The SKINNY on skinny tires

I am running the 255/85r16 Yokohama Geolandar g003 on stock OR rims and stock suspension only had to remove front mud flaps.
The tires kick ass in the mud and on my truck are very quiet on the road. But in my younger years I ran Super Swampers and Ground Hog mud tires so loud is a relative perspective. Whats loud to one person is quiet to another.

 

Yeah, my noise comparison was based on the stock Wrangler Kevlar AT somethings that I still have and will use as my winters until I wear them out.
For an M/T I actually don't think they are that loud.
Compared to the stockers (which in my opinion are more of an HT than an AT) they are loud.
It is certainly relative. Fair point.

 

Very interesting. My original plan was to do Cooper AT3 LTs in C load in the 265/75/16s, which weigh in at 47 pounds. This thread has me considering the same tire in E load running 235/85/16s at 43 pounds for MPG and handling — (I need a tough tire for the terrain I’m on)….

The intro to this thread says pizza cutters are less “stable” on and off road bc of less rubber to ground contact. Can anyone opine/expound on this? Which will be better for daily driving and for off-roading? Clearly the weight savings is a huge plus, but what about the other aspects for those two head to head?

 

i still consider finding a good set of these and having them powder coated gloss black like the the 2016 tacoma trd pro 16” rims. I think it would look awesome

 

Pepperoni

 

I was thinking meat lovers 16”

 

Meat lovers on thin crust has too much flop, though. Gotta go with 285 deep dish.

 

…. Huh.

 

I don't know if "stable" is the best word to describe these, at least in my opinion, but I also don't really have a better word.

Again, I'm coming from the stock Wrangler Kevlar whatevers in 265/70/16. I should also mention I don't put a ton of miles on my truck. I have something just under 7k miles on an 11 month old truck.

The first thing I noticed in "normal driving" on these was a slight tendency to "push through" turns. It's not at all like they wouldn't make the turn, just that there was a slight "delay" between initiating the turn and the turn executing, at least compared to the stockers.
This same behavior is seen a bit in highway driving as small adjustments to your lane position take a tiny bit longer to happen, which until you get used to it can cause you to overcorrect a bit, as you think the previous correction didn't have an impact. I'm talking milliseconds and fractions of a degree of corrections.

In my description I'm being overly critical of the "problems". It's actually much less of a difference than transitioning from a sport bike to a touring bike. Probably similar from transitioning from a sport car to a sedan (but it's been years since I've really driven a sports car).
It's quickly learned and easy to manage.

Having typed this out, maybe the term I'd throw out is less "reactive" rather than "stable", but that's not quite right either, as the reaction is just a bit delayed, which can lead to instability...
I feel like I'm kinda rambling now. I'll shut up.

 

Just picked up some Goodyear Duratracs 265/75R16

 

Another candidate … how are they??

 

Ive had them on for all of 3 days now... so far so good. Very light road noise. Gas mileage has dropped a pinch. Looks incredible.

 

They do look incredible. That’s the size I want, too, and the interwebs say they’re only 45lb in Load C?? Is that right? Any idea show they compare to Cooper discoverer AT3 LTs?

 

I have no idea how they compare. I got an E load rating which has a thicker sidewall because of my constant load.

 

Looks great! I’m interested in the Westfalia top. My powerwagon came with duratracks dog gone things about never wore out so I could buy 35’s. Ended up giving them to son in law. My excuse was they just looked to small on the PW. That is one awesome looking ride!

 

Your Tacoma that is, awesome looking. I was able to google the top online. Never seen that blue before. Is that a United states color or are you from Canada? Forgive me I’m new to the site. I’m new to Tacoma also. Been keeping for a long long time. Fished with a guy that had a 2015 Tacoma sport and if he can’t tear it up I had to have one. He could tear up a iron wedge with a rubber mallet! But that Tacoma just keeps plugging along for him!

 

Jeeping not keeping.

 

Next setup: set of 17x7 SEMAs with 235/80-17 KO2s. Decided to pass the Geolandars and Eagle 102s on, pull the LTXs and compromise with an AT.

 

235/85/16 with 2" front, 2 1/2" rear lift

 

Following up on all of these messages, I have some stuff to note based on some personal test-and-tune on my own truck when fitting pizza cutters.

With a 255/85r16, you will have practically and probably ZERO interference when running a stock Tacoma wheel. By stock, I mean the factory 16" x 7" wide +25 offset wheels that are OEM spec. As long as wheel has these specs you can expect to have no rubbing unless you're running OEM mud flaps. Because the tire is the same physical width (or thinner, in some cases) than the factory tire, the upper control arms will also not be an issue.

This can NOT be said for their more "aftermarket" style OEM wheels such as the TRD wheels that offer a +4 offset instead. With this offset, you will most likely have a small bit of rubbing on either the front fender liner or the very edge of the fender flare mount and possibly the rear of the fender liner. This could be worse depending on your caster alignment and control arm bushing conditions.

Moving up from an OEM wheel to something truly aftermarket, there are a wide array of sizes and offsets available. Sticking with a 16 inch diameter, you can obviously choose to run a 7" to a 9" or wider wheel. Wider is not always better!

With aftermarket wheels you really need to be careful of your choices. If you're looking to run an aggressive offset and hoping for pizza cutters to be your cure all, you're going to have a bad time. Aggressive offset (see: negative offset) is going to be problematic simply because it pushes the tire further out from the hub center and increases the wheel sweep. Wheel sweep is the area in which the tire moves through when turning full left to full right. Increasing the wheel sweep area means it uses more of our oh-so-minimal wheel well space and results in contact points such as flares, liners, cab mount, or even fenders if you aren't careful.

Long story short, the sweet spot for pizza cutters being the answer to taller tires and more clearance is a wheel that is a 16" x 7" or 16" x 8" with an offset no larger than 0. Positive offsets will be your saving grace here for ensuring there is no rubbing or contact anywhere on the truck. It is safe to say that the best guarantee of no-rub is a +25 offset with the 255/85r16.

I've experimented from +25 all the way to -7 on a 16x7 wheel with the 255/85 using spacers to change offset to figure this out. My current setup is a 16x7 0 offset aftermarket wheel with the 255/85r16 Yokohama Geolandar G003 MT and I had to trim the very edge of the fender flare mount at the rear of the fender and tuck the fender liner behind a small metal tab at the back to avoid any type of rub. The tire is EXTREMELY close to the cab mount (like.. milimeters!) but with this setup and no alignment (yet) I have zero rub even through large bumps at stock ride height except on the very front fender liner at about 1/4 turn. I can mold it with a heat gun but I've been lazy. I'm sure if I put some lateral load into the suspension when turning at a specific angle the bushings will give enough to contact the cab mount.

On the topic of weight vs gas mileage, my wheel and tire setup weighs roughly 2lbs more than my old TRD SEMA 17x7 and 265/70r17 Nitto Grappler wheel and tire setup that came from the factory. My wheels weigh about 10lbs less per wheel and my tires are about 12lbs more per tire than factory. I tried my best to offset the weight of the new MT's with the wheel weight reduction but even with the weights matched almost exactly before and after, my gas mileage still went down by about 1-1.5mpg even after calculating actual MPGs with the taller tire. The larger, heavier rubber still has an adverse effect on gas mileage even though the wheel and tire setup is the same weight on the truck (basically). Maybe it's not as severe as it could be, but still. MPG's are always going to be a problem.

With the Yokohama's, driving characteristics are pretty good. The noise is definitely louder (As expected) compared to the old AT tire but it's not overbearing. Road handling is a little more "loose" feeling and you can tell there is more rubber between you and the road but, overall, very stable.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk. Haha.