The SKINNY on skinny tires

Help on Tire and wheel size TW,

I have read most of this thread as well as others and I'm still stuck on my next tire size. I have a gen2 2015 TRD with 2'' lift (possibly a tad more) fox 2.5 up front with Icon UCAs, fox 2.0 in the back with the full Icon leaf pack and an All Pro steel bumper. I'm very happy with all this so nothing to change here. Currently I am running 265/75r16 Duratracs (43# I think) and love them but am looking for something a little bigger if possible. I am prepared to buy new wheels, likely FN's but have not done so yet which means I can still choose between 16'' or 17'' and I will be saving some weight as they come in under 22#; these will have an offset of 0 or -10.

My concern is a loss in performance and MPG which is why weight of the tire is a big concern of mine. My driving style: I do like a peppy truck, especially for drifting around turns on dirt roads, I prefer to go about the speed limit over mountain passes in CO (premium gas helps with this), sometimes we do weight the thing down quite a bit for camping and or rafting trips, and this truck is a daily-ish driver so I also don't want it too rigid. I was totally sold on 255/80r17 until I saw they are only available in E ratings and at a higher weigh penalty than expected compared to 285/70r17, however the tall skinny open country at3s are a leading contender weighing 50#. 255/75/17 are a contending size a well but again E rated.

It feels silly to say no tire company makes what I want being there are so many options but why cant I find an aggressive 255/80r17 ~48# and C rated. I know b/c they are for duallies and this is a rhetorical question anyway. My real question is what tire size, wheel size and brand would best suit my needs? Am I missing something? I am trying to prioritize performance and weight over tread life and noise.

Lastly, I know it is subjective but will I lose much power in acceleration and or hwy driving by going to a 50#+ 33'' tire? I ask bc most comments on this topic are gen3 drivers and I know they have a bit more power. If I could offset said power loss with something like a CAI then I would but I don't get the impression it is that easy. Oh yea, re-gearing is out of the question for this round of tires.

Thank you for your help, save your comments about wanting my cake and to eat it too. I'll provide pics if anyone wants before I get new shoes.

Cheers,
Jack

 

@ArizonaJack you're not going to notice the difference between a 48lb tire and a 50lb one. From my research, the lightest 33 inch tires are not in fact 255 skinnies, several 285s come in lighter than the lightest 255/80R17 (the Toyo OC RT) at 56lbs:

- Duratrac in 285/70R17 at 50lbs
- Falken Wildpeak AT3W in SL285/70R17 at 50.5lbs

You do have to account for wheel weight as well, all other things being equal wheels weigh less than tires so a 285/70R17 + 17" FN will weigh less than a 285/75R16 + 16" FN even though they share (roughly) the same outside diameter.

I have a spreadsheet where I've done a bunch of calculations for myself for popular tire options, you should be able to make a copy or download it and plug in your own values for the current height/weight and the wheel weights you're looking at (scroll to the side if you can't see those fields). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FDCLV1t2MwaozMXpqKZPNX1ng0mzR0EqFlE4gDDBZnE/edit?usp=sharing

 

255 will have lower rolling resistance than 285 though.

 

Sure, but you're weighing up the rolling resistance of 30mm vs over 10% more rotational mass (6lbs). Which one is going to be more efficient probably comes down to something like tread pattern and how much start/stop driving you do or something. I don't really know, I'm not a physician. But it's not super cut and dry, which is really what I was trying to get at I guess.

 

You may not be a doctor, but are you a physicist? Because you used some solid math and logic there.

 

I went with 285 70 17 C 51lbs and am getting 18 mpg combined. -10 offset. Cruising down the Hwy on the flats at 1750 rpm 60 mph.
2 inch lift, leer canopy.
I am thinking about trying 255 80 17 next once I wear out these tires, but I still want good range out of a tank. Lots of off-road routes up here you can go 240 miles

 

Okay, so let's assume your tacoma is a perfect sphere, being driven in a vacuum...

 

Road bikers have found that a wider tire in their application is actually faster and has less rolling resistance. Has to do with energy absorbed by the tire and being able to maintain its direction forward instead of taking input upwards from the road and the bumps. Basically the tire is able to absorb more of the variations in the road to keep it moving forward instead of being pushed up from the variations in the road. There are some obvious and drastic differences between a road bike and Tacoma but found it interesting.

 

I wasn't going to get into the weeds about tire pressure and width, but I ride mountain bikes and I'm surprised this doesn't come up more often.

 

The skinnies are all about better performance in the mud, slop, snow, sand. Not about absorbing bounce on hard pack surfaces.
Look at Model T tires, military tires, swamper tires for examples and proof.
There are exceptions of course: The do best in snow less than 12 inches. They don't do so well for top heavy vehicles.

 

I’ve had skinny 255/85s for 30k+ miles now. I find this thread fun to look at here and there. That being said my km2s could be replaced here soon due to them not being worn out but abused from fun Offroad trips. I’m going to try something totally different and do 295/75s and see how they compare to the skinny tires. There are a lot of factors that play into a tire and how it performs.

 

Kumho Roadventure AT51.
255 75 17 ‘C’ rated
There ya go

 

This is all true, but the initial question that kicked off this particular discussion was about the 33in tire that would give you best fuel economy.

 

166 see if you can crack the code?

 

Mounted my skinny's today 255/75/17 ya'll can say what you want. ST?Maxx Cooper
https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/why-skinny-tires.31096/

 

Looking at the same. Did you post pics? I didn’t look through the 12 pages on the link. Thanks!

 

They look great!

 

I have 255/80R17 KM2's. I love the skinny profile and hate the KM2's.

 

Whoops, missed that. Ok, I'll see myself out.

Edit: I will have to find it, but I was once told about a "mileage race" in the late 20s or early 30s. The winner put on oversized diameter tires w/ max inflation. They would floor the throttle at takeoff and then coast to the next stop - repeatedly. (I remember being surprised that they were so aggressive at takeoff, since it was for economy.) The oversize tires prevented fast takeoffs but allowed for really great cruise. No tires back then were very wide.
Maybe someone with good google-fu can find the specs on that race. (My dad told me about it.)