need suggestions for weekend warrior tires

i have a couple tire issues i'd appreciate some input on - one is construction and the other is size.

i drive a bone stock '11 tacoma with 16-inch wheels, four-cylinder. i do 99 percent of my driving on pavement. the rest will be southern california desert: reasonably sane mine roads, light to medium rocks, some sand patches, that sort of thing. say, the lippincott road in death valley. no taking on the hammers.

what i'm looking for is an LT tire that's not so heavy and grippy that it will hurt my mileage and power badly, but with a beefy sidewall, since every tire issue i ever had off pavement was a punctured sidewall. basically an SUV tire with the sidewall of a quality AT, preferably three plies. am i chasing unicorns or what?

also, i'm looking hard at 235/85/16, which should juuuust fit in my wheel wells. i'm wondering if a narrower tire brings any issues on pavement, lessening of control or anything like that.

thanks.

 

Hey how are you doing? My personal 2 cents on this matter, and since you mostly drive on pavement, id highly suggest getting, in this order, the hankook dynapro ATM or the bf goodrich all terrain t/a ko2's ... both choices in 265/70/R16 , which is the trd off road size. In my opinion, the 235/85/16 is much too narrow of a tire, especially for the Arizona sand. A wider tire would be preferred to displace the weight of the vehicle on sand. To add, the aspect ratio of 85 is a really heafty sidewall size that will surely decrease suspension flex on a stock setup, I would recommend running a 3 inch lift for a big sidewall tire like that. Just my .02, and hope this helps

 

thanks man, i hear you about the disadvantage of narrower tires on sand, but i'm thinking a wider, slightly heavier tire like a 265 is gonna take a significantly bigger chunk out of my mileage, and i'm more worried about that. even a few percentage points' difference means hundreds of dollars a year in gas.

 

235/85s are only load E. Very heavy and stiff. I'm looking for the same type of tire. I've found Kelly safari tsr, 265/75 43lbs.

 

In my opinion 235/85R16 is exactly the tire size for your needs (i.e. desert mining roads and what not). Yes, wider helps in sand and some mud situations. In most other cases narrower is better. Notice that all the "expedition" vehicles you see driving a thousand miles across Africa usually have narrow tires...

A 235/85R16 should fit just fine with no rubbing. I've got that size KO2 on my 2015 TRD OR stock suspension at the moment.

As to road handling in general the narrower tire will provide a little bit more efficiency, a little bit smoother ride, slightly reduced dry stopping distance but greater resistance to hydroplanning on wet roads. Basically you've got nothing to worry about for road handling probably from 235 all the way out to 275.

The KO and the newer KO2 are an extremely popular and quite effective tire for the Mojave desert and So Cal mountains. Great all around tire - obviously not fine tuned for mud or sand as it is an all terrain tire. Sounds like you want an all terrain tire. I drove KO on my old truck all over the Mojave, often too fast and often without having aired down. Basically a perfect formula for blowing out a tire and never did. (Though to be fair my over inflated condition made it more likely for a tread puncture and less likely for a side wall puncture). But the KO/KO2 is not the only decent A/T tire around for sure, there are a lot of good options.

Ignore the whole load C, D or E thing. That doesn't matter at all for efficiency. What matters for efficiency is the weight of the tire. In general E weighs a bit more than D which weights a bit more than C. But don't decide on C, D or E - decide on the weight of the tire. You'll find certain D tires weigh more than E. You'll also find the difference between C, D or E isn't much as far as weight goes. What is huge is often the weight difference between P and LT. Unfortunately often the tread and sidewall strength is also very different between P and LT.

