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Just got my 24 Offroad Hybrid OTT Tuned... holy smokes, night and day

ixo

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Just got back from getting my truck tuned. Saw someone say that a tune is the best single thing you can do for your truck, so I searched and found Central Coast Tuning would be in my area in a month or so, and booked an appointment. They travel around California and do these events where they set up shop, and I had no idea what to expect. Would there be a dyno? How long was this going to take etc.

Turns out it was just a guy going from truck to truck and flashing a tune. I was the only hybrid present, so mine took a bit longer, but from the time it was my turn until I was buttoning back up the backseat battery was about 20-25 min.

2024 Tacoma Just got my 24 Offroad Hybrid OTT Tuned... holy smokes, night and day 1758395855712-c3


Pulling out of the parking lot (literally about 20 feet) I actually did a u-turn to go back and talk to the guy (JC Valenzuela was his name) and he probably thought "oh shit, what is this guy immediately turning around for" but I rolled down my window just to tell him I could literally ALREADY feel a difference in the response. Pulling out on the freeway and driving back from Concord to Antioch it felt like an entirely different engine under the hood. Throttle responsiveness, shifting timing, it felt like a cheat code.

I imagine Toyota engineers building these engines we love, and then here comes California or the EPA or the government in general and telling them ACKSHUALLY, I NEED YOUR ENGINE TO RUN LIKE GARBAGE SO WE CAN SAY EMISSIONS ARE WITHIN THIS THRESHOLD or whatever, and the engineers roll their eyes and make their beautiful creations run terribly to meet some politician's idea of correct, intentionally gimping the actual feel of how the engine is supposed to operate.

It felt like these shackles were thrown off, and if I sound a little excited, it's because I am.

1000% believer. This is the single best thing you can do for your day to day satisfaction of actually driving the vehicle you purchased. It's like running custom firmware on a phone, and disabling all the bloatware.

Thank you Central Coast Tuning, and huge shout out to Overland Tailor Tuning for making the flash in the first place.
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lauren01

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I’ll track ā€˜em down…am on the lower butt end of the Central Coast, Ventura. Appreciate your post :D
Edit: Quoc is closer, and I travel to San Marcos (San Diego area) often, so I emailed him.
Need to understand how towing is affected—want to avoid overheating transmission fluid.
side note ~~
Been meaning to learn manual mode on this automatic with a geared transmission. This is the first vehicle I’ve owned with one. It’s been all manual transmission and a CVT up to this point.
 
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DeadSetMonkey

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Anyone know of resources for this in the colorado/denver area?
How did your MPGs change?
Any experience with tune off-road?
 

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gofastdan

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Anyone know of resources for this in the colorado/denver area?
How did your MPGs change?
Any experience with tune off-road?
My TRD OR has been tuned for ~6 months now and I love it. I've got ~1,000 lbs permanently on the back with my camper and frankly I can't even tell it's there. It may not be quite as radical as it is with the hybrid (never driven one) but I think it's well worth the money. To me the biggest difference is when accelerating from ~30-70mph. It pulls way more strongly than pre-tune.

You won't see a big difference in the mpg one way or the other unless you keep your foot on the floor (which you probably will). Driven as normal it's basically the same.

Here's a link to a list of tuners. Looks like Colorado Toyota Tuning is the vendor for the Denver area.
 

Wife bought my 24 TRD

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Just got back from getting my truck tuned. Saw someone say that a tune is the best single thing you can do for your truck, so I searched and found Central Coast Tuning would be in my area in a month or so, and booked an appointment. They travel around California and do these events where they set up shop, and I had no idea what to expect. Would there be a dyno? How long was this going to take etc.

Turns out it was just a guy going from truck to truck and flashing a tune. I was the only hybrid present, so mine took a bit longer, but from the time it was my turn until I was buttoning back up the backseat battery was about 20-25 min.

1758395855712-c3.webp


Pulling out of the parking lot (literally about 20 feet) I actually did a u-turn to go back and talk to the guy (JC Valenzuela was his name) and he probably thought "oh shit, what is this guy immediately turning around for" but I rolled down my window just to tell him I could literally ALREADY feel a difference in the response. Pulling out on the freeway and driving back from Concord to Antioch it felt like an entirely different engine under the hood. Throttle responsiveness, shifting timing, it felt like a cheat code.

