3rd Gen loose traction on wet roads

Our 2016 looses some traction on wet roads in the back, has good tires, 16 inch vs the 18 inch it was built with. Have not put in weight in the back like most suggest, and tire pressure is a little over 30, not high.

 

Welcome to TW!

 

A couple of things come to mind immediately. Is this your first truck? I ask because trucks don't act like cars, your weight is more front biased. This will affect rear traction, especially with an empty bed. Double cab/short beds are a little better weight balance, but not by much.

Next, "a little over 30" sounds too low to me. Not knowing what you're running for tires makes this a bit difficult to call, but I'd think pressure should be in the 35-38 PSI range, maybe 40. If your tire pressure is too low, besides causing too much heat in the carcass, your tread may not be contacting the pavement fully, causing too little traction.

 

lower psi gives more tire contact, more psi means stiffer wheel and less contact

3rd gen Door jams say 30 psi cold for stock tires

easy on the throttle to accelerate on slick roads

 

Too low of pressure can cause your tire to lift the center of the tread...the opposite of too high.

 

Welcome I've got 16" Hankook tires with stock wheels, I keep 35 psi all around and I adhere to a cadence of maintaining tire pressure, rotating the tires and keeping it properly aligned. To that end, traction hasn't been an issue for me.

 

I think the brand of tire makes a difference in wet traction, Michelin is better than Goodyear which is better than Cooper in my experience

 

Thanks for all the good info! Not my first truck, have a 2002 Ford F150 crew cab, it is more stable in wet weather. Tire pressure is about 34 cold. Tires are probably not the best but sure are good off road on the 5 acres of clay we have here in Northern CA. Tires are the usual light truck m+s. I have thought of adding some weight to the front of the bed as it is pretty close to the tires. When we are seeing a little tire spinning especially around corners, the car has just the driver, and possibly one passenger in the front, basically no extra weight on the back tires. If this is just another common thing to this year (2016) Tacoma, like the stiff ride, low head room, funky auto trans etc. then so be it.
One thing for you guys, I bought the truck 2 years ago, soon discovered it would hardly run or not run after a rain of about 6 hours or more. Spent a lot of money on stuff like fuel pumps and elec control module before I decided to have the windshield replaced for $400. Bingo, that was it, water was getting under the dash, a very bad place to have water in todays vehicles!!