My Taco has altitude sickness

Hey team Colorado! I just joined the crew. Looking forward to meeting fellow Tacoma folks. Wow... are you guys doing anything about the power loss of higher altitude? Sure you could throw a supercharger on it but looking to see if there was anything besides pushing harder on that skinny pedal.

 

Welcome to CO. My solution was to get used to it. I learned to drive in CO so I’ve never really noticed the difference too much.

 

Thanks! I figured that was the solution. Just checking.

 

Relish driving at lower elevations. I have been living at 7000' since 1992, coming from sea level in NH, driving 52hp diesel VWs.

Every 1000' change in elevation roughly equates to 3% change in horsepower.

 

I've made 10 road trips to, or though Colorado since the 1980's in 6 different vehicles. 3 trips in my Tacoma Just got back Thursday from a 4100 mile trip, but drove a 2014 F150 this time. I found the Tacoma handled the altitude better than average. A 2002 F-150 with the 4.6L V8 was the worst. The 5.0 V8 in the newer Ford has been the best.

Just use lower gears and more rpm's and they do just fine. My current Ford has a 6 speed, but both 5th and 6th are OD. I spent a lot of time in 4th and some in 3rd. But the rpm's stayed between 2000-2500 rpm's and I could easily maintain speed limits in either the Ford or my 07 Tacoma by shifting out of OD before even starting up inclines. It doesn't hurt a thing to run them in lower gears and rev the engine up to 3000+ rpm if needed.

I find it best to drive it like a manual in mountains. I like to downshift BEFORE the engine starts to strain. The automatic transmission will downshift, but only after you lose momentum.

I actually got the best fuel mileage of the trip doing that. I filled up in South Fork and drove to Lake City and back. The next day we drove over Wolf Creek Pass into Pagosa Springs then on to Durango. From Durango we drove through Silverton, Ouray, and finally to Ridgeway where we spent the night. I filled up the next day in Gunnison and got 21.1 mpg for the drive. I was almost never above 4th gear. I averaged 19.1 for the 4100 miles. The Tacoma got 22 mpg on a similar road across Arizona and into Utah on its last long trip in 2016. 20 mpg for the trip. There were several passes of over 10,000', but also several long down hill coasts. Once again in 3rd or 4th, sometimes 2nd gear to slow me down.

 

Welcome MO!! Happy you’re in Colorado now.

 

Thank you! Me too. It's been a 7 year long dream to come out here. Waited for my son to graduate high school. He's out here too and we are excited to be here.

 

I run Colorado Springs Tacoma’s Group on Facebook. You’re welcome to request to join and join us on rides. I’m a little slower in updating events and photos on our TW page: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...avy-trail-reports.564740/page-4#post-20067877

 

Anyone down for a get together?

 

I'm down!

 

Regear would also 'fix' the problem, but like others said it's probably easiest to just deal with it. In my 1st gen, it's only really annoying when climbing steep grades at high speeds (I70), or when running over ~9k feet. I've just learned to embrace that right lane life and hang with the semis.

 

Thanks! That seems to be the consensus. It was tolerable at 400 feet but at +6k feet it's a pain. Too much weight and rolling resistance. I think I'm sitting right at 130 lbs at each corner. It looks like 5.29s are in my future. Isn't there a local guy that does gears? Unfortunately transmissions and gears are the only things I don't mess with. Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

 

I've never owned any truck before so maybe I don't know what I'm missing. I also avoid I-70 like the plague, but I drove to Breck in April and hauled ass, relatively speaking, up I-70. Lots of 4th gear and some 3rd and 60-70mph most of the way. Didn't seem to have any power issues and my mileage was a reasonable 19.5 mpg considering a mostly uphill trip. Averaged around 23 mpg for the whole round trip.

 

I drove from Golden to Salida today, went I70 to Minturn, through Leadville, down valley home. On I70, 3rd and 4th gear in S manual mode with cruise control at 75, no problems with passing power etc. I love the feeling when the cam timing changes above 3900rpms.

 

For the mountains use 3rd on the inclines and 4th on the flats. I only use higher gears for the downhills. IMO--the 3rd gen's 4th gear is a bit of a tragedy for mountain driving. Any sort of incline and 4th will sit @ 2000 rpm and have no torque to speak of. I'll lose 5-10mph in a few seconds. Any extra pressure to the gas pedal will result in a downshift to third and rpms shoot up to 3800+. I wish there was a sweet spot in the middle where we could still get ~3000rpm in 4th and at least hold the same speed when going uphill. I may be looking at OV Tune to solve this.

That said, I drove my truck to Tennessee last spring and it acted like a totally different vehicle. Lots of pep. Good ol' Rocky Mountain high elevation takes a toll, for sure.

 

4.88 gears will get you up the i70 tunnel in the 5th at 65-70mph