The 5.29 Mega Thread!!

All right folks, I was able to put everything back together and have been driving it from last couple of days. I removed both 3rd members and got the gears cryo'd and got them set up from Rearend Specialties and assembled it back myself. So, my initial impression is that truck drives much better than before (had stock 3.90's). As @JoeCOVA mentioned truck shift gears much faster than before, which is actually a good thing. Truck pulls quite bit more than before in lower gears. I haven't pushed it hard yet because I am still in break in period. Took the truck through some small hills and truck didn't do the 3-4-5 dance and held the gear consistently. Another difference I noticed was that I didn't had to press the skinny pedal as farther as before. You hit the gas peddle a little bit and it will shift gears. My gas mileage has gone up, not that I cared. I use to get 12.5 mpg average and right now I am at 13.8. I am sure it will get even better after the break in period since I won't be driving around with 4x4 engaged.

Before switching to 5.29's, I was thinking about going with 4.88's due to RPM's on freeway. Turns out that I was wrong. As OP mentioned, turd gens have 2 overdrive gears and that is when 5.29's really shine. At 65 MPH my RPM's were at 2000 and I think that is a perfect range. I was actually able to use and hold the 6th gear on a freeway. Please don't ask me what the RPM's will be at 80 MPH because I don't drive that fast lol. Anyone who is on the fence between 4.88's and 5.29's, I would highly recommend 5.29's due to all the stuff mentioned above especially if you have bigger tires lot of armor. As of right now, I don't see any cons of 5.29's, but if I find one, I will update this post.

Little about the truck:
-35x12.5x17 tires
-Full skids including front, mid, transfer case, gas tank, and rear diff. All skids are steel, except gas tank I believe.
-long bed full sliders with kick outs
-OVTune

Edit: 10/14/2018
One of the forum members asked me if I could post a review of how 5.29's stack up on steep grades in 2wd vs stock gearing and if it still hunts for gears. One of the main reason I wanted to re-gear the truck was because when I was coming back from Yosemite, truck just kept shifting gears and hunting gears and I hated it and that is when I knew for sure I will be re-gearing.
Even though I am still in break in period but took the truck on this one lane windy road near my house for 5 miles or so and elevation increases close to 1000 ft or so. I remember when I use to go on this road truck use to go crazy and use to shift up and down the whole time and RPM would range from 2K to 5K. WOW what a difference! Truck didn't hunt for gear at all and stayed in right gear and shifted ONLY when needed. I know this isn't a V8 and I damn wish it was, but for the first time I could say I was satisfied with trucks performance in hilly area.

 

I'm sold.

 

10/14/18 Update:

So my wife and I just returned from a 2500ish mile camping trip of the Grand Circle which is probably one of the most amazing trips I have ever taken. I ended up running stock tires because the 35s were not completely balanced and due to a broken ARB compressor, I didn't get the new one until a day before we were leaving and had no time to wire it in. Without the compressor it would have been a challenging trip as beadlocks tend to leak a bit. Not to mention it I still have rubbing issues on the front bumper fender liner that I need to trim and the lack of wheel balance.

Anyways the gears now have over 3000 miles on them and below is my fuel report which I will incorporate in the earlier posts but the total trip I averaged 18.8 which included some offroad trails in the National Parks to include Colorado River Overlook in Canyonlands (Moderate) and Tower Arch Offroad Trail in Arches (Difficult). Trailsoffroad lists these as 2-4 Easy but very few stock vehicles could make the Overlook and I was banging skids in Arches. The ratings I provided are my opinion and align with the "Guide to Moab, UT Backroads and 4-Wheel-Drive Trails."

Fuel Efficiency:
18.6, 16.5, 18.5, 21.3, 16.7, 20.5, 19, 18.9, 19.4 = 18.8 average and if you remove the offroading trips, I averaged about 19.4

After having the gears with stock tires for so long and getting used to them as well as the transmission relearning everything I have to say that I am overly impressed with the gears and wouldn't consider any other gear ratio. After having so much success with the stock tires I almost wish I could go even lower for the 35s (assuming someone were to make them.)

Honestly, I wouldn't even consider 4.88s after my experience with these, I find them so successful with stock that I know they will easily work with a 33 and 35. If anyone is on the fence about the gears I would honestly just go 5.29.

My experience with the 35s is minimal because I'm still sorting out the tires and unfortunately winter is starting to settle in and we just had our first 20 degree day and I will be putting on snow tires in a couple of weeks. My wife and I frequently ski and run the high colorado passes and I know my Trepadors will be miserable on ice and snow so they will be getting stored for the winter and will probably come back out around March/April for the spring. I wish I had more data for the 35s but I hope I have provided enough on the stock tires for people to make an informed decision.

I think @K_Sandhu has a great review with 35s which should help everyone as well.

I don't have a ton of data on the 35s but I can say the <100 miles that I drove, the truck didn't even know they were there. Accelerated perfectly and drove fine but I never took it over 45 as the wheels need balanced and I have some extra trimming to do to the front fender liner. With winter coming they will be put away as I run a snow tire for the season.

