I bought my first truck, 06 Tacoma, in August and I have been wondering what the other gears are for. I am refering to the 4, 3, 2 & L. It's an automatic. I feel lame asking but I have no idea...I'm a girl what do you expect!! So any information would be helpful.
the other gears are mostly for towing things (trailers,boats) with good weight to them. and to me...they are also for certain weather conditions( like snow on an incline).
Put it this way.... its basically stick, without a clutch . And for towing/hauling, since theres no overdrive, you can shift it to a lower gear so it will keep the power in that gear and won't upshift (as what would happen in Drive).
In other terms, have you ridden a road or mountain bike? On a bike the different gears allow the rider to pedal easier going up hills without being too sluggish. Same concept with the other gears on a vehicle.
Your truck will shift gears from 1 to 5 as you go faster, automatically. (Basically)....
The 'gears' selection makes your truck stop shifting any higher (Not go any further) than that gear that you selected.
If you are traveling (Say, interstate/highway, up a large hill) you may want to downshift the shifter into 4 instead of 5. This way, it prevents the truck from shifting 4, to 5, back to 4, back to 5 again. This can be hard on the transmission.
Once you are over the hill, you can shift it back into 5.
Leaving it in 5 simply lets the truck do the shifting choices on its own.
To follow up and clarify a bit more, putting the shifter in 3, for instance, doesn't mean that it will stay in three. It means that the automatic transmission will not shift any higher than 3. It will choose between first, second, and third gear.
If you're going fast, don't shift into 1, 2 or 3; it's hard on the engine/transmission. Use these low gear setting very sparingly, like if you're driving slowly through deep snow or in an off-road situation. However, feel free to put it in 4 anytime you like to keep it from hopping back & forth between 4 and 5 all the time. Also, if you're coasting down a hill, putting it in 4 cause the engine braking to engage eliminating some of the need to ride the brakes down the hill.
This is actually all covered in pretty good detail in the owner's manual. The Toyota manual is quite nice. Plain english with lots of helpful diagrams.
Good post jp!! Most people don't use ( and shouldnt..for all our sakes ), an auto properly. Just hafta learn it...make it work to your advantage. IMO not the best idea to drive round town with it always in OD ( My Wife!!) engaged!!
I prefer and always will hava stick.. I'm an old fart w/ a 6 speed short shift!
Another use I didn't see mentioned here, if you're going down a steep hill you can downshift to a lower gear to take advantage of engine braking instead of riding the brakes.
I Need Gears 101
Re: I Need Gears 101
. And for towing/hauling, since theres no overdrive, you can shift it to a lower gear so it will keep the power in that gear and won't upshift (as what would happen in Drive).
Linear Mode
