Own a lot of Toyotas, is the 4runner worth it?

For what I’ve done to my truck it needed a tune. It didn’t perform correctly off road with the weight in armor and 35” tires. It couldn’t adapt itself for what I wanted.

I understand you want to die on this hill and you can but there is a place for a tune and gears.

 

5.29 nitro gears. Drove it for about 2k miles on the road. It still lunged forward or rear depending, had to really get into the throttle off roading and hunted for gears. Got a KDMAX tune and all of that went away. I got back into the 17 mpg range from the 13mpg it was at.

 

I own a 2016 Tacoma and a 2018 4 Runner (see the attached picture) ...Here are my thoughts - 1) Regarding the Taco's transmission. Mine is - perfect - for the simple reason that its a MANUAL. The computer that controls the shift-points (and other parameters) is between my ears. 2) Re. the Runner - It's a wonderful machine, as one of the comments read...It's about 'Love'. The fact that it's an automatic are overcome by the other attributes of the machine. 3) The Tacoma is for hauling stuff.....The 4R is for hauling people and doing so comfortably. 4) The 4R has a decent back seat that's designed for real-size people that you don't have to apologize for. Therefore my Taco is the -Access Cab. The back seat room, and ease of getting in and out of the 4 door Taco should never be compared with the Runner. 5) Both machines will take you where you want to go. 6) The Runner is MUCH better for long-trips due to it's better seats and seating position. This is based on 110,000 miles on the Taco and 25,000 on the 4R.

Clay aka K7CR

 

I’m not going to even entertain this. Have a nice day.

 

Coming from a world of older trucks if I lifted my 95 Silverado per say and added 37 inch mudders and a 4.56 ratio just for numbers the only thing that could have to be done would be to calibrate the speedo for the tire size if possible? I personally never heard of needing a tune when regearing differentials, thought it just made up for the bigger tires and rotations, am I wrong here?

 

Thanks! I agree. I see tunes kill a lot of vehicles especially diesels when the people buy them to not utilize its towing capacities but rather ‘roll coal’ and haul ass.

 

Not trying to highjack this thread. Question for anyone. Why did Toyota change the engine and tranny in the TACOMA from 4.0 and 5 sod to the 3.5 and 6 spd tranny? The 4Runner is still using the 4.0 and 5spd. I know about Toyota and the TNGA platform. But, it seems like they would’ve been better off retuning the 4.0 engine. It already had more torque to begin with.

 

There's one difference nobody seems to have mentioned about Tacomas and 4Runners. And before I get to that difference, let me add that I had a 2014 Tacoma TRD Sport 4x4 that I put 115,000 miles on before I moved to my 2021 T4R SR5 Premium. Yes, the 2nd generation Tacoma had the 4 liter motor so it isn't the same as the 3rd generation Tacoma with the 3.5 liter. That said, I find our T4R to be a much better towing vehicle than the Tacoma for our boat:



As for what nobody has mentioned, the 3.5 liter motor in the OP's Tacoma is different than the 4 liter motor in the T4R. The 3.5 may have similar HP numbers, but in my over 50 years of driving (and towing) experience I've learned one thing; Torque tows and horsepower hauls ass. They are different but related things. When you're towing, you want lots of torque - preferably down low in the RPM range. For instance, having 300 HP available at 7,000 RPM will not make for a fun towing experience. The 4 liter motor in the T4R has much more usable low end torque and thus will tow better than the 3rd gen Tacoma. That's my personal opinion though.

 

Answer: Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) numbers.

 

Wouldn’t the Tacoma weigh less thus be acceptable like the 4 runner of the 4 runner still meets standards. I think the 3.5L was a dumb move.

 

See, this hasn't been my experience. I feel like the 4R holds higher gears for way longer than it should. Half the time on the highway, I'm mashing the gas pedal to induce downshifting because we're going slower than traffic on the inclines.

Or maybe my perception of "gear hunting" is different. Always thought it was minor variations in pedal caused gear changes.

 

I have the same experience with mine. It doesn't want to downshift without a lot of pedal input. It does lose speed QUICK on grades, probably because of a lack of torque at lower rpm.

In my experience the gear hunting happens when using cruise control. Mine downshifts on the slightest grade, or even in a headwind. I don't think I've owned another vehicle that had this much trouble maintaining speed in top gear.

 

They probably figured the 4.0 was too old to waste development dollars on. The 3.5 is from the parts bin, it's used in many other Toyota models. I wouldn't be surprised if they decided 10 years ago that the 4.0 wouldn't live past the current generations of the vehicles it's in.

 

I haven’t posted to this thread as the OP seems to have vanished. But whatever… here it goes. I went from Mesa, AZ to Flagstaff Arizona in the summer one year (before re-gear and adding a bunch of weight). Anyways it was definitely not like my v8 Tundra. But it did the job and nothing blew up and no warning lights. The pop up camper was roughly 4k pounds fully loaded and if you look up the elevation gain it is quite substantial when going through Payson.

 

There's a thread here with some information about one of the companies that offer tunes for our vehicles. I'm sure @mZiggy would be happy to answer any questions.

https://www.4runners.com/threads/yotawerx-tuning-services-development-and-feedback.21473/

I think there's another thread regarding another tuner, as well. But, this was the first one that popped up with a search.

I agree that a regear is a great option for those running oversized tires, or even just to improve towing performance.

But, it sounds like you had a bad experience with a tuner or something. What tune/vehicle have you had problems with?

 

@Thatbassguy thank you sir

@Nano909 you are correct in saying that a regear is a great option, and there is a point where physics takes over and becomes pretty much a necessity, but that does not mean that tuning does not have its benefits. On the contrary, tunes even for a NA application are very beneficial.

Our primary R&D vehicle is one of our YotaWerx-house owned 4Runners, and it had 215k miles on it when we first started, and the tune was officially released when we had put over 40k hard miles on it, and then another 15-20k has been added on since then and then we supercharged it because we put our trucks through their paces when we test, and we daily drive the very tunes that we release.

Tuning does not inherently stress your engine and transmission more, not if done correctly. There are rpm ranges for instance that constitute an ideal powerband. If you are not in this ideal powerband due to the stock tune wanting to upshift or not providing enough power, the truck will undergo additional stress trying to meet the criteria you've demanded of it at that time, which may be high load and a high torque demand in a higher gear, in low rpm. Just an example of how tuning can help, and how the negative scenarios you've described can occur on the stock tune.

I do agree with @Thatbassguy in saying it sounds like you've had a poor tuning experience in the past, and that's unfortunate, but YotaWerx's track record with Toyota tuning speaks for itself, and we are not in the business of compromising your vehicle's safety or capabilities.

 

On the Tacoma, we actually offer a completely different shift logic set for the 5.29's because the rpm's you're at are significantly different from the stock 3.90's and results in some odd lugging and harsh shifts, and even some scenarios where you're in the wrong gear.

Tuning and regearing can work together quite well.

 

In snowy weather, we always put about 300 lbs. of tube sand in the back to get traction. Went in during late fall and into the garden in late spring.

4WD only works if the tires have traction specially if all 4 tires are on the ground (ask my wife how she learned that on a snowy night in Wheatland, WY )

 

It's only a few hundred lbs. difference, so not nearly enough to raise the fuel economy significantly.

Agreed about the 3.5, though. It seemed gimmicky to me right from the get-go. And, they have certainly had more issues than the 4.0.