If you are on the fence I would go with 5.29, I don't think you will regret it at all; with 4.88 yo may find yourself wanting more.

 

Wow almost 20mpg average for a huge road trip with varying terrain, nitro wasn’t kidding when they said these gears will get you good mpg. Excellent write up and your a hero for testing this out for us with stock tires.....new hunting shotgun will have to wait, gears are coming first!

 

Definitely, I couldn't be happier. I think the sweet spot for fuel efficiency is around 45-65mph where the truck likes to sit in those overdrive gears. Under 40 you sometimes drop out of OD into 4th or 3rd depending on the road and over 65 you begin to have rpm creep where you lose a little bit of efficiency simply due to higher rpms. You start to lose mpgs under 40mph with the quick shifting of the AT, not sure how an MT would be affected by this if at all.

 

Great write up @JoeCOVA and @K_Sandhu !

Putting my pennies away for this. Just bought an aluminum cbi front bumper so I gotta replenish the fun money a little before I can pull the trigger. Excited!

 

Update my review. See above for details

 

You won't be disappointed.

 

So I do have a MT, so i'm hoping it wont get me to much of a hit. I know you plan on going to 35's, but I'm running only running 31.6" tires, but full armor (steel sliders, and full skids), I think 5.29 may be the way to go now over 4.88.

 

I’d probably do the math first if you have a MT and 31.6 tires. I think 5.29s May be a bit much for freeway use

 

Do you have the OV tune? I noticed the compression braking in 4 low dropped significantly when running the tune. I'm on stock gears still. I was hoping 4.88 or 5.29 would help this... Nevermind - just saw your post that you do have the tune.

 

Anybody on 265/75/16s with 5.29 gears yet? With a very small lift and ko2 tires this size I'm never in 6th gear unless it's highway downhill. I also never go over 70 and would like a little more gearing in 4 low.

 

Our MT trucks have same engine as the AT trucks, just a manual transmission that comes geared at 4.30 rather then 3.9 like the AT trucks. If both are are now running the same gearing and driving at same speed in 6th gear wouldn't rpms be the same? I'm no truck expert so i'm genuinely curious. The OP did all this testing with stock tires, and got nearly 20mpg with it. Nice thing about a manual is we can skip gears when shifting, no need to go through entire line up when we can go from 1st to 4th if want. I've skipped gears in several vehicles i've owned, just harder with this truck due to lack of torque. I know 5.29 is crazy low it sounds but this double overdrive in this truck screams for low gearing. May still consider 4.88 too.

 

engine is indeed the same but the transmission gears are very different (4.30 and 3.90 gears are rear end gears not transmission gears). I did this calculation a little while ago so it's for 35s and not 31.6 tires but you get the point.
Your truck with MT and stock 4.30 gearing on 35 tires is almost identical to what an AT truck would be at with 5.29s on 35 tires.
At 55mph in 6th your MT should be at 1612rpm and a AT truck with 5.29s would be at 1620
At 70 you’d be at 2052 and the AT at 2062
Basically your truck is the same as an AT with 5.29s already
If you go 5.29s with a MT on 35s:
55mph=1983
70mph=2524
*edit* so on 5.29 gears with a MT and 31.6 tires you'll be at 2196 rpm at 55mph and 2796rpm at 70mph
on stock gears you'd be at 1785 at 55 and 2272 at 70.
your truck with stock 4.30 gears and 31.6 tires is already spinning 200rpm faster than my AT truck with 35s and 4.88s at 70mph

 

Thanks for the numbers! What website are you getting data from? I’d love to be able to play around with some other numbers to see what would be best for me.

 

http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html to figure the calculations out. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2016-gear-ratios-at-awesome-mt-now-with-double-overdrive.387347/ has the gear numbers for both MT and AT transmissions

 

Check out the first gear chart I posted. It shows the difference in final drive ratios calculated with the transmission gearing. I did the 6AT the 6MT and the 2nd Gen AT as well. You can see the biggest difference is with the overdrive gears. a 6AT has the same final drive ratio in 6th gear with 5.29s as a 6MT with 4.30s.

The MT 5th and 6th gear is much lower than the AT. In this particular case in may be better to go 4.88s on the MT.

 

My 5.29s come in this week. I will keep you all posted with the results.

2016 TRD OR AT, steel front/rear bumper, LT +2, 315/75r16 ATs.

 

Oh I did not know that about our OD gears, I was definitely wrong thinking our ratios were the same for our OD gears, thanks for informing me!

 

I would think twice about getting 5.29's with MT. In MT with stock gears (4.30) 5th gear is at 0.85 and 6th gear at 0.71vs. auto(3.90) 5th gear at 0.69 and 6th at 0.58. Play with online calculators and figure out what your RPM would be at different speeds. Unless you go with 37's or 40's, I wouldn't recommend 5.29's for MT, but that is just my opinion. Also, you will be going through first 4 gears like crazy, unless you start in 2nd and go straight to 4th and so forth.