Steller Built is an awesome shop!
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We have a few thousand pages of talk about 4.88s vs 5.29s over on tacoma world.
The short story–5.29s for 33s or larger. 4.88s are ok for 33 skinnies and under.
I have 4.88s, 265/70/17, and OvTune. That pushes my 3rd gen just fine.
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I have 4.56 with full armor and 35s. Dont have my gfc yet, but I’ve had heavier RTT setups, and the truck does great. I guess a bit higher rpms in the mountains. I just keep an eye on the transmission temps
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Hey,
I have 5.29 Nitros on 2014 tacoma… Here are my thoughts and experience with this.
I have a GFC, and 33" tires on 16" wheels.
When I did my research, it was hard to find anything for 2nd gen tacomas. And the difference being the 3rd auto had that 6th gear where the 2nd gen did not. I got talked into the 5.29s when originally I was going for the 4.88s. I would recommend going for 4.88s if you have a 2nd gen and most of your driving consists of longer distances on HWYs. The problem I am running into is not the power and torque, which is great with the 5.29s. It’s keeping up with HWY speed limits when they reach 75 and 80 miles/hr. My truck wants to run at 3200 RPM and that gives me anxiety for 3-4 hours at a time. It has no problem going that speed but I’m just not comfortable with the engine revving so high, even though I’ve been told it can handle it.
If I had it to do over again, I’d get the 4.88s. If most of your driving is around town and trail riding then the 5.29s will do the trick and then some. But my issue was traveling to those destinations ends up being the bulk of my driving and it just isn’t as fun for me. I drive longer distances to go to mountain ranges for snowboarding. Currently I am waiting for toyota to come out with a more improved tundra and I will be selling my complete rig to put a new GFC on that thing, if and when it comes out [hoping for 2022]. It will serve my purpose better.
Hope that helps a bit.
Josh
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Hey Josh thanks for the advice. Maybe you should get 35’s or 37’s then the 5.29 would be perfect. Although those tire sizes demand more mods…
I have a 1st gen tacoma and 33’s. Re-geared to 4.88’s recently and made the truck so much nicer to drive (like it was before all my mods). Would highly recommend to anyone with bigger wheels, sliders/bumpers, camper shell, etc. DO IT!
I also replaced my speedo drive gear with one with (more?) teeth so that it’s pretty accurate again. Worth considering.
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And then 80 mph would be hard to achieve!
I never go above 70 in my truck. The RPMs get high, then transmission gets hot, and then gas drains. I only get 220 miles to a tank anyways. I dont mind going slow, can take in the sights.
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2019 Tacoma here. 255/85/16s so roughly 33-34 tall. Sliders, skids. Leer shell( waiting for my GFC). I penciled out the gears and picked 4:88s. The numbers worked for 80 mph. What I didn’t add to the calculation was the extra weight I’ve added. I’ve since added the OV tune. The gears and the tune helped a lot. If I was to do it again I’d go straight to the 5:28s. Long story short. Do the 5:29s
It sounds like that is the consensus for 3rd gen Auto with larger than stock tires and additional weight.
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Hi jedgar, thanks for replying. I’d love to chat with your friend. I have a second gen manual an am having trouble finding enough information surrounding the regear. I would love to hear from them about the experience.
DM me your questions and I can pass them on.
I have a 3rd gen and just got the 5.29 and love them, but… if you have a third gen start with the OV Tune first, then start thinking about the regear.
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Update: I got my GFC installed last week. 3rd gen taco pushes fine in normal conditions with 4.88s and OVT.
Coming out of Montana down into Wyoming the wind was absolutely gnarly. The GFC is basically a giant sail and definitely has an impact on power and speed. If you’d getting a 3rd gen taco and plan on 33s or bigger with the GFC, I definitely recommend getting 5.29s.
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So I got the regear done and thought I would share my thoughts. I went with Nitro gears 4.88 and also added an Eaton rear eLocker.
Driving surface streets and lower speeds it’s not that noticeable but it is different. More torque off the line. At highway speeds and especially climbing hills is very noticeable. The new gears hold the speed much more efficiently. Previous to the re gear I would be in cruise control doing 65 mph and would come to a very small hill and the engine would Rev. That no longer happens. On steeper highway hills the engine would scream at almost 4K rpm in order to keep 70 mph That is no longer a thing. I would say overall I am satisfied with the added performance on paved roads. I have also been off roading quite a bit and see an increased amount of torque when climbing hills. 4 low feels much better. I think my favorite part of the re-gear is this new rear locker. There are some steep technical hill climbs that I couldn’t make in 4 low before. Now that hill is no problem with the rear locker engaged. Bottom line if you have a small or midsize pickup and a gfc I would highly recommend a re gear.
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Do you try OVTune before gearing?
No. I did consider it but after an endless amount of research decided a re gear would be most beneficial.
So you got a tune. What tire size you got? When I had 265 70 17 it wasn’t bad but 285 70 17 is much different. Maybe a tune would be good too. I need to stop spending money on this thing…
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For what it’s worth in my opinion you can’t really “power” your way out of wrong gearing with an automatic. A regear just makes things work so much better on road and also is night and day better off. If you can afford it, it is the way to go.
Note: all my experience comes from Jeeps on 35s and 37s so ignore me if needed 
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Yeah I’m running 265/70/17’s at the moment. The hesitation of acceleration and chasing of the gears was driving me up the wall. So I plopped down the $250 and had it tuned. Re-gearing and suspension was next on my to do list, but I can’t seem to find anything decent in stock anywhere for suspension. I guess I’m just gonna have to end up getting some Dever leaf packs and re-gearing until they start getting suspension kits back in stock everywhere.
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