Over the last three months of winter - which I suppose we're still sort of in, but we're soon to come out the other side - the Tacoma has been doing great. This time of year, it lives down in Las Vegas, so there's relatively little I can do from a maintenance perspective. As such, this Rig Review focuses on things that are working (or not), but doesn't really address any of them with fixes.
In that time, we squeezed in four adventures (and a couple other family vacations to more... civilized accommodations). While that might be fewer trips than some reviews, they were longer than normal, so it was still 18 nights in the desert, a great way to escape the dreary dampness of the Pacific Northwest winter.
So, let's get into the details:
TL;DR - The new 5th gear is gutless, but it does seem to have improved my gas mileage significantly. Maybe.
Can installing this save you gas money?
TL;DR - The Exped Megamat for the RTT continues to be one of my most "worth it" purchases, and Exped (the company) stood behind it - years after my initial purchase - when it developed a slow leak.
Worth every penny.
TL;DR - The Kenda Klever RT tires have great traction, but I'm ditching them (and returning to S/T Maxx) once they wear out.
Flat spots.
TL;DR - My Northstar 24F batteries have been great, but after 5 years, they are both dying. I need to start figuring out what I'm going to do next.
No green lights, no bueno.
Seemingly solved from previous Rig Reviews
With the Tacoma away from home, nothing got solved.
Unchanged / Still an issue from previous Rig Reviews
There are some things that have been featured in Rig Reviews that are - as yet - unchanged from when I originally reviewed them. Rather than highlight those things again, I'll simply link to them here.
- Skid plate attachment could be better
- The Sequoia wheels and Kenda Klever RT tires aren't as great as I'd hoped.
- The jury is still out on whether the 5th gear swap was worthwhile (still collecting data).
- Mice in the cab. We haven't had any more mice, but I haven't made any changes, so I'm not ready to call it solved just yet.
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I have given up on AGM batteries, went through a bunch and they don't seem to last in my usage. My 2000 Cruiser off, keep things alive current will drain a battery in 3 to 4 weeks. And AGM seem to suffer more from being taken down to a low charge. So I have gone back to regular batteries. When I park the Cruiser for more that a week I hook up a charger. I have a marine cigarette lighter jack in my front fender, and charger now has a cigarette lighter plug on it. Also kind of handy with a USB charger plug in it, as it is always on, for charging stuff on the hood.
Yeah, I'm wondering about going back to a lead-acid for the starting battery (to save a bit of money), and LiFePo for the house battery (just for the fun of building out a new system). My truck doesn't draw down quite as much as the LC sounds like it does, but when it's in storage, they don't have it on a charger, so I'm sure that's not great for it... given the 2-4 weeks between visits/trips.
I like that external charger. I have something internally for charging at home, where I can just plug in my CTEK charger and keep both batteries topped off, but external would be even more convenient.
For accessories, things like a winch I've been using an Optima Yellowtop D35 deep cycle AGM battery which is holding up well and is said to about 3X as long as a similar flooded battery.
Yep, that's one of the things I like about the dual AGMs I have now; they are great for those high-draw situations, like winching.
Can you say--Fabric softener sheets? cut in half and put 6-8 in the cab, anywhere in or out. Something similar is a farm tractor cab mouse repellent.
Interesting! I had no idea they didn't like the smell. I wonder if we'd be able to stand it when we got back in each morning, lol!
Definitely something we'll try though, should we have anymore of those pesky critters. Thanks!
I need a beefier front skid plat, new battery (old one is loosing my trust, so need some recommendations), tires are new (Goodrich T/A KO2), no mice yet (trap w/peanut butter under passenger seat) and need a rear bumper w/spare tire/jerry can mount. Want to know more about the dual voltage monitor. Kinda come up with a way to do solar panels charging my EcoFlow Delta 2 with an inverter connected to the trickle charger for the truck battery when parked. So far, that worked. Battery is five years old and showing dying signs.
I'm thinking about doing the same for charging the starting battery, if I go to LiFePo + AGM/SLA. I probably wouldn't leave the inverter on all the time, but if the starting battery died, I could flip the inverter/charger on and at least I wouldn't be horked for more than a few hours. Still not as convenient as just jumping myself with the ML-ACR that links two AGMs directly, though!
That dual battery monitor is one that a buddy gave me (he'd bought two from some obscure place, years ago). It has one (+) that goes to each battery (for me, each pole of the ML-ACR) and one (-) that is shared. It's sort of nice in an analog way, but I think a better solution is to just use two digital gauges.
Interesting. reading and learning about the 5th gear swap.
I have a 4 Runner with skinny 33's and 4:88 gears. While they are the "correct gear" for the application @3kRPM at 70MPH I am still disappointed with how gutless 5th can be in mountain driving. I can hold maybe 85% of grades in 5th. Way better than with stock gearing but still a little disappointing. Aero load is terrible on my truck so 14-6mpg is normal at speed. But 4lo can be horrible in single digits.
I had a Tacoma with skinny 32's and 4:56 gears. Also terrible aero load so 15-17 was normal on highway. But got 14-16MPG in 4 lo even in the most ridiculous trails that were all day ascending in 1st 2nd gear 4lo. An amazing difference.
What's really surprising is that vehicle did 95% of grades in 5th gear with the same 3K RPM @ 70MPH. I never lacked for power in sub-60MPH driving and in 4lo. A little at a freeway speeds but did not care because it held 5th gear.
After having my two dream combo vehicles I can honestly say the 3rz and W59 have better ratios but also honestly just FEELS BETTER in 9/10 real world driving scenarios than the 5vzfe and r150 does.
If I ever have to buy another 4runner I think I would actually rather have the 3rz. Just the 4 lo fuel econ alone would be like installing an aux fuel tank in the 5vze fe.
This could be a good solution for your house battery if you go lithium. It allows you to recover the start battery.
https://www.redarcelectronics.com/us/bcdc-alpha50
Thanks! I think if I wanted to go with a standard DC-DC charger for recovering the starting battery, I'd probably just go with a second Victron Orion XS 12 | 12 - 50, since that's what I'd be using to charge the house battery, and having two would allow me to monitor both through the same interface. I'm sure the RedArc is pretty nice though!