OVtune OR regear OR pedal commander for 3rd gen?

need some helpful opinions from you guys. so i just put rock sliders on my truck now im seeing what adding weight does to the truck. I always drive with ECT on because it just feels so slow and sluggish without it, but now with this weight and i plan to do the slimline bumper and winch later this year i'm assuming the sluggishness will just get worse.

so what's the best way eliminate it? hell even with ECT on now with the slider i definitely feel slower the way the trucks is always searching for gears and overall just trying too hard just to get to 65mph on the hwy. (i dont remember having this issue on my old 2010 taco)

does the OVtune eliminate this sluggish feel? 700 for that right?

pedal commander runs about 300 i think, but will an easier gas pedal give the truck the feeling of not working as hard?

regear will be pretty costly i think, but will it cure the issue (for all future heavy mods)? without making mpg worse, i find that the 16mpg im getting on a good day is already is horrific...

 

Make sure your truck has the newest TSB loaded before anything else.

Gears will be the most costly, but the most smiles. Do it once, right, and always have that low end power.

OVTune has rave reviews as well. Cheaper than gears, but it’s not comparable. Second gen guys with blowers still get gears.

Stay away from pedal commander.

Are you lifted with heavier tires yet, or just planning for the future all around? @inksin can weigh in with his experience.

 

Regear and OVTune. Period. Pedal Commander is smoke and mirrors.

I have the OVTune and 4.88's on 35's and it's the tits.

 

Are you on larger tires? If so regear will be night and day. Ov tune will definately help too. Heres a free pedal comander, push down harder. Same result less cash.

 

yes i have 33’s KO2s.


and people are doing regearing even with the ovtune, wow i thought the tune would be enough or definitely the regear would be. why would you do both???

 

The tune controls drivability more than HP/torque additions. I was on stock gears for 4 months with the OVTune and the gears were the icing on the cake.

 

Surprised to see you regear with a MT.

 

Im 2nd gen so different motors, but im on 285’s, regeared to 4.56 and still feel like i need more. Probably going to go with ov tune.

 

MT has nothing to do with it. Gears will only get you so far when you increase tire size. I wheel my truck hard and the gears help immensely on the rocks.

 

..MT gearing is significantly better than the AT, and you can hold what gear you’re in.

I’m well aware of 4HI woes when at any incline in 33”+, so I’ll roll in 4LO in second when it won’t do the trick. Why didn’t you go 5.29?

 

5.29’s weren’t available when I regeared, and honestly, I’m happy with the 4.88’s and actually could run 37’s on the 4.88’s and be fine. I’m probably going to be upgrading to 37’s soon and may go to 5.29’s depending on how it handles with the 4.88’s.

 

Guy here on island (Oahu) is getting 5.29s for his AT with 35” KO2s. These engines are gutless.

I’m not running OVTune, but I have the newest TSB that fixes every power delivery complaint I had. I’d full recommend saving up for gears

 

Regear.

I can’t say anything about OVtune cause I don’t have it.
But regearing in itself is a drastic difference. It’s in there, I don’t have to worry about updates and haggling back and forth with subtle issues that some report with OVtune. I’m happy.

Test drove a 1st gen tundra today. 05 4.7 (I believe 05 and 06 were the desired years for this gen) anyways, I did so because I just wanted to see the difference. I never mashed the skinny pedal on my Tacoma after the regear, never needed to. Today’s comparison was almost spot on similar. I’m keeping my Tacoma.

 

A little review on my first impression when it comes to the Tacoma Orange Virus Flashing.

Truck Details:
2017 Tacoma 3.5L AT TRD Off-Road DCSB
1.04R 91 Octane 04B04
AirAid CAI
AirAid Poweraid Throttle Body Spacer
Nitro 4.88 Gears (Front & Rear)
Dirty Deeds Exhaust System
Tuff Country- 3" Suspension Lift Kit converted to 4" Suspension Lift Kit Nitto Trail Grappler LT295/70R17 mounted on Helo HE878 17x9 Black 6x5.5 -12mm Offset.

