break-in procedure before road trip from the dealership to home…

When I was looking last year, all the local dealerships had were waiting lists even in neighboring states. Finally found what I wanted in PA but it was 2,200 miles away and getting delivery with any of the major car haulers was a month out.

No choice other than flying out and driving it back home. Sure I tried to follow the break-in procedure in the manual as much as I could but 2,200 miles was almost all freeway driving with cruise control. I certainly wished there was something local but supply with these trucks always seems to be pretty tight.

Luckily the only issue that came up were brakes of all things. Drums replaced 2 dealerships and 3 appointments later. 3,700 miles on the odo and a couple of rock chips older and the truck told me he's happy.

 

I picked mine up in Eastern Oregon. Did close to 500 miles.
It was a great drive for breaking in; Hilly roads - lots of shifting. Pretty mellow overall.

Lots of scenery catering to low(er) speeds And varying speeds. (I plan to head up there again... to explore - it was great!).

Many Cool Small towns to see.

I was lucky with great (DRY) weather.

For one of my stops, I took advantage of some uneven terrain to get big clearance under the truck and I woolwaxed it. - since I was going straight to Lake Tahoe.

Lots of side dirt roads - with a bit of snow. Of course I did do a couple of 4wlo 'tests' while on the way...

To this day, I've not touched the cruise control...

 

On my way to pick up my new truck I took a temperature reading on rear diff of the 2020 SR5 and got 147 deg F. This is immediately after 2-1/2 hours of 75-80mph driving. It was 9am so about 75 deg F.

 

Beef jerky rides shotgun.

 

The new truck had 4 miles on it and with very gentle street driving up to about 13 miles I pulled over and got 156 deg F. Not bad...but definitely warmer than the old truck.

 

I grabbed lunch and 30 minutes later the temp went down to 115 deg. F and I drove for another 10 miles of easy street driving and got 165 deg F.

 

Got on the freeway and kept it at 55mph but alternated 4th,5th and 6th gears to vary the rpms. The diff temp numbers did not go up by much. I stopped every 50 miles and nothing over 160 deg.
I hit the Grapevine (hilly section of the 5 fwy before dropping into the LA area) and took a reading at the top of the hill and got 178 deg F at the diff (ambient temp: 72 deg @ 7pm). At this point it was clear that this thing didn't need to be coddled and I just kept the speed below 70mph the rest of the way. It was 90 deg F in Clovis so the in-town reading were elevated but not much to be concerned about. It's likely if I pushed 80mph right off the dealer lot, I could have eclipsed 200 deg F...but I don't want to find out.

 

I would swap the OEM fluid for Redline MT90. It’s buttery smooth shifting oil.

 

Here she is...manual trans off road. I was able to get her at $100 off MSRP by going to Toyota of Clovis...a volume dealer (Penske group). I've looked at the 2024 model very seriously and I really like the cleaner, more stately lines of the 3rd gen. I do think it's the best looking truck (big or small) on the current market. I mean, look at it!

 

I was so tempted to get a TRD OR MT in Canada but Canadians do not have the option of Manual OR Double cab. the Only Manuals we get OR Access Cab, TRD Pro and Sport Premium. So I wanted a Manual OR in the first place, it was needle in a haystack.

 

@Dharmaboy
The manuals are rare here too. That's too bad you can't find Double Cabs in manual. I hope Toyota broadens the manual transmission offerings like they did with the Supra. In the dealership as I was waiting for the salesperson to arrive I saw a 2022 Supra automatic...I was wondering if the previous owner had traded it in for a manual.

 

break in is varied RPMs. You can take non highway roads. Maybe couple miles on the highway then off the exit intervals. If you want to adhere to it.
If you take breaks can use that to read a book.
Hopefully there’s a scenic route. 200 miles isn’t that long.

there is nothing to gather. Semi truck drivers (if they’re even the ones to do it) move new vehicles wrapped in protection you can barely see out of drive 10 feet from the street to the dealer.

no desensitized truck driver with $100k/yr to make hitting the road gives a fuck about your stock old model year 230hp

loaders do not load vehicles going 100mph.

break in procedures exist. People do not read or follow them. I get paid to replace their engine working as a mechanic.

if that’s what you want to do with your vehicle, go ahead. More business for me.

I’d rather repair a broken engine than deal with customer states when using my eBay phone cable volume 23 Katy Perry if I fart over a bump my sunglasses rattle check and advise

 

Ditto this, just vary the speed.

 

As per Taco Tuesday 1,
When I first saw my truck on pickup day, it was wrapped inside an out…not sure anyone could drive it on the street with confidence…probably load it on or off a truck and maybe park it. All sorts of crazy stuff on it and had 3 miles on it before they put gas in it.

I did 3 in-town 15 minute drives with 30 minute cool-downs between (first cool down was 2 hours because it was the test drive before signing papers).

Then I took it on the freeway and averaged 55mph all the way home. It took me under 3 hours to get there but took me 6 hours to get back because of breaks and stops and slow speed. For all the people who politely drove around me…I’m sorry and very grateful.

Incidentally, taking a temperature measurement (pyrometer) at the back of the differential cover is about 7 degrees cooler than at the pinion side. So the numbers I was posting were a little low…so diff was getting pretty hot right off the bat.

 

Yes, varying of rpm’s is good for the engine but my main concern was differential howl popping up at 60k miles. I had an F-150 with a beefy 9.75” rear diff. I drove it off the lot and immediately on the freeway for a 40 mile drive home. I kept the revs low which was easy but it did 70mph at 1200 rpm. So I did 70+ all the way home. Almost all my driving during break-in were freeway miles. I did a 30k diff fluid change but got a light high pitch hum at 60k miles. Still, I drove it to 198k miles but hum became a howl and it was good and loud by then.