Installed 4.88 Gears in my 2016

You want your RPM to stay above OEM simply to help turn the taller tires. I'm running 285's on mine and I manually shift into 5th, I cant even use 6th unless there's no wind and i'm on level ground. At 70 mph I'm at about 1600 rpm, way too low. In 5th i'm at about 2000 rpm which is still even a little low.

 

I guess it is crazy how I have to go from a 3.90 to a 4.88 haha. I figured 4.30s or 4.56s would do the trick.. but I guess not from what I am reading.

 

If we had a normal 5 speed auto with a single OD gear, 4.56 would be fine. Unfortunately that's not the case for us.

 

I ran 285's on mine with the auto. I rarely made it to fifth. If I did the slightest anything (bug hitting windshield) it would shift back to fourth. Usually I'd be cruising 70ish at 3000-3500 RPM.

 

Reality is we just don't many any power down low. We make power in the 2500+ rpm range. Trying to turn 33"s with the auto and stock gearing just doesn't work. When I had my 95 Cherokee I ran 33"s with stock 3.55 gears, auto trans, 4.0 inline 6 and it was fine. Just doesn't work for these trucks.

 

$1800? the gears and master kits are $1350, I haven't seen anyone getting toyota gears installed for $650. If so, I'd like to see it.

 

$650-$850 is reasonable labor costs for gear install.

 

4.88's sounded steep to me until I did some of the math. I think the 4.88 may be a great choice, here is why.

I used percentages to compare tire size and gear ratios.
265/70r16 to a 285/75r16 is a 7.3% increase in tire size.
A 3.91 to a 4.88 gear is a 23% increase in gear ratio.

23-7.3= 15.7.
15.7% increase on the final drive ratio is
.67.

So an automatic truck with a 4.88 rear gear would give a .67 ratio 6th gear.
The manual trans truck comes with a .71 6th gear, so this is still a numerically lower overdrive.

I'm sure there are smarter guys here than me. Maybe my thinking is wrong, but this made sense when I worked on the numbers.

Does this look wrong to anyone, or is there an error in my process?

 

My stock gears make a lot of noise.

 

$850, maybe in a real competitive marketplace. $650 is really low and I haven't seen anyone get gears installed in a 3rd gen that cheap.

 

If I found a shop that would install for 650. I'd let someone else do it. Not worth the hassle for that cost.

But alas, I'll be doing mine in my cold ass garage.

 

As long as you have the proper tools and knowledge, they're not just a bolt in and go kind of thing. Not much I haven't done on cars, build engines, all that. Built a mid 11 second full interior 79 trans am in my garage on my back. I won't do gears, i'd rather leave that to someone else.

 

If I had the auto I'd run 4.88 on stock tires and I'd beg for something larger if I went to 33's

 

I'm not really sure what your experience with your 2nd gen Body has to do with 3rd gen Tacomas, or how knowing how to do everything but gears makes you an authority on gear installation.

My company isn't a vendor on here, so I won't say who I work for, but I work in the offroad aftermarket industry for a gear vendor. Most reputable shops in the industry charge around $100/hr and it definitely takes more than 6.5 hours to regear a modern Toyota.

If you can show an example of a shop that only charges $650, post it up. I'm sure TW can send them a ton of business.

 

I've done 6-7 sets in my life. Most notable a 500hp WRX and a 3/4 ton jeep with 39's.

It's just not worth the 800+ dollars to have someone else do it. The only part I'm dreading is removing the front diff. The actual gear setup I don't really care about.

I've built all of my cars on my back. Definitely not the most enjoyable thing. Sure saves a lot of money though.

 

No need to get butt hurt, wasn't attaching you. Gears are gears, doesn't matter if it's a 1916 Ford of a 2016 Tacoma. I'm sure we can agree that 95% of the people that think they can install gears, can't. More often that not, people think they're just bolt in. I never said I couldn't install gears, I've never tried and I don't plan to learn on my brand new truck. If you're a top notch vendor, great. Shoot me a PM with a great price on both gear sets and master kits and i'll gladly give you my business.

 

I've had my gears for 700 miles. So far it's works ok but I'm unplugging the battery(tonight) for a few hours to reset the trans so that it can learn the new set up. Hopefully this clears up my issue. Trans seem to hold on to a lower gear even when going down hill. Still wants to stick in 4th at highway speeds over 65ish. Truck runs awesome under 65 mph after that is when the shifting start to get out of control.

 

Did you calibrate the speedo?

 

No, I wait for a programmer that actually changes the power and torque.
Speedo is off 4-5 mph @65-70 actual 70-75.

 

I know with bigger tires its 65-70 and actual is 70-75, but after re-gearing isn't it the other way around @70-75 and actual is 65-70? I'm calibrating to keep my odometer low after re-gearing. I wonder if the trans just goes by rpm or speed as well.