265/70/17 Wildpeak rubbing on UCA/Strut

Hey folks.

If this has been asked before, I apologize, I've been searching this forum and others for a few hours without seeing a similar enough scenario.

This is my wife's truck, not mine, and she just purchased it a little over a week ago. She came from a jeep, and we live in a fairly snow heavy area during winter, with a ~25 mile commute. The factory tires wouldn't do well with the lack of attention our roads get.

So naturally, I want to get her three peak tires, and naturally, she wants more aggressive/larger. I did some research, found that 265/70/17s should fit with no issues on an otherwise stock truck, and ordered some Wildpeak AT3Ws in that size. Here comes the issue.

They rub pretty bad on the strut/UCA, at least on passenger front, (tire shop refused to install after that, first one they put on.) I've seen posts of similar trucks running the same tire/size on the same trim/year/gen, that are also otherwise stock.

I was wondering if anyone else has a similar experience? I'd hate to return them, I ran them on a previous F150 I had and loved them, and they fit the looks/size bill she wanted.

I'd like to take them to a different tire shop and see if anything changes if they put all four corners on seeing as they are taller than stock, and may be affecting suspension geometry somehow with one taller corner on the ground, and I'm not above spacers, however I'd like to avoid lifting it at this time because it's still got a pretty much full factory warranty, and if spacers are the answer, I don't want to create rubbing issues elsewhere in the wheel well.

Thanks in advance folks!

 

Im running the exact same size but cooper discoverer snow claws with no issues. With factory rims that should be no issue at all. Can you post a picture of the rub?

 

At the moment I don't have any, but after I take them to another shop if the same thing happens I will.

The touch was apparent on the strut/UCA, I'm going off of what the shop said as far as how bad it is. They claim it pushed the "strut" up, but pointed at the uca when they showed me. The wife and I work opposite shifts on a 2/2/3 schedule, so I won't be able to get any eyes on it for a few days.

The only obvious reason I can think of is that the wildpeaks are slightly wider than a usual 265 with shoulder lugs, but looking at the stock tire at full lock it seems like there should be plenty of room.

 

Shouldn't be a problem, but...
Section width is the widest part of the tire(at the sidewalls) and doesn't necessarily correspond to tread with. In that size you can have a tread width that varies from 8-9". Tread width isn't something that is normally listed in the specs. Tire Rack is one who does, because they measure and list it themselves. Your Falkens come in at a 9" tread width; by comparison, a Toyo ATIII is 8.5" and Michelin LTX M/S is 8.3".

Plus, it's slightly taller...

Did you lift too?

 

I'm running 265/70/17 Nitto terra grappler, without an issue at all.

 

No lift currently. We didn't want to potentially negate any warranty that's on the truck, as it's currently got a full warranty. You're right about the width, which is why I've been thinking about 1" spacers. I don't want to make it rub elsewhere in the wheel well though.

We stuffed 275/55/20s under her Grand Cherokee, so she's familiar with a small amount of rub, and if spacers would introduce a similar amount or something I can easily work around, I'm all for it.

Toyo AT3 or duratracs are the only two tires I'd consider swapping the falkens for currently, the toyos are a much less aggressive sidewall, the duratracs I'd worry about the same thing happening.

 

I run 265/70/17's on stock sport wheels. They rubbed the UCA's pretty bad until I had 1.25 Spidertrax spacers installed and that fixed the issue for me. Pic below after install. Hope this helps.

 

What trim level and year is the truck? Some have higher offsets which could lead to rubbing with tires that size. Post up some pics. Did you actually get to see them rub after they were fully mounted or just going off what the shop said?

Offroad wheels should be fine (+25) but sports might rub (+30). Since you said they're 17's it's likely a sport and yeah.. wouldn't personally recommend that on those wheels. Per this forum though it looks like that size should fit.

Since I know you can run that height/width on an OR wheel though, you can probably run 5mm spacers up front to clear (but like the user in the post above mine did, an inch would be cooler).

 

I had 265/70R17 SL WPs on the stock Sport wheels for over 55k, both on the stock suspension and with a 1.5in lift. Zero issues, aired up or down. The tire should not get too close to the stanchion but was very close to the UCA. The only time it ever touched the UCA was when putting the wheels on / taking them off.

Running Nokians now. They had about the same clearance until I went with some -10 offset wheels. Now, there's over 1.5in of clearence. Haha!

 

Doesn’t seem like the tire should be an issue. Did they do an alignment with tires?
You are using stock wheels?

 

What wheels are on it? OEM should be fine.

 

They're OEM sport wheels.

It's a 22 TRD Sport. I didn't get to see them on the truck, we dropped it off, so I'm going off of what they said. Spacers seem like the easy answer and the least hassle, I've been looking at bora and spidertrax but those prices are hard to swallow, there's a brand called KSP on Amazon that appears to be a spidertrax clone, and had good reviews. I wish there was a 3/4 hub centric from them, but they do have 1" hub centric.

Stock wheels, yes. We had the alignment checked/redone the same day by the dealer we purchased it from because it would pull left with the wheel straight. I wanted to make sure that was addressed before I put oversized tires on it.

It seems like this will be the easiest route I can go. Looking at 1" spacers, what tires are you running and do you think there'd be enough clearance with just 1/4 less?

Thanks for your input so far everyone!

I'm a ford or foreign guy personally, and habitually have F150s. It wasn't until they updated the engine options on the tundra that they became a serious contender for me, so I've been sticking to what I know, which is full size fords. When I first joined F150 forum way back in the day, people there weren't so quick to offer advice/information, so thanks again so far.

I like this Tacoma a lot, but I'm glad it's my wifes, because at 6'4" and 250 with kids in the backseat, I don't quite... Fit. Lol.

 

Yeah might want to try a different shop, seems like they're supposed to fit but may rub or contact the strut during install.

Slide on spacers work, but with how short Toyota lug studs are, I wouldn't go farther than 5mm.

Also nothing wrong with bolt-on spacers but stick to well-known brands. The clones are cheap for a reason and your wheels/hubs are not a good place to cheap out with substandard materials.

 

265/70R17 Wildpeaks fit on stock wheels and stock suspension, 90% of Tacomas are already running them.

 

Not sure if you want your family & friends riding around on unknown & unproven budget spacers from Amazon

Stay with Bora or Spidertrax spacers both are high quality trusted products where failure is extremely rare.

 

The good news is, the shop that originally mounted a single tire doesn't seem to understand how suspension and steering work.

The bad news is, I like my wife's truck even more.

Thanks for your feedback everyone! Tack another one on 265/70/17 wildpeaks fitting stock. It is close at the uca at full lock, but they clear.

 

Just wait until you ditch the chin strap.


Tire shops can be a pain at times.

 

Ditched it on my F150 a long time ago, definitely prefer them without. She can let me know if she wants me to take hers off. She's on the hunt for running boards and a brush guard as I type this.