 and 4000 rpm, it doesnt hurt them at all. He also has never used synthetic oil, you cant hurt em