5 th Gear Towing - Toyota

Nick,

When the 100 cruisers box let go it was still driveable, very noisy and if you were in 5th and kept the gas on it would stay there but as soon as you let the gas off it would pop out into neutral. My personal opinion is when towing stay out of 5th, but I have had a bad run with 5th gear probs so I am defineately biased.
I regularly cruise for hours on end at 3000rpm 4th gear and so far no detrimental side effects. (touching wood as I speak).
Have a good run up nth, even if it is a slow trip to get there. Over 5000km the difference in travelling time when doing 80 or 90kph is only about 7 hours anyway.

Regards Trevor.

Hi there Nick, I have 31/10.5/15 bfs all terrain on my 89 lux and use 5th gear all the time,same motor as you minus the turbo, my'n has nearly 280.000klms on her now and still all the same running gear gearbox/transfer,diffs etc and had no problem vehicle been round oz twice now, I have heard of 5th going in the nissans patrols/navara's due to towing in 5th but if you put in 4th on the hills or any form of incline I believe it stops this from happening as you arn't labouring it probably a bit hard to tell with the patrols as they are such a big motor and pleny of go with the 4.2 turbo so the turbo's doing the pulling for you but must be straining the bearing in 5th. I believe they have fixed it now in the newer patrol's. Sorry getting of the subject, I havn't heard of toyota's having this problem well I certainly havn't with mine.I find that I'm in 4th a lot anyway at the slightest incline to keep it going (2.8 have soooo much grunt NOT !!! ) so maybe thats why mine is still ok.Maybe with yours having the turbo your more inclined to keep in 5th untill it really starts to labour then that's where the load playing on the 5th bearing. Maybe some other lux owners might be able to give you some more info. Any way not much of a help to you but have a safe trip and hope all works out for you. Regards Steve

Strictly speaking with the turbo you really should have the R series trans (same as in V6 4Runners and Turbo Diesel Surfs) as its much stronger and no probs towing in 5th etc.

You probably have the G52 and if this is the case then i would only use 5th in genuine cruising scenarios, ie flat ground and coasting under no real load. Use of a synthetic gear oil would be wise as well.

Going to larger tyres may necessitate a slight final drive gearing change to keep it on the boil, which then counteracts the larger tyres so no real point.

Stay with what you have and just use 5th sensibly.

What do Toyota say - check your users manual.

JD

Hi Nick

Hi Nick
It would pay to regularly check your oil and magnetic plug in the gearbox. Any problem will usually start with increased wear metal accumulation, unless it is more catastrophic, ie sudden overload and breakage.

I had a 2001 Patrol GU which showed excessive wear metals at 50,000km, and had it rebuilt under warranty. Nissan replace 5th gear with a different part number, that allows lubrication to the spline. The gearbox is fine for towing in 5th, but the original gear was an engineering design problem...like the early to mid 1990's Landrovers transfer inputs.

Toyota gear is physically lighter than Nissan, and I don't know whether 5th is OK for heavy towing, but you could put a second magnetic plug where the fill plug goes, to make it easier to monitor. You could also install a temperature gauge on the gearbox to monitor. Any component overloading that causes increased friction and wear will elevate operating temperature. You will quickly see if 5th is a problem, or if you need to tow in 4th.

Hi
I would say it would be a good idea to stay out of overdrive in any vehicle you are towing with. They are basicly just that (an overdrive) designed to save fuel when cruising, not for under load conditions.

Cheers

Yeh right....
I have only done maybe 250,000 klms heavy towing, always in 5th when on the flat in two GQ's with never a hint of a problem. (At least 50% or more of my mileage is done towing heavy trailers 1.5tonnes+ )
Surprisingly, not all gearboxes and vehicles are the same! Some gearboxes are actually better than others!!! (Shock, horror) You can't generalise- it's like saying all aussies are drunken yobbos just cause you met a few who were....