New Tacoma Owner & Advice Needed

Just purchased a new 2017 Tacoma DCSB SR5 after many years of wanting one! Over the past couple months I've been searching the forums for the best advice on a lift and tire/wheel set up as I'm looking to do right off the bat (this week).

There's been a ton of helpful information on the forum, but also some disagreement on subjective matters for obvious reasons, but also if a set up will or not work.

At this point, I've narrowed it down to the 5100/OME 884 or Bilstein 6112 kit from Headstrong and leaning forward the 6112's given all the positive mention. Planning on setting the front at 1.75-2 inches of lift and seeing how it sits. May do a one inch block if the rake is too aggressive.

Now the place I'm stuck or struggling to find a definitive answer on is wheel/tire set up. I'd like to go with 275/70/17 Kumho AT51's on Method NV 17x8.5 with O mm offset and 4.5 backspacing. Can anyone confirm this set up will work with no rubbing? Tirerack says probably, some people seem mixed on here, and I have no clue.

Thanks and looking forward to being part of the community!

Alex

 

you should be fine with that setup, no rubbing.

 

I currently have ome shocks and 885 springs with 275/70r17s. They are on 17x7 trd wheels. I had to add a 1/4 inch spacer to the coil to avoid the rubbing on hard turns with a sharp bump. If you want absolutely no trimming you may want more lift.

 

Malibu7tss, I would think since I'm going with a wheel that has 4.5 backspacing it would buy me more clearances even though I'm going with a wide wheel than you (17x8.5), right? Or am I using the wrong logic?

I actually spoke with Headstrong and I'm now leaning back towards the 5100/OME 885 kit. Sounds like the 6112's on the higher settings have a pretty harsh/unpleasant ride. Did you get 2 inches of lift out of the 885's? HC has mentioned the 884's will only give me 1.25ish of lift.

 

I have 285 70 16s on the stock rims on my16 dcsb offroad. I believe it has a two inch front lift. Rest is stock. No rubbing.

 

Welcome to the forum, don’t forget to post some pics of your new Taco.

 

I did not get a full 2” out of the 885s. That’s why I added a spacer. I think the key to not having to trim would be use the 887 coils on the lowest setting of the bilstiens and use the light racing upper control arms. They offer the greatest adjustability to make sure you clear. If you don’t want to spend the money on the arms I still thing with just the 887s you will be fine. As far as the wheel goes I don’t believe you are pushing it out to far. Remember that the further out from under the truck the edge of the wheel comes the worse the clearance gets. Think of it like a half circle, the further away from the center you get the larger the whole circle gets. Hope that makes sense.

 

Appreciate all the feedback. After this discussion and further reviewing I think I'm going to slightly downsize in hopes of buying slightly more real estate to a 265/70/17 on the 17x.8.5 (4.5 backspace) wheels with the 5100/OME 885 kit. To the naked eye, the difference looks minimal, but having that .5 on height/width makes me more comfortable.

Pics to come soon!

 

Just a FYI. I have a 2 wheel drive and all I wanted was to do was level. I have zero issues with 265/70/17. I have used both +10 and +15 offset wheels and all I did was add the adjustable Bilstein 5100's to the front set at 0.65 and also installed the rear 5100's. I love my stance and the ride quality is excellent. This is a budget way to get a better stance and a very comfortable ride on 265/70/17 KO2 tires without compromising the stock suspension.

 

Pulled the trigger and couldn't be happier with how it looks...

My shop said to drive it for a couple days prior to aligning, which seems to make sense so everything can settle. That being said, there's some pretty noticeable vibration and its a bit all over the place on the highway at higher speeds (40+ mph). Drives much better around town than stock. Is it safe to assume this will be almost eliminated once the alignment is done?

 

Once alignment is done it should help. You may want to keep your tires aired down to about 33 Psi though as they can be super bouncy in the rear and create a bouncy ride. I have a similar setup and airing down fixed the bouncy ride.

 

Alignment may help some with wandering depending on what your angles are at now.. from the pic it looks like you haven't replaced the upper control arms if not then UCA's may be required to help raise caster angle and get some more stability at highway speeds. As far as the vibes go did you install a carrier bearing drop or axle shims?.. I added a OME carrier bearing drop and that helped with a slight vibration when taking off from a stop.. another recommendation would be to look into the ECGS front diff bearing, factory needle bearing on the LF is known to cause vibration and noise even on stock trucks although its more noticeable after lift.

 

thanks modifiedtaco. My hopes in only doing 1.5-1.75 of front lift was to avoid any large geometry changes that would require UCA's. Also would think with this little lift the driveline wouldn't have changed that drastically, but I'll look into if the problem persist following alignment.

I'm going to get the alignment done in the next week or so, so we'll see if that eliminates some of the high speed instability. Also, wondering if TireRack ever messes up on their wheel balancing?

 

Looks really good & close to the setup I was interested in. Your Methods 0 offset correct?

 

Yup yup 17x8.5 with 0 offset and 4.5 backspacing.

 

Alignment can very well be the issue with wandering if caster is to low or if the toe angle is way out.. as far as the vibration goes typically if a tire is out balance you will feel a consistent vibration at higher speeds.. if you accelerate to a certain speed ex. 50mph then a vibration starts and progressively gets worse as you speed up but goes away at a lower speed then it may be caused by a wheel/tire related problem most common is balance but the same can occur with bent wheels.. if the vibration only occurs under acceleration then it normally would be caused by the drivetrain ex. driveline angles, bad u-joints, bad cv axles etc.. if the vibration was only occurring under braking then it may be caused by warped rotors or drums. as you can see there are numerous things that may be going on.. best bet is start with alignment since you need it any way. go for a drive if vibes are still there have tires rebalance if issue is still present after regular balance a road force balance may a good idea to insure a tire is not out of round.. best of luck if you have any questions let me know and ill try and help to the best of my ability

 

Sounds like your needle bearing is causing the shake. ECGs you need.