3inch lift 265/75r16 or285/75r16

Dope. Any chance you’d be willing to take fender to ground measurements?

 

That is a beautiful truck. I'm surprised you were able to fit 285s without cutting or CMC. I will have to PM you whenever I decide to lift my truck to get more information on your setup because I want 285s as well.

Nice ride man.

 

go big or go home

 

255/85/16. Nearly a 33, without the hassle of the width of a 285.

 

285s. 255s look goofy.

 

Goofy? Hardly.

Functional? Extremely.

 

Functional? Less contact patch. Sure.

 

Contact? It cuts through mud. How is “contact” better than getting it the hell out of the way?

If you want a contact patch, air it down and get a long one. That’s how tank tracks work.

Why didn’t they put 285s on Jeeps on the battlefields of WWII?

 

Lol. Why don’t they put 255s on new rubicon’s?

 

Because the Jeep world (and Tacoma for the most part) has a hard on for wide tires.

 

For stuff like mud and snow there are 2 theories: skinny so you cut through, or wide with low pressure so you float on top. But when it comes to rocky terrains, I'll take the wide tire with a bigger contact patch for more grip

 

Scientific response

 

Maybe not scientific, but it’s the truth.

If a wide tire works for you, use a wide tire. If a skinny tire works for you, use a skinny tire. I just threw the option out there for the OP.

 

Would you happen to have a pic I’m going under the truck tomorrow going to lift 1.75 as well, thanks!

 

Thank you! Looks great! Will do, I’m running 265/75/16.

 

I’ll post measurements in the AM!

Definitely hit me up, I’ll give you whatever info I can. Did the install myself, it’s defintely an under rated lift kit

 

Thanks man. And definitely seems underrated. The only “off-roading” I do is driving on the beach looking for a spot to park with the fam. I don’t need a super expensive kit for that.

 

255 will give you better steering response and gas mileage too.

 

There was a white paper regarding the advantages of a skinny tire over a fat tire but the online version doesn't seem to be available anymore.

Gist of the paper is this:

The Expedition's West Tacoma fitted with 255/85 R16 BFG Mud Terrain (33.4 x 10.5")

Tire Selection for Expedition Travel: The impact of tire width on traction

Article Type: Position Paper, White Paper

By: Scott Brady, Expedition's West
Date: 3/28/2005 (revised 4/17)

Position: A tall, narrow tire is a superior choice for all off-highway surface conditions with the exception of deep, soft sand or mud.

In a nutshell, the advantages were:

Benefits:
1. Less rolling resistance - better fuel economy
2. Can cut easier through mud, sand, and snow
3. Typically lighter which can improve acceleration and stopping performance
4. Will almost always fit better in the wheel well and require less trimming than a wider tire
5. For airing down, a taller and skinnier tire allows for longer contact patch which can increase traction while off-roading
6. Taller tires have more sidewall and when aired down can result in a softer ride

Negatives of a narrower tire:
1. Provides less stability on and off the road
2. Vehicle is more prone to trail damage because a tall narrow tire wants to cut through a medium as opposed to floating on top bringing your underbelly in closer proximity to obstacles on the trail

Source: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-skinny-on-skinny-tires.529656/


As for contact pressure on a skinnier tire, here's the science from the white paper:

• Contact Pressure: Contact pressure is expressed as the vehicles curb weight distributed over the contact surface of four tires. The contract pressure is not equal to all four tire road surface contact points as the vehicles weight is not perfectly distributed. To ease the description, let's assume that the test vehicle weights 5,000 lbs and has a perfect weight distribution. Each of the vehicles four tires would be creating 1,250 lbs. of vertical pressure on the terrain. Let's assume for the sake of this example that the vehicles tires are 10” wide, where the load and tire pressure results in a total surface area of 30 sq. inches. The total pressure per square inch (without equating the secant) would equal 40 lbs.

Off-highway effects of contact pressure:

Deformation- On a smooth surface (like concrete), a tire gains most of its traction by adhesion. On an irregular surface like granite and boulders, a tires contact patch will deform as a result of vertical pressure. The wider the tire, the less the rubber will deform to the surface irregularity given the same vertical pressure. The greater the deformation, the greater the tires resistance to shearing forces (spinning). This is the strongest argument to using a narrower tire.

Real world example: When climbing a ledge with a jagged surface, the narrower tire will wrap the protrusions with more contact due to the increased deformation depth. The wider tire will rest on the surface of the protrusions and will have a greater chance of spinning (shearing).

Mechanical Keying: This is the second critical benefit of a narrower tire. As the vertical load increases, so does the compression and flexing of the tires tread and rubber to the surface protrusion. A narrower tire generates greater vertical load on the rubber and the tread, increasing tread compression in conformance to the surface irregularity. A wider tire in contact with more surface conforms less, and will shear sooner than a narrow tire.

Adhesion- On a flat surface, the adhesion rate of a narrow tire and wide tire are the same, as the wider tire makes more contact (friction area), but the narrow tire generates more pressure (vertical load force). On a highly irregular surface, the higher vertical load force of the narrow tire becomes an advantage, increasing molecular bonding between the tires rubber and trail surface. That bonding becomes so great that either the vehicle moves forward, the tire tears leaving rubber on the surface, or the trail surface breaks away.

As far as outfitting today's Rubicons with wider tires, that's marketing.

​

 

265/75r16