Undersized tires???

The general trend is big, heavy tires. But what about going with undersized tires for extra power? You can still get a tire with rugged treads for offroading. Anyone try this?

 

I have 285s but if you stick to terrain that doesn’t need extra clearance then sure undersize or oem recommended is fine. Heck Subarus do the white rim trail, most of the Mojave trail. A Tacoma with smaller tires will be fine and your mpg will be good.

 

245/75R16 are the smallest stock tire on s 2nd/3rd gen. Wouldn't go less than that..

 

Not really extra power, just less rolling diameter.

 

Doesn't it give you a higher effective gear ratio?

 

i run 245/75/16 winters and the difference for me atleast is bar none. The butt dyno does not compute

 

I run 245s (stock 2015 trd offroad) and find that they do fine everywhere I would consider taking my truck (Moab, Little Moab, and the Utah backcountry. If I ever lift my truck, I will stick with pizza cutters (255/85 16s), as I ran them on my FJ and they took me everywhere i ever wanted to go). I personally don't find a 265 or 285 much of a cost to benefit (price, weight, negligible clearance gains) and are actually less effective for the rocky terrain I travel in. Just my $.02/experience. My wife runs 255/85/16s on her mildly lifted 05' Rubicon Unlimited and loves them.

There are plenty of good AT, MT options that are available in the smaller sizes. I currently run two separate sets of tires. LT rated Goodyear duracraps (I do not like them) for summer and towing duties, and Hankook Dynapros for winter duties.

 

Using undersized tires can cause handling issues because your vehicle will react sooner to steering input and/or road bumps/pot holes. I know this for a fact because it happened to me on my wife's mini van many years ago. She got a "deal" on tires from a guy at work, and I alsomost ran off the road the first time I drove it. That's how I found out the tires were undersized. Your experiences may be different, but this really did happen to me.

 

What is more dangerous? Undersized or oversized tires?

 

When i first started driving 30 years ago, i had an 87 toyota 2wd pickup. I lowered it and wanted to get smaller size tires but the guy at the tire shop said hes not allowed to sell smaller sized tires that come on the vehicle. He said its extremely dangerous. I asked about biggervtires he said you can go as big as want.

 

In my experience, undersized. But I guess it also has to do with how much change in size there is either way.

 

Meh, I put 13” bmw wheels on a mk2 Jetta to get low.. it just made the speedo fast.. everyone was passing me and giving me dirty looks while I cruised down the highway 15 under..

 

Wouldnt smaller tires give you a falsely high odometer reading?