31.6 " tires. Is it the engine or the tires that make hills difficult?

Are 31.6" tires too big for a 4 cylinder? The engine revs up going up hills. Are the tires too big or is that the nature of a 4 cylinder?

 

If you live in a hilly or mountainous area, I honestly wouldn’t go any larger than 265/70/16 without regearing. Truck is geared too high as it is and adding larger tires will only compound this issue.

With that said, plenty of people run larger than stock tires on stock gearing, so your tolerance to loss in performance may differ than mine.

 

That's the nature. You'll lose a little torque but it's not a deal breaker. I have 32s and stock gearing (4.10) and it's fine. I didn't buy this thing because I wanted it to be fast, I bought it to go 400k miles.

 

Talking from experience. I have had a truck on 265/75r/16 and live in a hilly/ mountainous region. It was honestly fine on stock gearing just takes a little more pedal and shifting to get up hills. My current truck is on 285s. They took a lot of the power out of my truck and sometimes wasn't fun to drive. I regeared my truck and that did the trick. (I would say better than stock) Almost like I wasn't running bigger tires. Making my truck enjoyable. It is truly what you can and can't tolerate.

 

I run 265/75R16 E rated tires on mine. Mine are super heavy compared to the lower rated tires. I live in a mountainous area and have no problem with power and speed in regards to what the 4 banger already produces.

 

Just put 35s on it'll be fine trust me

 

Put a 27" tire on it, that should fix it!

 

What's wrong with revving? It's an iron block inline-4.

 

What do you mean when you say "the engine revs up"? Do you have a manual, and it's revving up (faster than just normal acceleration) and you're not downshifting? Do you have an automatic transmission, and it's just downshifting?

If the first is the case, your clutch is slipping, and you need to replace it. If it's the second, that is totally normal. Increased tire size and weight takes more power to get moving and stay moving, so you either live with it, regear, or go back to a smaller tire.

 

You need to actually measure, your tire! My tires is supposed to be 30.5", but just to be sure I measured from side to side and their actually 29.75! That's a 2.5% difference just because of that, I would not trust any tire chart after this. It's about 1.5 mph, at sixty, but that's enough to make a difference!

 

If you gear higher, it's going to rev up more...at all times.

That being said, the same is true if you put smaller tires again.

 

First...
Their: possessive
There: positional
They're: contraction of "they are" <-- that's the one you're looking for.

Second: You realize that tires get shorter as they wear, right?

 

You know where you can stick this, right!

 

In a textbook on spelling and grammar?

 

The 31.6" tires are only 1.1" taller than the orig. 30.5, ain't much difference. Will lower appx. 70 rpm. @ 60 mph. Any loss of rpm. will be weaker, but 70 rpm. shouldn't be a big difference. These little engines need rpm. using a smaller tire, say a 27" should raise the rpm. @ 60 mph. by about 300. I've been looking for some kind of 27" dia. tires, just to bolt on mine, for a day or 2, just to see how much difference I could feel.

 

Tires do vary by manufacturer, and generic tire charts aren't nearly always right. Loaded tire radius (rolling along under the truck's weight) and, static tire radius (tires inflated but without any
weight on them) will be different. Speed also has an effect due to centrifugal force.

When you increase or decrease tire diameter by 1.5", this is approximately equal to a change of one standard axle ratio. Example: decreasing tire diameter by 1.5" with a 4.11 axle ratio will
be like going to a 4.28 axle ratio. If you go to 27" tires that will be about like a change to a 4.56 axle ratio. However, you will loose ground clearance, and mess up speedometer, and odometer
readings as well. This would still be cheapest way to get a ratio change, though.

 

My 2.7 auto with 4.10 gears sucked ass on grades at elevation on P metric 265s.

It’s a 4 banger, it wants to rev. Unfortunately in some cases the RPM stayed high while my speedometer kept lowering.

 

With the torque of the 4 banger and 4.11 gears the 31.6" tires should do just fine. The 4 cyl isn't going to be fast but you're going to see less loss of performance with that engine than the V6. Remember, your starting with less power, and even though you're losing very little it may seem more noticeable.

Let the engine run and drop down to a lower gear. Won't hurt a thing. It does more damage to the engine to keep it in a higher gear and make the engine work hard at lower rpm. Its like riding a 21 speed bike up a hill. If you keep it in higher gears you'll bust your ass trying to get to the top. If you drop down a few gears and peddle faster you'll get up the hill a little slower, but it will be a lot easier on your legs.

It's been about 20 years ago, but Jeep used to offer a version of the Wrangler with 33" factory tires. It only came on the version with the 4 cyl and 4.11 gears. It wasn't fast on the road, but was a beast off road.

 

Yep, that being said, I've been doing a lot of searching & figuring. If driving my Taco. W/ orig, 4.10 gear, my 32.1" tires @ 60 mph. the tach is at appx. 1800 rpm. (my chart says 1803 rpm.) If I re-gear to a 4.88, with my 32.1" tires @ 60 mph. my Taco. should run, by the chart, 2141 rpm. With the orig. 4.10 gear if I can bolt on 27" tires it should run 2143 rpm. The 27" tire with my 4.10 should be almost exactly the same feel as changing to a 4.88, with my 32.1 tires. I'm hoping with the 27" tire (same as 4.88 gear) will feel OK. I've got a couple of tires now 1.6" smaller than the 32.1" I have now, hoping to get them on in the next day or so, but I just don't think there will be much of a difference.