I opted for the 4.88 Gears first. Overall, the Nitro Gears have drastically improved the truck. Not only does it get up and go with vast improvements to its acceleration, but what has stood out the most to me is the gear hunting. I will definitely agree with the fact that prior to installing my Gears the truck would hunt for the correct gear all the time. I hated going up mountains or even slight hills. The truck would shift back and forth so much. However, now that I have had these Gears installed on my truck for quite some time, I would like to note that the Gears did not solve the Gear Hunting 100%. While still going up mountains and slight hills, I found my truck still shifting back and forth when it wasn’t needed. Shifting wasn’t the smoothest either. On the other hand, the power and drivability did drastically improve the performance of my truck.

Most recently, I opted to purchase the Orange Virus Tune. I was informed by someone that has been around the block for a long time and knows whats best for these trucks, that if I purchased this tune it would only be a gimmick. However, if I wanted to waste my money to go ahead. Well I can officially state it is NO gimmick and this person that claims they have been around the block for a long time and knows what’s best for these trucks is wrong. He is definitely missing out on this one for sure. This mod is hands down the best mod I have installed on my truck for performance. The shifting and drivability of this truck has improved more than I could have even imagine. The shifting is smoother than its ever been 100% both up shifting and down shifting. The throttle response continues to get better and better with each mod. However, what I want to talk about the most is the shifting and smoothness of the ride now. On my routine trip to and from work, my truck would shift from 5th to 4th and back to 5th all the time. It’s a pretty flat drive to and from work but it does have some slight hills here and there. Today, for the first time, my truck did not shift once. It stayed in 5th Gear the whole time. There were moments where I thought the truck could have shifted to 6th on the more flat ground spreads, but if I had to choose between the two options I would pick the less shifting option. It was very frustrating, even with the 4.88 Gears, how often the truck would need to shift down and then shift back up. I haven’t experienced the ECT button yet, but I can only imagine what that is going to be like. I love driving my truck!

With my review, I’m not sure if I would be able to tell a difference if I hadn’t gone with the Gears and then the Tune. By going with the Gears first, I have been able to experience how much better the Tune enhances the Shifting and Drivability. I think if I had gone the Tune first and then the Gears, I would probably have noticed the Gears providing an increase in HP, but probably nothing else and I’m not sure how much at that with the HP.

Since you are on the fence with whether to go Gears or Tune. I would say it depends on what you are looking for in your end result of your build. It is really hard to say. However, I would say that I would not leave out the Tune. If you only want to do one, I would install the Tune 100%. If you can afford both, then I would definitely do both the Gears and Tune. I just can’t believe how much the Tune really smoothed out the drivability of my truck. Right when I thought the Gears had fixed the shifting 100%, I notice more and more of improvements with the Tune. I’m excited for the future to come!!!

 

I had no interest in the tune but this review has me changing my mind.

 

I will be honest that I was skeptical myself at first and that is why I went with the gears first. Now, after having both, I would definitely recommend the Tune. If there was only one mod I was able to get it would be the tune for sure.

 

OVT = gimmick

Yeah ok, lol.

There's a common theme among those who say that.

They don't run it.

 

I think that's the common theme among all the nay-sayers on here. Lots of opinions about something they don't have any experience with.

 

Just curious about how bad adding the sliders affected your mileage. I've had hundreds of pounds of weight in my bed along with passengers and it barely has an impact. Maybe less than 1 mpg.

 

i’m actually in process of testing out mpg with the added weight now. on the way to denver then moab, but just did 250 miles with ECT on and it was 14.3mpg .... doing the next 250 miles with ect off and will see what it says. (cruise control on 70mph most of the time)

i don’t think the sliders alone will cause a huge difference but the overall sluggishness of the truck in general i have to do something about asap! after day 2 of riding around in town with the sliders and ect on i didn’t notice the added weight as much as i did going home after the install the other day