I Just Picked Up my 2023 3rd Gen. Lift & 35's already here, Anyone Running 4.30 Gears?

I just traded in my 2nd Gen for a new 3rd Gen. on my 2nd Gen I found that with 35's 4.30 gears were the best trade off as far as performance and still being able to cruise a comfortable 80MPH on the interstate at 2500RPM's.

Is anyone running 4.30's with 35's on your 3rd Gen? How is it on the interstate, what RPM's are you cruising at? I'm thinking 4.56's will be too low for running on the interstate without turning 3000RPM's.

Thanks guys!

 

The 2nd post in this thread has all the gear ratios for 4.3 gears (and others).

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-5-29-mega-thread.557305/

Diff gears: 4.3 / 3.9 = 1.10
Tires: 34.6 / 30.6 = 1.13

So that setup is geared a little higher than stock.

 

2nd and 3rd gens are entirely different beasts as far as axle gearing is concerned.

4.30 combined with your old top gear ratio of 0.72 = a final drive of 3.096.

the 3rd gen top gear ratio of 0.58 with 4.30 = 2.494. If you wanted to be equivalent in top gear to your 2nd gen with 4.30s, you’d want 5.33 gears. The best you can do is 5.29.

You won’t be anywhere near 3,000 rpm on the highway with 5.29 unless you travel in 4th or 5th or go 90ish in 6th.

The 3.5 wants more revs anyways and so matching to a 4.0 isn’t a perfect example. Personally I’d want to be doing more then 2500 rpm at 80 but with 35’s and 5.29 as the lowest option, that is it.

 

I had 5.29's in a truck years ago and they would usually only last 6 months to a year because there is so little surface contact on the teeth of the gear.

Is anyone running 4.88's with 35's? How is your experience?

 

I ran 4.88 on stock size.

 

Sounds like whoever set them up didn't know what they were doing or they were abused or had too large of tires on them for the size of the diff. There are tons of 3rd gens with 5.29s and no issues. There are mega threads for both 5.29 and 4.88, look through those.

Gears themselves are not necessarily inherently any weaker simply due to being a lower ratio. With lower ratios there is less stress on the teeth. Whether they break depends on how well they were set up and if the components are sized appropriately for the conditions they're going to be put through.

 

Stock axle ratio with 3rd gen auto is 3.91. 3.91 with stock 31" tires is very close to 4.30 with 35" tires, so your rpms will be very close to stock in steady cruise.

4.30 is the stock ratio with manual transmission. Would be a cheap swap if you happen to find a manual in a salvage yard.

You can also try driving a bit on stock gears. It'll feel like your 2nd gen, with a 5-speed transmission

 

The 2nd gen transmission couldn't handle 35's with the stock 3.73 gears. It couldn't even stay in overdrive. So your saying on a 3rd gen with 4.30's and 35's the RPM's would be about the same as running 31's with the stock 3.91 gears? BTW, mine is a TRD Sport, do you know off hand if they come with the 8" or 8.75" rear diff?

Please forgive my ignorance, I'm just learning. I've built and rebuilt 2nd gens from the ground up for over 15 years, but I am new to 3rd gen. Got a whole shop of 2nd gen parts if anyone needs some, lol!

 

All non-OR/Pro automatic transmission trucks are the non-locking 8" diff.
All OR/Pro regardless of transmission are the locking 8.75" diff.
All non-OR/Pro manual transmissions are non-locking 8.75" diff.

 

Ah Sport, so it won't be an easy swap with manual takeoffs.

In terms of ratios:
4.30/3.91 = 1.10
4.56/3.91 1.17
35/31 = 1.13

Both 4.30 and 4.56 on 35s would be close to stock ratio on stock tires. 4.30 will result in slightly lower rpms. 4.56 will result in slightly higher rpms. This is steady cruise. 4.56 will give more responsive acceleration.

 

Thanks for the info. So you can't easily swap the axle from a truck with a MT to a truck with an AT? is the differential offset or something?

 

^Different diff size 8" vs 8.75".

You can swap complete axle but can't swap 3rd members.

 

10-4

 

The 4 cylinder 3rd gen came with 4.30's, but I assume they would be an 8" correct?

 

You could get 4.30 diffs by getting them out of a wrecked automatic 4 cylinder, but I really don't think 4.30 is worth the effort on a V6 automatic with larger than stock tires. In my opinion the stock gears are already way too tall on the auto.

All 4WD trucks have 8" front diffs.
4 cylinder MTs had 3.91 ratio 8.75" rear.
4 cylinder ATs had 4.30 ratio 8" rear.

 

$324 not too bad https://www.ebay.com/itm/115908780499

never mind its a MT

 

4.88s on 35s (5.29 wasn’t an option out yet when I did it) for almost 4 years.
I’d go 5.29 honestly..

like someone else mentioned, comparing a 2nd to 3rd gen is like apples to oranges. 6speed auto vs 5 speed auto.
My friend had 4.56 on his 2nd Gen with 33s and he was more than happy.

Also, as someone mentioned already, the 3.5 likes to be in the higher revs. With the double overdrive of the 3rd gen’s, you’re gonna want the steeper gear.

In the end, although I wish I had 5.29s at times - 4.88s with OT tune and I got zero complaints.

Few pics of my rig

 

5.29 gears are the only way its worth the cost on these newer trucks. These motors do like to rev more than the 2nd gen and with the new transmission gearing, you'll be around 2500rpm at 80mph with 35s like you want.

Hell, I plan on running 5.29s on stock tires until they wear out...

 

how fast can you drive on the interstate and how high are the RPM's?

With the 2nd gen 4.56's on 33's your out of gearing at about 65 after that its just how high do you want to go with the RPM's. 4.0's hated high RPM's lol! I blew up a few

 

ECGS built my previous 3rd members for an 8" with 5.29's its only like $750. I wish they had a decent mechanical LSD, I had them put a True Track on my last one and it was damn near impossible to drive in the rain because it would lock up like a spool to quick. Anyone have better experiences with mechanical LSD's?