The 5.29 Mega Thread!!

Welp, that'll do it.

 

Location is a part of it too. At altitude, best I've ever seen was when I was bone stock and did a long highway trip, 19mpg. After adding E-load 33s, full skids, 2.5" lift, and sliders, I can see 16 if I do a flat highway trip. Drive around town, or hit the mountains, it's 14-15.
Just to clarify, still on stock gears. Going 5.29, just a matter of paying for it.

 

After countless reading I swayed from 5.29 and even ecgs advised that 5.29 would be overkill for me and my intents for the truck. Thanks for all the info from this thread though there sure is a ton of reading material here! 4.88 should ship in next couple weeks and hopefully it’s the right choice as I’ll not be going to a 35 on this truck ever nor will it ever be much heavier than it sits as it is now.

Thanks again everyone who commented as well as all who have shared great info throughout the thread!

 

5.29s got me to the top and more importantly back down safely.

 

Your truck will likely be heavier than mine and i too don't plan on running larger than 285's. I went back and forth so much and was close to pulling the trigger on 4.88's. in the end i'm so happy i went 5.29. I'm sure i would've loved 4.88's too. I don't tow often but because i do that swayed my decision and honestly the daily driving has been great. let us know how you like

Call em back and switch it to 5.29's before they build! LOL. I went back and forth for months before i decided and i'm so happy I went 5.29. Either way you're gonna love your re gear.

 

I’m pretty set on 4.88 at this time honestly. Truck runs sloppy enough after lift and new wheels and tires that obviously needed some changes.

I truly think 4.88 will be plenty sufficient though from all the research I’ve done. Can’t remember exactly what video or site I read where it showed how to calculate the gears needed to remain same as stock if stock felt fine. Stock truck felt perfectly fine in my opinion and OVTune made truck hold gears so much better even 6th. But using the calculations of my truck tires and gears at stock then changing to a 33” tire calculated to be needing to rehear to 4.2x so started looking for 4.30 from a manual. Not easy to find that used....

So I began reading more and more. Then decided it was a tossup of 4.56 and 4.88. The main deciding factor for me was ecgs sells the preassembled clamshells so it’s much more diy friendly and ecgs doesn’t sell 4.56 so only options were 4.30, 4.88, and 5.29. Even though 4.30 would possibly make the truck ok, definitely wasn’t worth the risk and 5.29 just seemed like extreme overkill.

Finally before purchase I decided to call ecgs and talk to those guys a bit. Nothing better than talking to the guys that have been making them for so many years. After explaining my trucks setup and my usage the guy I spoke to said either gear set would work fine but 5.29 would just have lesser fuel economy on highway. Since I do plenty of highway driving it was a no brainer for me to not get 5.29’s.

In the event that I change my mind one day, 5.29’s might be up for grabs on our local Tacomaworld marketplace

 

You’ll probably be content with 4.88. I think the biggest challenge with 4.88 is that it doesn’t give you much room if you continue to mod your truck. 5.29 just increases the ceiling a bit which is more forgiving in the long run.

 

Yeah man I went through ECGS as well. it was super awesome and the diff swaps were a breeze. having never done one before i was confident i could and it went pretty smooth. Good luck on your install and break in, you'll be happy with the re gear. I think that statement is probably correct on highway driving over 70ish mph on mpg although I don't think it's going to equate to a huge difference. I guess my biggest reason to suggest 5.29 was because it didn't feel like a huge jump to me. I think that with some of these trucks, they could even sell a lower ratio gear set honestly and it would work great.

 

Yeah I’ll honestly never go with the max builds I’ve seen here. I want my truck to set slightly higher and have a slightly larger tire for slightly better ground clearance. I do know that the added weight I have now is all front end except wheels and tires. The only way I’ll add larger tires will be a 285/75 and that’ll only be if I see that there’s a need for it. Not really into the trends of ‘hey guys what mods should I do now’ sort of thing. I buy the stuff I can get use out of aside from very minimal aesthetic improvements that don’t cost much. I’ll spend a decent amount to improve the truck but not even 1/100th of what I’ll spend to improve it for functionality.

After the gear swap I’ll be adding sliders and if I ever do skids they’ll likely be aluminum but I’ll only do skids once I see I go into terrain where they’re needed and I’m interested in doing that again.

Aside from heavy weight the last two things I want to add will be tonneau cover and sound deadening but that’s less than 100 lbs total.

 

Your truck sounds like mine and my goal/vision for my truck. minus the front bumper and winch. next mod will be aluminum skids and exhaust re route. Did you do a front locker ? I decided last minute to have them add one in for me. Love the Barcelona red color btw.

 

Ty for reply that makes.me feel better knowing its being done without major issues besides annoyance

 

13 days till gears go in. Not that I’m counting or anything.

 

Be longer than that til mine ship to me for install

 

One thing I forgot to mention is I did run ECT all the time after adding 285's it helped some IMO. Just turned it off with ovtune installed 1-2 weeks ago. I've been trying to bandaid it until I'm ready for gears.

 

Yeah, also mileage. My best mpgs were around 20k miles. I had everything I have now (front/rear bumpers, sliders, 33s, lift, etc) and a full family + camping gear. I managed to get 22mpgs on the highway (not freeway) going around 50mph. When I was bone stock with around 3k miles, I would get at best 15-16mpg and a dismal 13mpgs in the city.

That being said, I'm still looking at 5.29s after I go 35s.

 

No I didn’t go with the front locker.

 

Because of conflicting information, I reached out to Nitro Gears directly and asked them about their recommendations on how to break-in the front gears. Here's their response:

"Actually the front R&P are not turning in 2wd because of the ADD system. That said, just take it easy when using 4wd the first few times and stop after 15 mins use etc. DO NOT drive in 4wd on pavement in an effort to break in the gears."

 

Awd dat bitch for a day mann

 

very interesting for sure, not sure what difference it would make taking it easy in 4hi off pavement vs taking it easy in 4hi on pavement.

 

It's easy. Liability and manufacture warranty.