Adventure: Tacoma Regear

For any of you who bought a third-generation Toyota Tacoma with the six-speed automatic transmission, well, this post is for you. This vehicle, in its stock form, is one of the worst highway driving experiences of any vehicle I’ve ever owned. If you live at sea level, drive around town, never drive in the hills or in the wind or actually use the truck like a truck then you might not need to regear. The rest of you, just watch and learn my dear.

I have bumpers, skids and sliders, an Icon lift and 31-inch tires. Nothing too crazy when it comes to the world of modifications. However, all these things add weight to the vehicle, so some slight slow down is expected, but even BEFORE I did any of these mods this truck was horrific on the highway. The truck never sees sixth gear unless you are going downhill with nothing in the bed. So, the truck’s normal highway gear is fifth. Then, anytime there is a need for power the truck shifts down again, into fourth. And STAYS in fourth gear, or bounces from fourth to fifth and back again NONSTOP. Forget about cruise control. Totally unusable.

So, if you regear from 3.90 to 4.88 or beyond the truck becomes the vehicle you hoped you had purchased from the dealer. This repair is a night and day difference. Night and day. The upshift, the downshift, holding speed on the highway or driving around town the truck is responsive and oh, by the way, gets better fuel economy. (I consider the regear a repair and not an upgrade.)

I got my rig redone in Cashmere Washington at a shop called Nitro Gear. They went above and beyond and were so easy and nice to work with.(Thanks Scott and Jared.) They are regearing Tacoma’s nonstop and I can’t imagine this changing anytime soon. I drove to Cashmere, had the change made then drove a 600-mile loop around the Cascades which was well worth the time. A truly beautiful region that I will return to.

Any questions about this procedure just let me know. Better yet, call Nitro and schedule your service.