Wheel and tire advice. 1st gen with 3" lift.

For some unbeknownst reason, I cannot grasp the concepts of backspacing, offset, spacing, etc.

If someone can give me a hand, I'll send you a pmag, Toyota decals or something.

I have a 1st gen Tacoma, with the 3" ToyTec ultimate lift, currently running 295s and Fuel "Beast" wheels.

Got the wheels and tire as a part of a package deal and want to change them up.

What backspace and offset do I need to run so I can mount up some pizza cutters without rubbing, or trimming?

Looking to get 255/75R17 tires, as it seems pretty common, but will consider other sizes if they're readily available.

 

Let's work on an 8" wide wheel being that that's probably what you'll end up getting.

Offset is a measurement of how far "off center" the hub mounting location is (where the wheel bolts up to your hub) as in the image on the left, a high offset positions the hub location closer to the face of the wheel. A zero offset positions the hub mounting location dead center on the wheel. A negative offset moves the hub mounting location towards the back of the wheel.
The hub on your truck is static, that doesn't move, so with changing the offset your changing the position the wheel sits in your wheel well.
For backspacing, it's very similar, you're measuring where the hub mounting location is. You measure from the back edge of the wheel inwards until you hit the hub mounting location.
For example and 8" wide wheel with 0mm of offset has the mounting location dead center. It would appear to have 4.0" of backspacing, however an 8" wide wheel is 8" wide on the inside lip where the tire mounts, it's actually 1" wider outside to outside thus an 8" wide wheel with 0mm offset actually has 4.5" of backspacing.

Now for fitment to your truck, factory wheels are 16"x7" +15mm offset (about 4.6" back spacing) what you want to do to get a better fit wheel is create more inside clearance to accommodate a bigger tire and position the wheel out a big more. A very common fit is 17"x8" 0mm offset, but that only gives you .1" of inside clearance because you're going from 4.6" back spacing to 4.5" back spacing. What you really want to find is a 17"x8" with -12mm offset and 4.0" back spacing. This will push the wheel far enough out to give you the inner clearance you need as to not rub on the suspension, it'll also but the wheel far enough out to look good on the truck. With how narrow your tire will be you could do a 17"x8" with -6mm offset or even 0mm offset, but -12mm would be ideal. (the change of 12mm is only moving the wheel around by 1/2". 0mm offset =4.5" BS, -6mm offset = 4.25" BS, -12mm offset = 4.0" BS on an 8" wide wheel)

Let me know if this all makes sense haha