5.29 off road performance

I’m well aware of the on road benefits of regearing to 5.29’s.

Let’s hear about the off road performance. Does anyone have firsthand experience with obstacles that you couldn’t get up/over with stock gearing but you did after 5.29’s?

 

Do you have a winch already?

 

No

 

Well, that's the first thing you get for happy offroading.

 

I’ll disagree with that all day.

I can’t speak for off-roading improvement in the tundra as it’s not my off-road toy. I can however say going from 3.55’s to 4.88’s in my k5 made crawling so much easier. Low gear is now low and I’ve got so much more control bumping over ledges and rocks. With the 3.55’s and 37’s I was struggling over some ledges because I was trying to balance throttle and control and those aren’t mutually exclusive. Now I can ease over the ledges with less throttle which makes it easier on everything else.

 

I would think you’d just recover some of the power loss from turning larger, heavier tires, which is probably a bit more noticeable at Colorado altitudes.

But maybe it crawls a bit better in 4Lo, too

I just carry traction boards. Getting into a real mess might change my mind on that though

 

Power loss is real above 10,000 feet. Hoping 5.29’s will help. I’ve encountered a few obstacles where the truck simply won’t go up.

 

Have you regeared?

 

I'm on Eastern coast, it is pretty flat here, even on the hills we call "mountains". Gears can't help if you high centered in mud or snow, or dug snow down to iced mud and wheels simply spin with no traction. 4LO and stock 4.30 gearing is enough otherwise.

 

Sure, now unspool that 12k lbs winch cable, add a couple of snatch blocks and you have pulling force that can lift your truck in air easily, with no wheel slip or drivetrain straining.

 

I do. Goes over everything with both, just noticeably easier with the 5.29’s. There are limits in 4lo that will stop it regardless of gearing. I removed mine and it works well, know someone else that it did not help though.

 

Wow. I need to step up my off-roading game lol. I’ve only done the shelf roads and a bunch of trailhead/service “roads” in various CO hunting units. Never encountered an obstacle that I simply didn’t have enough power to get over

 

What are the 4 lo limits you removed?

 

Ha! I have been known to take my truck places that a daily driven tundra shouldn’t be.

 

I'm pretty sure @Cruzer and @SAGE63 are both running 5.29s and may be able to offer some input....

 

It’s in the stock tuning. A tune from the likes of OTT or Sniv can remove them. I was going to suggest the same thing but @Vizsla beat me to it.

Basically, the stock tune limits throttle in 4Lo, purportedly to protect components in case you romp on it in a sticky situation. You can easily modify those throttle limits to something like standard 2wd throttle limits for unimpeded access to v8 power. Easiest way is to have it tuned, but you can do it yourself with HPTuners and the requisite credits (payment) to write your ECU.

I’d start there.

 

Interesting! I have a tune from OTT and I like it, but wasnt aware of these 4 lo limits. I have definitely experienced times when it felt like the throttle was limited. Like the truck is in a "limp" mode and just wont rev up, even with the pedal on the floor. It makes sense that Toyota would put those kinds of limits in place to protect parts, but on a steep off road slope sometimes you need more juice. I'll contact OTT about this and see what they can do.

I am interested to hear what @Cruzer thinks. I know he's gone down the "Tundra-crawler" rabbit hole further than most!

 

My understanding is you cannot fully eliminate the torque limits. Having 5.29s would probably help, but my understanding is @Cruzer has all the torque limits turned off in the tune and his truck will still refuse to give full throttle. Gearing would help since the truck doesn't know how much actual wheel torque is being provided, but we're not talking a huge difference here.

 

Ah. Shoulda known it was not actual lack of power but a good ol’ Toyota nanny kicking in and limiting it

 

Thanks for the info, Sniv! When you say "not talking a huge difference" are you saying that neither the gearing or the disabling of torque limits will yield much of a difference when it comes to low end grunt?

ETA: I'm not necessarily looking for full throttle capability in 4 lo. Do you know how much more throttle response you get by disabling the programmed torque limits? Anything has to be better than what you get in stock form.

 

I just mean if torque limits are being engaged to begin with (despite the tune removing them to the best of its ability), then regearing will increase how much wheel torque can be generated (since the truck wont know it's geared deeper necessarily). So if you're hitting a ledge right now and at full throttle in low range the truck can't climb it, then regearing will "only" increase your torque limit by ~23%. But if that extra 23% isn't enough to climb the ledge, you still hit the trucks built in torque limit and it won't command more power. My understanding is that is what @Cruzer has experienced.

I guess my point is, in my opinion, the wheel torque output isn't the issue so much as the ECU limitations. It's a bit more foggy than a conventional rock crawler of "lower gearing is better, I can go slower and be more controlled", sure that applies, but that's not really the main hurdle to overcome...

And maybe there are easy ways to bypass the torque limitations, I've never had issue with them, but I remember talking to @Cruzer about them and how his tune was setup and he said he was still hitting them even with them "turned off" as far as HP Tuners could.

 

There are throttle limits, but I’m hesitant to say that fixes it due to the friend mentioned above. I changed lots of things all at once, and definitely not a tuner. There are 2 idiots (I’m one of them) who have verified repeatedly over the same obstacles that it helps. Some assuming here, don’t think every truck will respond the same, there are parameters not accessible in the available tuning platforms, and mechanical limits still exist. Link below is a good resource.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vjgq9FKMUA-5Aq06Kw-RycH7USHoswg7/view?pli=1

 

This is also the correct answer…

 

Most of my offroading is tied to my job and not for fun, but I can say that on at least two occasions that I got stuck, a winch would have been virtually useless. There was nothing to winch to, open muddy fields. However, traction pads would do the job.

ETA: I still want a winch though.

 

Yes running 5.29s with 37s. what is the question

 

Haven’t reviewed his thread in a while but I believe that’s why he made his own arduino switch board to trick the ECU into thinking it was in 2wd when he was really in 4lo. Guy does some wild stuff

 

So offroad improvement... hmm good question. Luckily I got my 5.29s before I went from 295s to 37s. I did experience some improvement going up obstacles ie less skinny pedal required I could go up slower and with more control. Greasy spoon in Sedona and diablo dropoff in Anza Barrego has a couple of up hill obstacles where this came into play with stock 4.30s needed 4L and a lot of skinny pedal would bang and bounce, with the 5.29s less skinny pedal slow and steady a couple of bumps but much beter control. Now with the 5.29s and 37s... It is a different beast. I will find out this year how much improvement front and rear lockers provide... Eaton E-lockers installed on Mar 31...

Thanks for the tag @Tripleconpanna

BTW I am not a technical guru like some of these guys are... just a weekend warrior that likes to have fun with my Tundra while trying not to break stuff.....8>)

 

I don't think it's a magic pill, but it was nice that you just put in 4lo and let it walk.


<a href="https://imgur.com/5Tl45Dd">


<a href="https://imgur.com/cbWYNoJ">

 

color me impressed.

 

Gotcha, that makes sense. These got-dang computers are ruinin' erythang!