Fitting 35s. Damn Craigslist

That’s a deal!! I’ll be getting those exact tires when I’m ready

 

I will regear at some point, maybe next month if I'm still working. Believe it or not, it drives nice on the 35s. I think the Cooper 33s were just kind of rough tires because these upsized Falkens ride smoother and better. I got over 20mpg highway so far on these!

 

Looks good, especially with the new bumper to top it off

 

So, I've learned a lot about this Taco on 35s. #1, it rides very nice and the truck seems to handle the 35s well in on road driving. I don't feel any more roughness or wandering. I learned a long time ago and by following the Jeep guy's leads that you don't run Load Range E tires above 30psi on a 4500# truck. A chalk test showed a good flat profile at ~28psi.

These Tacoma's are optimized to go 65mph. This is where they get the best MPG. To my surprise, a tank of 90% highway and 10% city resulted in a reported 18.6mpg. Take the stock tire OD of 30.6" and Falken OD of 34.6" (Difference of 12%) and apply that to the reported MPG of 18.6, my actual MPG is 18.6 x 1.12 = 20.8mpg.

20.8MPG. Crazy.

If I drive 65MPH (GPS confirmed) which is 59MPH on the truck's speedo, the truck will get over 20mpg on 35s. As soon as I go up to 70mph, it drops to 19MPG, and 75+mph its <17mpg. I usually plan my trips so I can poke along.

 

Nice update. Wow, I am blown away at that mpg. That’s impressive. Do you have stock gears? Auto?

 

Yup stock gears with auto.

 

Wow

 

Looks awesome, always great when OP delivers

 

If you said, and I missed it, I apologize. What front bumper is that?

 

It's a Demello Off Road Baja LB (Light Bar) bumper.

 

Here's an update. My caster numbers were around +2.1-2.5 with lower a-arm caster maxed out and stock UCAs. Tires just barely cleared rear of fenders through almost all travel- at least the light offroading I do. Fast forward to a few days ago when I install SPC UCAs. I set the UCAs to +2 more caster, so front was +4-4.5 when I took it to alignment shop. They brought the caster back to +3.1-3.5 by removing caster from the LCAs. Guess what? Rubbed like a mother fucker. I tried to cut the plastic fenders back and a little metal and all that's pretty much left is hammering the pinch weld. Still rubs and hits the cab mount chop plate too. Shop said they would put the lower cams back to push them forward and remove caster from the UCAs. That's how friggen close these tires are to clearing. 1 degree of caster makes the difference between rubbing and clearing. To anyone following me. Max out caster on the LCAs and try and dial in with UCAs. SPCs are best since all others are fixed and the shops would have to pull caster from LCAs otherwise.

 

Caster ain't nothin but a number with SPC's.

 

True that. I still think most shops don't know how to take advantage of them. My guys run a reputable good shop and know what they are doing and they didn't even know they had adjustable caster; they only see the camber bolt on top. My recommendation for anyone is to bring the SPC instructions that show the index/caster guide and make sure they understand they can change it.

For anyone running 33s+, set the UCAs where LCAs can be nearly maxed out for + caster to hit that ~+3.5 sweet spot.

 

Hey guys, fyi, this is what 1 additional degree of positive caster does for tire clearance from the cab mount. It was contacting here before out of an angled driveway hard. 1 degree forward caster push on LCA bought about .5" clearance.

 

For anyone going to 35s, just fyi this will be your life for a while. Cut. Rub. Cut more. Rub. Cut more. Rub. Hammer pinch weld. Fingers crossed now.

 

Can you get a picture with that same tire turning to the left?

 

Sure I'll do it tomorrow

 

Thanks

 

If you haven't found out already, you'll also probably rub the top of your fender liners. At least I do with my 34's.