Build Thread: 2006 Toyota Tundra Double Cab

That’s exactly how i drive as well. Not only better fuel economy, but it also makes for a less stressful drive. I also don’t have to worry about slowing down for traffic on the highway, because when driving 55mph, i am the heavy traffic on the highway!

 

Well brother, you should have read the reaction I got on another forum when I suggested a guy complaining about his fuel mileage (actual "heavy truck," like F450 or something). He wanted to do a rear end gearing change but I suggested "driving slower." H O L Y C O W

Some other dude with literally 12 posts over a period of 10 years of forum membership got all hot and bothered. Got called "absolutely garbage" to which, of course, I replied with a Youtube link to Van Halen's "I Can't Drive 55."

I saw a 25% (check my math please) mileage increase back in 2006. At 70 to 75 mph got 38 mpg in my (then) 2003 Honda Civic. Tried 55 mph and got a whopping 50 mpg! I kept doing it.

Easier to slow and stop for disabled motorists, less stressful drive, wrote an editorial advocating the practice, which was printed. My friends all make fun of me, I don't care.

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Today: used 4WD again to back up the trailer at that "crackhead central" jobsite. Also a friend driving my Tundra as I ran the zero turn used 4WD Hi to pull me out of the mud: the field looked dry and I sunk that big mower up to the deck!

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Got a new keychain for the Tundra. Wife likes it better than the repo "Toyota" one I got her previously.

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Tundra goes into 4WD Hi easily enough but light blinks when trying to come out. I ended up just pulling out and heard a "thunk" and the light stopped blinking. I had all that stuff greased and serviced at the stealership plus that new Duralast CV axles put in.

Is this because 4WD just hasn't been used? I doubt the previous owners ever used it.

 

Everyone knows that diesel trucks get better fuel economy and tow better with a 6” lift and 42” MTR’s! Stock height truck with little tires are useless when hauling an excavator on a lowboy trailer.

^^^And still some guys actually buy into that malarkey. Nowadays it’s totally out of the norm for any truck to still have a stock sized tire. So much so, that a truck like that is actually unique when driving down the road. So i’m more apt to look at a truck like that, than say a lifted truck with 35”+ tires.

 

I call them "redneck tires" or "redneck wheels." Really a thing around here! GIGANTIC tires sticking half a foot outside of the wheel wells......I think those things look idiotic. SMH.

I prefer stock height on well, everything. When my Tundra's tires wear down, those are getting replaced with 16's which I think are correct. I think it has 17 inchers now.

I topped a long 5% grade hill today, 35 mph! Pulling the loaded 18 footer.....roughly 4K pound load being towed. I ran my 4-way flashers, stayed in the slow lane unless passing an even more heavily laden tractor trailer (which happened twice I think). I should have gotten a better run at that hill!

 

You should search out for a pair of 4.10 or 4.30 3rd members with loads like that!

 

4.30 or even 4.56.


Budget, get 4.10's from a seqouia (or 04 dc).

 

You guys talking gear ratios?

Was there a choice in gear ratio for a 2006 Tundra?

I wonder what mine is.....

 

https://www.tundras.com/posts/3621352/

 

Just now I finally did a Tundra improvement.

Removed the old tailgate handle and replaced with a new OEM. Didn't have T30 bit for removing the tailgate lock cover but T25 worked just fine.

Old one wasn't just loose it was broken! The mounts that hold the nuts that allow the two mounting bolts to screw into----broken. Just plastic and broken off. The only thing holding my handle on were the two connecting rods that operate the actual latches. SMH

 

Hmm....based on that mine should be a 3.91 gear ratio?

OK...I'll do some figuring on that. Might go for an axle change in the future, thank you.

 

Another Tundra improvement: new OEM tailgate cables ("stays.")

One of the new bolts that screws into the tailgate wouldn't take to the threads so I used the original bolt.

Cables and tailgate latch seem to be working fine.

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Other than the parking brake not having much "grab" and us having to be careful where we park and often having to use chocks when parking on a grade (very often around here) the truck is working out just fine.