Is regearing worth it for me?

I have a 2015 Tacoma. I put on a 2 inch OEM lift with 32 in tires. The truck has stock 4.30 gears. When I put the lift on I could definitely feel a drop in power and gas mileage. The drop in power was minimal. My gas mileage went from average of 21, down to 18 (19 on a good day).
Im thinking about uping it up to 4.56. That will put it in my stock power band. The catch is that its very expensive. $3800 expensive. So my question is, is it worth it to to regear my truck at that price?

Ive included my invoice for the price estimate to look at the prices quoted. Im in Alaska, so prices are a bit higher, But is he charging way too much?

 

I would say absolutely not. There are tonnes of people with lifts an 32" tires doing fine with stock gears. Are you running heavy tires? Mud tires?

I would say re-gearing is only worth it if you do the work yourself and even then I wouldn't do it.

 

Depends on what you want to accomplish.

 

Im running BFG All Terrains. Yeah I didn't lose much power, but it bugs me that I did lose some.

 

That's about how much I'm expecting to pay to regear and lock for both my front and rear. But he's only charging you for the rear lock?

I may have missed, are you 2WD?

 

No

Im 4wd, but no its a quote for front and rear.

 

I just use it for a daily driver and light off roading for fun and to camping/fishing spots.

 

That's a lot of money just to get the power back. You're on stock sized tires anyway, so you'll be overgeared. How exactly did you feel a power loss? Wind resistance should only be a real issue at higher speeds.

Edit: Did you get a lift and different tires or just a lift?

 

Ah.

Eesh. It does seem a little steep, but that's for me and I'm in Texas. Perhaps some Alaska members will chime in on the costs.

 

I

I could just feel the loss when I stepped on the gas. It didn't have the same pep. I'd have to push harder to get the same power. And I of course could see the loss in my fuel averages.

 

Straight off the line should only be affected by your wheel and tire combination. Their weight and diameter will take up some power if increased. Did you get new tires or were the BFG all terrains stock?

As for MPG, yes the lift may decrease that, but honestly not all that much. My truck had a 3 inch lowering kit and when I raised it to stock+2.5", I recorded a ~1 MPG loss. That, of course, was at around 60MPH. at 75 it would be more, how much I'm unsure.

 

Wait since when has Toyota put in 4.30 gearing on the 2nd gens?
Last I saw it was 3.73...

 

You sure you don't have 3.73 gears, I don't think they didn't switch to 4.30 until 2016.

^^^ Ya beat me.

 

For me, I do 70/30 DD/wheeling. I'm still on 32s and pretty plated up, only missing the rear bumper. The truck feels like it has plenty of pep for me. But I know when I get larger tires and a rear bumper, I should probably regear. I'm just holding out until I'm ready to buy lockers. Because shouldn't all DDs be dual locked?

It's your choice, and your truck. I believe you should only do the diff work once. So make sure that's end game for you, or will at least make you happy for several years.

 

Oh wow, I assumed this was a 2016 since you claimed to have 4.30 gearing. Yeah, you definitely have 3.73 unless you had some sort of special order, and if you had a V6 2015 on 4.30s, you wouldn't feel a thing but torque.

You haven't responded yet but I'm going to assume the tires are different? They're probably heavier. If you don't do heavy offroading, switching to a lightweight wheel and tire combo would help your gas mileage and power.

 

Yeah you are right, not sure where I got 4.3 from.

 

Exactly. I also plan to plate up. Here in the near future i'll be investing in a rear and front bumper along with their Rack Pack. That will add a lot of weight.

 

Ive gone through the formula and it says 4.56 is just right for what I want it for. That is also what is recommended by the shop I'm going through.

 

4.88 is also in the Gear Ratio spectrum I could go to to return it to stock performance. I just don't want to over do it. The calculator I put it through recommends 3.97.

 

Sorry, I missed your post. Yes, the tires are different. I went from OEM 30' tires to 32' BFG AT KO.