I imagine Toyota engineers building these engines we love, and then here comes California or the EPA or the government in general and telling them ACKSHUALLY, I NEED YOUR ENGINE TO RUN LIKE GARBAGE SO WE CAN SAY EMISSIONS ARE WITHIN THIS THRESHOLD or whatever, and the engineers roll their eyes and make their beautiful creations run terribly to meet some politician's idea of correct, intentionally gimping the actual feel of how the engine is supposed to operate.

It felt like these shackles were thrown off, and if I sound a little excited, it's because I am.

1000% believer. This is the single best thing you can do for your day to day satisfaction of actually driving the vehicle you purchased. It's like running custom firmware on a phone, and disabling all the bloatware.

Thank you Central Coast Tuning, and huge shout out to Overland Tailor Tuning for making the flash in the first place.
After adding 1300 pounds to my truck, I could feel it lagging a bit and didn't shift quite as well as I liked. So I got a tune from Paul at Overland Taylor tuning out of Portland Oregon. You're correct best thing you could do to your truck to unlock its hidden potential.

2024 Tacoma Just got my 24 Offroad Hybrid OTT Tuned... holy smokes, night and day 20250706_121040


2024 Tacoma Just got my 24 Offroad Hybrid OTT Tuned... holy smokes, night and day 20250823_095305
 

JustDSM

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@ixo which stage did you get?
Stage 1 is all that is currently available. Stage 2/2+ and 3/3+ are in development at this time!

I’ll track ā€˜em down…am on the lower butt end of the Central Coast, Ventura. Appreciate your post :D
Edit: Quoc is closer, and I travel to San Marcos (San Diego area) often, so I emailed him.
Need to understand how towing is affected—want to avoid overheating transmission fluid.
side note ~~
Been meaning to learn manual mode on this automatic with a geared transmission. This is the first vehicle I’ve owned with one. It’s been all manual transmission and a CVT up to this point.
We’ve conducted extensive towing validation with the tune, up to 6,000 lbs, so I can share some real-world data on how it performs under load. Below are plots from one of our development tests towing 3,700 lbs up a slow, technical mountain pass. The truck was 100% stock mechanically, except for the calibration, which was changed.

Stock:
2024 Tacoma Just got my 24 Offroad Hybrid OTT Tuned... holy smokes, night and day MountainTow6000Stock


OTT Stage 1:
2024 Tacoma Just got my 24 Offroad Hybrid OTT Tuned... holy smokes, night and day MountainTow3700Test1


Here’s what you’re looking at (left side under logo):
  • Y-axis: vehicle speed
  • X-axis: time
  • Z-axis (color gradient): transmission temperature

Both runs were performed on the same route with the same load to maintain consistent airflow and conditions (public road testing). What you’ll notice is that speeds were nearly identical, but with the Stage 1 calibration, the transmission actually stayed cooler slightly longer, despite the additional output.

It may be subtle in the visualization, but if you examine the color banding (temperature) in the 3D plot, you’ll notice that the tuned file maintains ā€œcoolerā€ tones for a longer portion of the climb compared to the stock file.

That said, if you do any towing—especially heavier loads—we strongly recommend adding a transmission cooler. Even in completely stock form, these trucks can benefit from the extra thermal headroom when towing within their rated capacity. The key takeaway here is that the tune will not adversely affect towing performance.

Transmission Temperature Data:
Stock
  • Average Temp: 104.3 °C
  • Minimum Temp: 95.6 °C
  • Maximum Temp: 113.8 °C
OTT Stage 1
  • Average Temp: 98.3 °C
  • Minimum Temp: 90.0 °C
  • Maximum Temp: 110.6 °C
 
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lauren01

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Thank you @JustDSM . Yes I do plan to install a trans cooler and temperature gauges for trans and oil. And I plan to learn how to use manual shifting in these fancy automatics.
 
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ixo

ixo

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Anyone know of resources for this in the colorado/denver area?
How did your MPGs change?
Any experience with tune off-road?
I don't track MPG very carefully, I'm one of those guys that just pays at the pump when I need to , and otherwise enjoy my truck for what it is... not a prius.

Haven't taken it off road yet, looking forward to a trip possibly next weekend. <3
 

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DENNISD

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I don't track MPG very carefully, I'm one of those guys that just pays at the pump when I need to , and otherwise enjoy my truck for what it is... not a prius.

Haven't taken it off road yet, looking forward to a trip possibly next weekend. <3
If you don't mind me asking, what is the cost for this?
 

Tungstenisw

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Can anyone tell me what the downside of doing this is? Also, why wouldn't Toyota sell them like this? Is it seriously just because of emissions?
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