Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives spruced up the Tacoma

They're 3.73's. I'm curious about the cost to do a typical 4.56 swap on one of these rigs. Mine could use a bit more gearing with 32" tires. Overdrive lugs too badly around town because the computer upshifts to often and too early. I lock out OD if not breaking 45mph.

The cost of the gears is not bad, of course you have to do front and back so it does add up. The more labor you can do yourself the cheaper it is. I know properly setting up the gears was beyond my ability, so I ordered setup 3rd member and clamshell from ECGS. Adding the Detroit made it more expensive than just a gear swap.

It's easy enough to swap out the complete carriers yourself if handy with a wrench.

If you have a local 4X4 shop, they can usually give a pretty accurate quote on what labor will cost to do the gear swap. I was kind of surprised how cheap it was to have them re-work the front diff on my yota, and they had parts in stock to do it.

Gear sets are a couple hundred.

PS, KodiakIsland - the truck is looking good! I dig the sliders.

I put a couple of those Truetracs in my Jeep Wrangler. A very nice upgrade!

Nice ride. I really like the tacos. Never owned one but many are in my family, uncle, cousins and so on. It's my plan to flip a couple of project trucks and buy a taco for a daily driver/beater/huntin,fishing truck. No lift or anything, just drive the devil out of it.

I've got a 2014 TRD. Being a past Jeep owner, I just assumed they left the "u" out. I'd like to do about 3" of lift to clear 285-76x16s but finding a local shop that will do it the way I want it done instead of cheap and cheesy has proven impossible. A bit of lift would help. I grind the receiver hitch pretty hard getting to my favorite back woods camping spot.

A front TrueTrac would be a decent upgrade. I ran one in my first TJ. It made a useful difference. (I didn't not waste time on a limited slip in the rear, I ran a Detroit locker.)

3 inches can be done, but it starts to get messy in a Tacoma. You will need new coilovers like bilstein 6112s or Fox 2.5s with 1/4 inch spacers. Add new upper control arms and a cab mount chop. Probably will need an ECGS CV shaft axle bushing to reduce vibrations. Rear is easy, just new springs, shocks, and brake lines.

I wish there were more options for the front diff. ARB selectable locker is the only one I know of made for it.

That's the direction I was thinking ... new springs and upper control arms. The local clown shop mechanics think it's going to work with spacers and don't seem to care about uneven tire wear.

For a lot of shops, spacer lifts are pure profit. If you didn't mind a rough ride and never got off pavement, they are OK.

It's actually pretty easy to do the lift yourself. You can get the coilovers already assembled and it's about like replacing shocks. The UCAs are easy to replace as well at the same time. I would stick to no more than 2-2.5 inches of lift with the coilovers and use 1/4-1/2 inch top plate spacers for any additional lift. Spacers over 1/2 inch should be avoided if ride and handling are important. I have only a 1/4in spacer on the driver side to account for the Taco lean.