jswift

Hey all,
Just wanted to say thanks to this site for all of the great info found on here. I have a 93 4runner and it is great. 3.0 5 spd. Occasionally I drive to the mountains and have been frustrated with the lack of uphill speed.

It has had 235 75 15's and I felt this was part of the uphill speed problem. I have the window sticker and it showed the truck came with 31 10.5 15s, so I bought a set off Craigs to experiment with.

Went skiing to day and drove the 4runner with the 31's. Four people and loaded down, I cruised up the mountains way easier than with the 235's. Less shifting and less rpms. I still had to shift down to third sometimes, but could still go at least 50-55mph.

I was afraid that the larger tire might rob power, but actually the gearing worked in my favor. The 3.0 cannot pull 4th on steeper climbs, and third revs out easily, the larger tires allowed me run faster in 3rd, while turning less rpms. Not to mention the ride is way smoother.

Don't you love it when a plan comes together.

Kiroshu

Just goes to show you what "OEM" does for ya. Good job

Matt16

despite what a lot of people think, re-engineering a Toyota isn't always a great idea- like lifting IFS trucks, mismatching tires and gears etc.

2DoorRunner

^^^
but whats the fun in that?

Alex 400

I had a similar experience. I can pull 4th on mountain grades around here loaded with my dirt bike on the hitch, all of my stuff and me, but i know your passes can be quite a bit steeper than ours. Glad it worked out for you!

The next set of road tires (I have seperate snow tires) I get are going to be 235/85-16 i think. little bit taller and narrower which will help with cruising rpm and rolling resistance. 90% of the driving i do right now is between ellensburg and seattle which is about 120 miles on the freeway. with 4.56 gears and 31's that measure 30, to pull 70 i have to get the speedo up around 73 which is about 3150-3300 rpm about. screamin' a little on the flats so i typically run at 3000 or a little below, though I don't have a problem running it there or a little higher if i have to downshift to 4th or 3rd to pull grade and get in the powerband. with 235/85-16 that typically measure out a 31.7 or so, with the speedo at 70 i should be going about 71.5 mph. so from there I can lower the rpms to 70 or a little below which will get the rpm down closer to 3000 or below which i would feel more comfortable with. And I am pretty sure they would fit well with some 6 spoke toyota 4runner/tacoma rims.

peow130

Shoot, yesterday i was pullin uphill in 4th with my pickup loaded down with a quad.
Twas quite the sight to behold.

Alex 400

up snoqualmie? Yeah i have no problems pulling snoqualmie with all of my college crap (it's a lot stuff).

peow130

Lol not snoqualmie, just from spokane out to 7 mile on government way.

airkewld4life

I wish mine would go uphill like the rest of yours do. Mine is so gutless it is truly embarrassing. I don't know what to do about it. I have 31x10.5's, V6, auto which I think the auto may be holding me back. It also seems like it doesn't want to downshift. My buddy mentioned something about a kickdown cable? Could this be out of adjustment?

Alex 400

gotcha. lol