Want some Level 8 Guardians

I am looking at picking up some 16's... Given the color of my truck and the current lift I have all around, does Bronze sound like it would be a good color to pick? Anyone have pictures of the darker Taco's in Bronze or Black?

The tire to pick will either be a 285/75/16 Cooper Discoverer AT3 or BFG A/T KO ... I'm having a hard time deciding which of the two and weather or not bronze would be a good color.

Needless to say my stock 18's will be going on sale shortly after for pretty cheap.






Finally mounted! Here's a pic of the front stance:

The side:



More:



Up close:

 

I think the bronze will look good.

 

How about tires? It's a tough call between the two, the AT3's are supposed to have a 65k warranty on them supposedly? I don't know about the BFG's, but I hear you can inflate them up to 65 psi I think? Pretty legit and I plan to get either tire with a load C rating.

 

If you plan on off roading a lot then get the bfg's IMO. But they both seem like good tires.

 

Yeah I hear they are easily 100k tires?

I do like to go wheeling avidly, and by no means am I a hardcore rock crawler or anything insane like that... Hmm, I'd like to get some more opinions, I am slightly leaning toward the BFG's myself just after reading about it so much.

My Bridgestone Dueler's have seen better days, by no means am I very fond of the tires themselves.

 

I got 80k out of my BFG's (on my 1st gen), really liked them. I moved onto Duratracs to try their winter traction. Be aware, in a tire thread, they usually turn into "Buy what I have because they are the best".

With 16 inch wheels, just make sure they will clear the caliper as some 16's seem to have trouble. Good luck with what you decide.

 

I might be wrong, but I don't think you can get load C BFGs in that size. I think the lowest is D.

 

How was the winter traction in snow for you if you ever put it through the snow? I love going up to the snow to go boarding during the season and while my Dueler's served me well in the snow (let's be honest, in 4X4 OR or Sport, these trucks are beasts) I want to make sure these are awesome too.

As far as clearance goes, more then a handful of people on the forum run around with these on 16's, I know it will be okay, I hear clearance is just over 1/4" though crazy!

Hmm that's odd, I thought you could get the C for sure.. Either way, C or D doesn't matter to me, If I can get it in D, awesome..!

 

Yeah, either way your MPGs are going down!
I'd go for the BFGs for sure tho

 

Dark color taco's look really good with bronze wheels. From experience I know the BFG's are a good tire. About 40k on my set with about half life on tread. Check this out for some 16's with examples of bronse wheels. http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires-marketplace/230532-scs-f-5-wheels-16x8.html

 

Hey it's how the saying goes.. YOLO! Haha God I hate that saying so much! In all reality though, I'd be willing to sacrifice MPG over longevity of tires, if I shell out a little more at the expense of less MPG's that's fine. I'll know I won't have to change out my tires in a long long long time!

The more I look at dark Taco's with Bronze the more I start to dig it! I may just have to pick up a set in bronze

After looking at it all some more I may just end up sticking to the 265 but getting the 75 sidewall to maintain my 32" tire profile I currently have.

So I think that pretty much wraps it up, Bronze Level 8 guardians with BFG A/T KO's 265/75/16 Awesomeeee! I think I'll have to place my order with discount tire tomorrow to get them sent in.

 

Actually its not that bad once you calculate the extra distance gained from having a larger circumference. I still get a consistent 20mpg with my 265/75/16 load c duratracs after doing the math.
But then again, my wheels are a little lighter than stock. I wanted the guardians too. How are they as far as weight goes?

 

may want to check what this guy is mentioning... he isnt talking about a 285 tire fitting he is talking about how toyota engineered the caliper to where a lot of 16" aftermarket wheels wont fit and you have to step up to a 17"

 

those wheels look great!!

 

Quite a few people on here run those wheels without a problem.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires/198489-level-8-wheels-4.html

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires/214724-level-8-gaurdians-2.html

 

Well the thing is right now I am currently running 265/65/18 stock rims and while they are more then wide enough for me and fit the bill in multiple categories, they do not for looks and performance. Running a 265/75/16 tire and rim combo will keep me right at my current height and width that came stock and will still perform just as good. Matter of fact the T|X Pro Baja truck comes with 265/70/16 series tires so mine would be just a hair taller and the fact my MPG would still be retained comes as of no surprise to me

As far as weight is concerned it should be around 22 lbs for the 16's.

I understand that, but like I said there is more then a handful of guys running this tire on here who have no fitment issues with this size whatsoever. So as far as fitment goes I'm not worried about it.

I'm getting too excited about these now!

 

My Level 8 Guardians should be in either tomorrow or on friday. I went ahead and picked up a set of Warden A/T Load E 265/75/16 tires from Treadwright for way cheaper then what BFG's cost. The design of their tread is off the BF Goodrich All Terrain KO's and are supposed to get much better traction then the original BFG A/T's. The tires were shipped out today and should be in on Saturday. Pictures should be good to go by the weekend and I'm super stoked to receive all of this stuff soon!

I did some calculations of how much the tires and rims combo would weigh, the tires themselves weigh 56 lbs according to Fedex !!! The rims weigh 22 lbs. combined it puts me at 78 lbs per tire, which translates to be a whopping total of 312 lbs of rotating mass front and back combined on the truck. Crazy weight for rims and tires!

 

Tires and rims have been mounted finally and I have to say the ride on them are pretty awesome! It took me a while to get used to the way they ride as they do feel softer then the stock tires but a quick crash driving course to Tahoe from the bay area fixed that! I will post pictures as soon as I can. Reception is bad around here so the uploads are going to be a little slow.

 

One other small fact is like to state is that going from stock 18's to 16's it appears that these 16's are actually much larger in overall diameter compared to the stickers for some reason. Maybe it's just the different tire brands and the A/T's run taller naturally..

Doing some quick feel comparisons I noticed no difference in takeoff and acceleration with these rims and tires vs. Stock, which led me to redo math and figure things out correctly. Weighing the stock tires on a standard digital scale the total weight per rim/tire was 82lbs which multiplied by 4= 328lbs across all 4 corners.

This rim and tire combo weighed (rims=22lbs each bare, tires=56 without rim) multiplied x4=312lbs across all 4 corners. Considering all the additional weight from balancing I put in there it brings me up to roughly 316lbs maximum. All things considered I should theoretically GAIN mpg due to less rolling weight/ unsprung weight.

Like I said, very pleased and satisfied with this setup!

 

why don't you get some 18's?