Topic: Which gearing to get? 2.7L, 5-speed, 35's

[sixstringsteve]

Info:
'97 reg cab tacoma
2.7L
5-speed
OME 880/ Dakar lift
35x12/50x17

Trying to decide the best gearing for MPG and cruising on the freeway. I won't be towing, I don't have a huge winch or bumper. Just a simple truck for camping/exploring and the occosional trip to moab. If I do more crawling, I'll get a doubler.

I'm more interested in MPG than low speed crawls. I've played with the gear-ratio calculators for hours, and the 4.88s will give me the RPMs I want, but I'm not sure if they'll give me the power I need. I'm not power hungry, 4.10s and 31's feels like great power to me. I don't mind downshifting to 4th if needed for a hill, but I don't want to be totally bogging it down around town and on the freeway.

I had 4.88's in my last taco with the 3.4L auto and 35's, and it was perfect. I'm really looking for people running a similar setup to see what they like. I'm aware that the 5.29's will give me more power, but MPG is important to me, and I'd rather be at a lower RPM on the freeway than a higher RPM (unless 4.88s just aren't going to cut it).

[daniresch]

I would personally go 5.29 for your setup. MPG wont change much between 4.88 and 5.29. Your odometer is going to be off either way when you try calculating MPG. I would prefer to say in 5th gear than repeatedly need to downshift every time a slight hill comes up.

But you seems to be leaning toward 4.88s and those would work just as fine.

[sixstringsteve [OP]]

thans dan.  You're probably right, I doubt my MPG would be much different with a 200 RPM increase.

[Tungsten Slayer]

We ran a First gen tuck with the 5.29 behind an 2004 2RZ. This rig was around 4500 lbs. loaded with camping gear and fire wood on 36" Iroks.  We figured 24 MPG one trip we took from Eugene to Browns camp and back. We used a GPS to figure the mileage and did not count trail consumption.

As far as 4.88 or 5.29, there both good choices.

[sixstringsteve [OP]]

sweet.  I decided to run 4.88s.  It's not too hilly here, and most of my drives are on flat freeway, so it should be good.  Thanks for the feedback.

[yotatough]

88pathy runs 4.88's on 37's with his 3rz, said it was great on 35's as far as power goes.