2018 Tacoma

I'm new with all the modification on the Tacoma.
Currently I'm running stock everything, but first thing I would like to upgrade is gears. I'm not sure it necessary to upgrade the gears or not.
Should I go with 4.88 or 5.29?
I'm having an A.R.E camper shell next month, and later will modified the front and rear bumpers in the future.
Any information would be greatly appreciate.

Thank you much

 

No need to change gears on your truck. If you put 35”+ tires on; then consider it

 

Welcome to TW

 

Welcome to the dog and pony show.
Enjoy

 

Welcome! You might want to upgrade your suspension first before gears since you’ll be adding weight.

 

I talk to truck outfitter locally, and they say that soon as I add any weight on the truck I need to get gears upgrade because I will see MPG decrease. They also say that lots of tacoma or truck owner make mistake is that they do all kind of upgrade first before gears which a big mistake. suspension and tire doesn't do any but loose MPG. Their recommendation was gears, suspension, tires then everything else....Thank you kindly for all your opinions

 

Gearing will not necessarily gain you any MPG. A lower gearing will increase your cruising RPM, assuming the same drive gear. It will be easier to get to speed because of the new mechanical advantage, but RPMs will be higher in the same gear. The main goal with gearing is to get back to baseline so to speak. You lose gearing with larger tires (higher final drive ratio), so lowering your ring gear ratio will change the final drive ratio back to where you want it.

 

Thank you for the information.
I was planning on do about 4-5 upgrade in the future.
Gears to pull trailer
suspension
Front and rear bumpers
32" or 33" tires

Any recommendation or tire and bumper would be greatly appreciate...

Best regards!

 

You will get a lot of different opinions on here. I like the Cooper ST MAXX that I put on, but they are heavy. They are 33s in a 255/85r16 and fit on stock OR wheels without rubbing and no lift. Nitto Ridge Grapplers were a close second choice for me. I probably would have gone Cooper STT Pro if they made them in the 255 size. I have an RCI rear bumper on the way, but not installed yet (and all RCI armor). I have a CBI hidden winch mount on the front that I chose to save weight, but I really like the SSO Slimline bumper and may upgrade at some point. If you go with a front bumper and winch, be prepared to upgrade suspension. That is probably the biggest change to stock geometry adding a lot of weight to the nose. I pull ~2500lb trailer on 33s with stock gearing. I have armor and it is still ok. Gears will happen some day and at the same time as a front locker, but I have a few things to do first.

 

Really appreciate all your help...
I'm looking just a small trailer only 800-1200 lbs.
It is cool if I can stay with the same rim with a little bigger tire.
I have a stock 265/70/R16 right now.

 

It looks like you have an Off Road. If so, you can run 255/85r16 or 265/75r16 on your rims. 255/85s are a little thinner but 33" tall and 265/75 are 32" tall. You shouldn't have any issues at all with that size trailer.

 

Agreed with this on not having trailering issues. I have ~34" tires on my taco and towed 3300lbs with the stock gears. I've since upgraded to 4.88, but even if you have 33's, your truck won't necessarily need 4.88. Granted when I was towing that much weight with the lift and everything, the truck struggled on the hills at highway speed pretty badly. But the 3.6L engine in these trucks is pretty crappy in torque numbers and really doesn't perform well until after 4k rpms.

And yes, you can still run the OEM rims with bigger tires (my buddy uses my OR rims with 33's on his 2nd gen). Just be careful with the UCA's and cab mount for spacing when you lift and get bigger tires!

My suggestion would be do the lift/tires, assess how much the truck struggles in your normal day-to-day driving. Add the trailer and re-assess. Then go from there. If the truck can't cruise in 6th gear without weight down the highway, you may want to do the re-gear. It's $$$$ though

 

Thank you much
I'm planning on for now is upgrade the the tire from 265/70/R16 to 265/75/R16 Goodyear Ultra Terrain.

 

Good luck! You definitely won't have rubbing issues at 265/75/R16. Another useful TW tool in case if you haven't seen it: https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc