Nitro 5.29 Gears "Too Aggressive" for 2016+ Tacoma's? Nope! Perfect.

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Nitro 5.29 Gears "Too Aggressive" for 2016+ Tacoma's?
Watch this review - We bet you'll be surprised with real-world feedback from an actual #NitroGear customer.

 

RangeDrive

Observer
Nitro 5.29 Gears "Too Aggressive" for 2016+ Tacoma's?
Watch this review - We bet you'll be surprised with real-world feedback from an actual #NitroGear customer.

What are your guys thoughts on 5:29 V6 First Gen Tacomas? I am lifted, 33s, ARB bumpers and I tow a M416 trailer when camping.
 

dman93

Adventurer
Not to sound too much like a contrarian, but with an automatic, aren’t lower gears really more of a benefit for low speed crawling, if needed at all? I have a 3rd gen Tacoma automatic, and I just manually shift to 5th or 4th or 3rd if needed on highway grades. Yeah, I shouldn’t need to, but I do appreciate the tall gears and low rpm, and resultant mpg benefits on long downgrades. Ratios are close enough that I can pick the power and rpm balance I like. The torque converter helps a bit too.

Now if I had a manual transmission, and had to slip the clutch a lot at low speeds, I’d appreciate lower gearing, especially with what I’ve heard about the MT Taco’s reverse gearing. But there’s always low range. Note that my experience is with stock or slightly larger tires, I understand that with taller (and much heavier) tires a gearing change may be needed.
 

Hilux_Max

Adventurer
if these were available when I installed my 4.8's to my 2016 Hiux, I would have gone them instead......the Hilux could do with a little more "gear" especially when running 35's.
 

bkg

Explorer
Not to sound too much like a contrarian, but with an automatic, aren’t lower gears really more of a benefit for low speed crawling, if needed at all? I have a 3rd gen Tacoma automatic, and I just manually shift to 5th or 4th or 3rd if needed on highway grades. Yeah, I shouldn’t need to, but I do appreciate the tall gears and low rpm, and resultant mpg benefits on long downgrades. Ratios are close enough that I can pick the power and rpm balance I like. The torque converter helps a bit too.

Now if I had a manual transmission, and had to slip the clutch a lot at low speeds, I’d appreciate lower gearing, especially with what I’ve heard about the MT Taco’s reverse gearing. But there’s always low range. Note that my experience is with stock or slightly larger tires, I understand that with taller (and much heavier) tires a gearing change may be needed.

Disagree with your position. I agree with Nitro’s comments, 100%.
 

Smileyshaun

Observer
Not to sound too much like a contrarian, but with an automatic, aren’t lower gears really more of a benefit for low speed crawling, if needed at all? I have a 3rd gen Tacoma automatic, and I just manually shift to 5th or 4th or 3rd if needed on highway grades. Yeah, I shouldn’t need to, but I do appreciate the tall gears and low rpm, and resultant mpg benefits on long downgrades. Ratios are close enough that I can pick the power and rpm balance I like. The torque converter helps a bit too.

Now if I had a manual transmission, and had to slip the clutch a lot at low speeds, I’d appreciate lower gearing, especially with what I’ve heard about the MT Taco’s reverse gearing. But there’s always low range. Note that my experience is with stock or slightly larger tires, I understand that with taller (and much heavier) tires a gearing change may be needed.


Toss a trans temp gage on your rig and you will quickly see how tall gearing affects a auto trans . Tall gears and bigger tires will have more of a affect on a automatic but without a gage you normally can't tell. With a manual trans you will quickly know if your pushing the limits of your gearing/motor/tire combo because it will either stall or smoke the clutch,With a auto when your pushing past that limit it's essentially the same as slipping the clutch but your actually slipping multiple clutches causing a buildup of heat that can sometimes in a short order break down those clutches and all that material to flow through the transmission causing it to degrade the quality of the fluid and eventually plug vital parts burning up the trans . Running at lower rpms does not always mean you will net better mpgs , lugging a motor at 1200 rpms will sometimes take more effort and fuel then letting the motor run easy at a higher rpm .
 

nickw

Adventurer
Not to sound too much like a contrarian, but with an automatic, aren’t lower gears really more of a benefit for low speed crawling, if needed at all? I have a 3rd gen Tacoma automatic, and I just manually shift to 5th or 4th or 3rd if needed on highway grades. Yeah, I shouldn’t need to, but I do appreciate the tall gears and low rpm, and resultant mpg benefits on long downgrades. Ratios are close enough that I can pick the power and rpm balance I like. The torque converter helps a bit too.

Now if I had a manual transmission, and had to slip the clutch a lot at low speeds, I’d appreciate lower gearing, especially with what I’ve heard about the MT Taco’s reverse gearing. But there’s always low range. Note that my experience is with stock or slightly larger tires, I understand that with taller (and much heavier) tires a gearing change may be needed.
Low gears offset tires size. Think about how the engineers designed the vehicle, it was designed for X RPM and Y MPH, which is thrown off with larger tires. Taller tires, say 35's, OD gear is virtually worthless and your tranny is going to be working overtime. As you point out there are workarounds, but your 5-spd tranny is now effectively a 4-spd. Low RPM does not always equal better MPG if the engine is struggling / lugging.
 

dman93

Adventurer
All of the comments above imply that a good driver can’t tell when the engine is “lugging”, running too low rpm for optimum fuel efficiency, and possibly over-working the torque converter and increasing trans fluid temperature. The good thing about these new Tacoma’s is that it doesn’t take much mechanical sensitivity to want to downshift to 5th or 4th or 3rd. The only comment I agree with is that the 6 speed I paid for is effectively a 4 speed. And, I may sing a different tune if I had an ATF temp readout. But again, coasting downhill at 70 mph in 6th at 1200 rpm does help recover fuel economy lost on the climbs. 5.29’s won’t enable that. In summary, in the old days with 3 or 4 speed transmissions lower final drive gearing was essential when going to taller/heavier tires, for both low speed and high speed situations. But a modern 6 speed, let alone 8-9-10 speed transmissions, would seem to have close enough ratios that you can pick the rpm you need in most conditions with a slap of the lever.
 

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