Regearing

I have a 2004 Tacoma 3.4L and I’ve heard a lot of people talking about regearing, what are the pro and cons of this and how much would it cost?

 

Tons of pros, much money

 

Everything is a tradeoff, and its an expensive one.

 

Regearing typically refers to changing the gearing in your differentials to alter your final gear ratio. The reasons one would want to do this vary, but typically as you increase or decrease tire size, you might alter the gearing to maintain as close to stock ratio as possible. Lets say (with a bit of certainty) that your truck has 4.11 gears in the diff(s). If you went up to a 33 (285/75) tire from the stock 30-31 (265/75) the truck might seem sluggish or unable to accelerate quickly. A solution to this might be to change the gearing to say 4.33. Larger tires (35s) might go to 4.88.

Now lets say you went too far, 4.88 with stock tires (or even 33s to an extent) you might accelerate off the line quicker, but you're going to top out quicker too. This is the tradeoff. If you're trying to build a 1/4 mile truck, might not be a big deal. But for a daily driver / weekend warrior that's not a very good solution, and it's most common to try to maintain as close to stock of a final ratio as possible.

It's really expensive to change gears. Best bet at this point would be to try to find a used 3rd member, have the gear swap done (by a shop) and then install it- and then resell your original 3rd so someone else can do that same. Costs double if you have 4wd.

 

OP, i don’t know what I’m talking about but I was considering having mine regeared and e-lockers added. Eventually, no time soon. You can send in your 3rd member to east coast gear supply and they’ll regear it and send it back. The website quoted over $750 for that I believe. Selecting to add a Harrop e-locker bumped it up to $2000. Or you can pay a $600 refundable core charge on top to get another one from them and return yours. Maybe that would reduce your vehicles down time. As said above if you’re 4x4 then both have to be done to match gearing so double the price.