Lifting your Tacoma and adding 285 tires you need to re-gear?

In this article https://www.outsideonline.com/2420999/how-to-modify-tacomas it goes on about a guy who put 34" tires on his Tacoma and basically ruined it. MPG down to 12 on the highway, unsafe to pass because it was sluggish and flooring it up a grade and only acheiving 60mph.

The solution re-gearing costing $3,000.

I would like a small lift and put 285/75/16 on my 2020 Pro, but Im worried that I will not only rub but I will have poor gas mileage and sluggish performance from the engine. The solution is to re-gear? Really?

 

Check the regear thread and see how many are getting 18mpg.

I'm heading the 34s route too, but selecting the lightest tires i can find(Cooper 58lbs) and my truck has no added weight besides wheels/tires. I'm 2wd also, so about 200lbs less than an OR.

A no regear and retune would help some.

 

well it is up to you. if you want to regear or not.

i lost about 1.5-2 mpg going from 265-70-17 to 285-70-17.

power wise, it was still ok to drive. i did notice the truck would downshift more often times going up hills. meaning there is a hill going to my work that with the stock tires, the truck would never downshift to get over. But after installing the 285-70-17 the truck started to downshift to climb the hill. to me it wasnt a big deal so i just dealt with it.

 

I put 285/75/16 on mine, ridge grapplers which in addition to being bigger and heavier than stock also have a more aggressive tread. I lost a couple mpg and it slowed it down a bit, but the truck wasn’t fast to begin with.

the effects really weren’t all that dramatic, and now it just feels normal

 

Did you mean 285/75/16? There’s not much tire options for 285/70/16.

 

I'm running Ridge grapplers 285-70 r17s and I did a re gear from Nitro gear. I went with the 5.29s and it was the best thing I ever did for the truck.

 

Honestly these trucks need a regear straight from the factory.

 

285s on my pro and still consistently get over 20 mpg. Power loss was negligible comapred to the 265 I had on it. These trucks have more then enough power even with 285s. Love mine.

 

Yes, I did mean 285/75/16 tires. Also wondering about tire noise.

 

I’m on 285/70r17 goodyear duratracs and factory gears. I’d like to go to 5.29s, but I think an OV tune initially will be more cost effective. I disagree that a regear is mandatory where I’m at right now

 

If you're worried about MPG leave it stock! If you add bigger tires and lift I would go with the OVtune before the gears because many are running 33's with stock gears and tune getting 18-20 MPG. The higher you lift and more weight you add will greatly affect the MPG.

 

OP you didn't specify which transmission you have. I'm assuming auto but if you're one of us that likes to do shit the hard way with a 3rd pedal, from what I've gathered most of us are happier with stock gearing on 33's than our slushbox brethren.

 

On 285 tires, the most you will loose is 1 mpg. Driveability is still awesome.

 

20mpg with no regear? I have yet to get over 15mpg withy truck, and it's brand new, aboiuy6 300 miles on it

 

It's not just Tacomas. I had a 2012 Rubicon, which is not the best mileage vehicle to begin with, but stock it averaged around 16.6 mpg on a trip to Wyoming, about 60-70% highway and the rest streets, no serious off roading, just dirt roads. I went to 35's the next year and did the exact same trip, on the highway portion along, my average went down to 13.7 mpg, and overall for the whole trip it was in the low 12 mpg. The trans would hunt for gears on hills, it was always downshifting to get the power needed. I never regeared, but probably should have. I am definitely regearing before I go to 33' in the Taco

 

It all depends, really. If you live in the mountains, regearing may help with MPG's because you'll have the ability to get to 6th gear. But if you live on flat terrain, cruising in 6th gear means you'll be at a higher RPM to maintain the same actual speed than you were with stock gears.

Then you will have graphs tell you that based on your tire size and stock gear ratio that you'll be in the more economical side, whereas others will say it puts too much stress on the transmission with larger tires (not necessarily the 33's your planning on purchasing). Regearing could put you back in the middle of the power band.

There are a significant amount of other factors, I'll let the others answer that for you in here.

 

Going to 285s I expected loss in mpg and I'm not going to try to battle that. I did however ovtune for better drive ability on stock gearing. Tacoma's are sloths to start with anyways. This setup works for me.

 

Loss of MPG- yes
Loss of power-yes
Re-gear necessary- no, but recommend.

I average ~16mpg. But my commute is mostly flat. On road trips it’s a bit miserable when I hit any incline for extended periods of time but I’ll just shift down to 4th gear (automatic trans). I’ll eventually re-gear. Bottom line, It’s livable. Not necessary but not ideal.

 

Are you sure your computers even taking the bigger tires into consideration and reading it right?

 

285/75/16’s aren’t that large of a tire, some of the special packages Toyota puts on the Tacoma’s comes with that tire size.

I recently installed 34’s and it made the truck a little slower but not to the extreme others claim. I personally think people expect the Tacoma’s to be race ready from day one, and they are far from that, even stock.