If you stick to an A/T tire like the KO2 and avoid a M/T tire like the KM2 you should find on road handling and road noise are just fine for a daily driver/weekend warrior. However, you are going to find that going to a stronger LT tire with good tread and sidewall strength is going to get you a heavier tire almost for sure. And that will knock a few MPG off of your efficiency. It seems most people going to something not too big (say a 31.5" rather than a bigger 33") in a typical off road LT tire like the KO or KO2 are looking at a 49 lb tire vs the 38 lb tires that come stock. That is not a trivial change in weight. And it seems most people lose about 2 MPG by doing this. Now move up to a 33" M/T tire (which can get near 60 lbs) and the hit can be even worse.

So keep the tire size reasonable is the first step. Go to an A/T but not an M/T to keep on road noise and efficiency reasonable. And look up the weight of the tires - that is more important for efficiency than the load rating. But after that I'm personally not aware of a say 40 lb tire that is going to be as durable as a 50 lb tire and you will take a bit of an efficiency hit (and power) moving from 40 lb to 50 lb. Sorry I don't have much help there.

On the power front again keep the tire diameter reasonable - bigger tires is like regearing your differential. Moving from a stock 30.5 to a 31.5 is a modest change. Move to 33 or 34 (you'd need a lift in the first place) and now a lot people see a noticeable loss in "power" in the sense that they have a different enough effective gearing ratio that they notice. You can of course regear the differentials but it ain't cheap or easy.

And finally another option is to accept the fact that you might lose a P tire out there and have to do a tire change and alter your travel plans to get out to the highway safely (i.e. turn around and drive more slowly if you already had one blow out and thus don't have a spare anymore). A lot of people do things like Lippincott with that attitude on P tires and it works if you don't drive like a madman. Worst case if you get two flats then you are now camping someplace you didn't expect, doing a field tire repair and possibly waiting for a ride out to civilization or an expensive towing bill.

EDIT: For reference this is what a 235/85R16 looks like on a stock 2015 TRD OR:

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Oh no lol, the width, with a 265 will not degenerate your mileage at all, 265/70/R16 is a stock size but on a different trim level truck, plus the side wall wont be so massive and it will not degrade the performance of the truck either. Being a 4 cylinder I personally would want to keep everything near stock as to get the most out of it. V6 included, but even more so the 4 cylinder

 

I agree the 265/70 is a fine choice. But for what it is worth, the 235/85 weighs the same as the 265/70 and the increased sidewall height is certainly desirable for off road. The 235/85 however being a bit larger in diameter will impact performance and efficiency more that the 265/70 will.

But remember - most of the people complaining about performance being killed are putting 33" tires weighing 60 lbs on the poor little truck. The difference between all nearly 50 lb tires in the 30.5 to 31.5 range is going to be minor.

Oh - worth noting the 265/70 is certainly a more common size than 235/85.

 

x2 on all of this.. my kind of thinking lol

 

indeed. that's why i'm trying to find the balance between a slightly taller tire (more clearance) with tough sidewalls and a lighter tire in general.

the toyo open country AT is a possibility. it weighs in at 43 pounds at 235/85/16. the fourwheeler.com reviewers like the sidewall toughness of the toyo MT, so maybe that runs in the family.

 

Not sure if you really need a MT tire but my Hurcules Trail Diggers have been great tires. Tough off road but pretty tame on the street, also light weight.

http://www.herculestire.com/tire-ga...ght-truck/light-truck/trail-digger-mt/#loaded

 

That's a good find! I don't think you are going to do any better than 43 lbs for a LT A/T tire. And the reviews seem quite favorable. You probably already saw this review:

http://www.fourwheeler.com/product-reviews/1402-toyo-open-country-at-ii-tires/

I'd say that is your tire given your desire for occasional OR use and wanting to keep the performance hit low. You are only 5 lbs over stock compared to 10 lbs for all the other options. Will it have as durable a sidewall as a KO2? I have no idea, but it almost for certain has a significantly better sidewall than any P tire out there.

 

235/85-16s will work just fine. Make sure you have a way to deflate and inflate your tires when traveling off highway. Airing down results in a longer tread contact patch. Wider tires have their place, but are usually just installed for looks. I would look at the new BFG KO2 and the Cooper ST Maxx.