Issue with BFG KO2's on a 3rd Gen Tacoma?

I'm running 265/75/r16 no issues. No alignment issues, I even did a 2/1.5 leveling kit myself before getting the tires put on.

The shop that did mine was a chain and had no issues touching the truck. Mom warned me when she took her car there they tried to sell her everything possible and said her car wasn't safe to drive.. Our dealer is super trustworthy and they said there were no issues.
Anyways in short a friend tried the same shop, same tire size, same truck except he had king coils. The shop refused to touch modified trucks they claimed.

I haven't had issues and have done about 22k mi in the past year. City, highway and then a bit of Wisconsin off roading. I've had no issues with mine, also drove in heavy snow and ice storms. No complaints from me!

 

This looks awesome. Is this stock suspension?

 

Thanks, and yep! Just a good angle I guess lol

 

Sweet! You just totally sold me on 265/75 r16’s! Thank you.

 

Haha awesome! No problem man.

I really like them. They are much more substantial than the stock ones.

 

@8Whiskey2 - what make of tire is that?

 

BFG KO2’s

 

Thanks! They look great.

 

Did you go E rated @ 8Whiskey2

 

Well, I pulled the trigger. Went with E-rated. 265/65R17. Tested them out on a long ride to the shore this weekend, and spent the day on sand. All of the complaints about noise and this and that is a whole bunch of nuthin'. I'm really glad I made this choice.

 

One more to the E-rated dark side.

 

Yeah. I believe to get a C rated you have to have a 17” wheel.

 

There is no reason to run an E-rated tire on a Tacoma. (often called an LT tire for Light Truck) This is detailed, but it should be understood.

Because, here's the thing that nobody talks about on these threads. The reason for these ratings is weight/load. A 3/4 ton full-size pickup weighs a shit-ton more than our Tacoma's and is rated to carry a shit-ton more weight that our trucks.

If you look at the door placard on your truck you'll see that Toyota asks for a tire with a Load Index of 112(0 kg) or ~2,470 lbs. The payload (GVWR less the actual weight of the truck) on our Tacoma is 950 lbs. This agrees with the tire loading door sticker that says 950 lbs.

Our gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) is 5,600 lbs. The gross axle weight rating (GAWR) is the maximum distributed weight that may be supported by an axle of a road vehicle, or 2,910 lbs. in the front and 3,280 lbs. in the rear. That adds up to 6,190 lbs., this is to account for mal-balanced loading in the GVWR calculation.

Our tire capacity of 2,470 lbs per tire is almost the capacity of the axle itself. In other words, the axle is the limiting factor more than the tires.

Since most P-metric passenger tires are manufactured in the standard load range, they will have nothing branded on their sidewalls or may be branded Standard Load and identified by an SL in their descriptions, as in P235/75R-15 SL. Extra Load P-metric tires will be branded extra load, and identified by an XL in their descriptions, as in P235/75R-15 XL. Light Load P-metric tires will be branded light load, and identified by an LL in their descriptions, as in P285/35R-19 LL. These may, or may not correlate with the Load Index, confusingly.

People tend to confuse today's load rating with sidewall ply because of the "cross over" value. That is, when you look up a load rating on today's tires you can cross-reference that to an old bias-ply tire rating. Bias-ply sidewall load rating was directly related to the number of plies and thus puncture resistance. However, today's steel-belted radial tires often only get two plies in the sidewall and the heaviest load ranges still generally only get three plies in the sidewall.

So an LT/E rated tire will likely not provide any additional protection from damage than an appropriately rated P-Metric tire. You will likely get that additional protection from the design of the tire itself, (AT, MT, AP, vs Highway for example).

And, what's more, you don't even get the higher load rating on an E rated tire until you increase the pressure accordingly. So, if you have an E rated tire but are running at a lower PSI, (like 30psi because our trucks are so light) then you aren't even getting the weight/load benefits of an LT/E rated tire, other than it's really heavy and cutting into your gas mileage.

So what does this mean? Basically, your axle will likely fail before an LT/E-rated tires, so can be considered as wasted money. Not only the extra cost of the tire, the extra cost in lost mileage and the extra cost of more rapid wear and tear on drive train components as they have to deal with the added weight of a heavier tire and the additional rotating mass and spring weight. So, in short, OPs mechanic wasn't bullshitting him. He was giving him informed advice.

This is part of why we see so many Wildpeak AT3/W's. Not only are they an exceptionally well-performing and very good looking tire, but you can also get them in the rating more appropriate for our very light trucks, where KO/2s tend to only come in LT/E rated sizes.

But, at the end of the day, if you want the bigger, oversized E-rated tire, that totally fine. (I mean, the top question on TW is "what's the biggest tire I can run?") Just understand the costs. And all the anecdotal "E-rated tires are stronger and more resistant to damage and better for off-roading" isn't necessarily going to be true when it comes to modern tire construction. So don't be hesitant to get a lighter load/rated tire for your ultra-light mid-size pickup.

TLDR: The vast majority of us are going to be a lot happier running the appropriate size/rated tire P-Metric XL 112T rated off-road tire.

 

I live in Oregon where it rains a whole lot. No issues on wet prevent with my KO2s, I feel that's more on driving style than the KO2s themselves. Don't get me wrong though tere are better tires for wet environments, but these do fantastic.

I've also never had a balancing issue, but I think that more on the Technicians skills where you're getting them balanced than on the tires.

 

That's a whole hell of a lot of words just to say, get what makes you happy. Well, at least that's what it should say..

 

Exact reason why I went with the Wildpeaks in SL rating rather than E-rated KO/2s.

 

Thats what I run too.

 

My e rated bfgs were rock hard. The only good thing, my truck handled like a sports car. Off road, i had to go reaaaly slow.

I got the c rated now, wow so much better. My truck doesnt handle as well on pavement but the ride is so much more comfortable on road and especially off road.

Even my wife who doesnt even drive, noticed how much softer the c rated are.

 

Majority of tires in certain sizes only come in an E load so whatcha gonna do.

Plus the mpg and comfort difference is minimal, my winters are sl and I barely notice a difference when I'm running them compared to my e rated summers.