The SKINNY on skinny tires

Those two wheels have the same backspacing (4.5"), which is important for clearance on the upper control arm. The 16x8" 0mm offset will poke ~1" more than 16x7" +13mm offset. By rubbing I assume you mean the tire contacting the cab mount, which becomes worse as you increase tire width, add negative offset wheels, or add wheel spacers.

Lift doesn't solve the rubbing issue as the wheel/tire still have the same path of motion (especially when the control arms are kept stock). Lift changes ride height, and that will reduce the frequency of rubbing, but doesn't remove it completely.

255/85r16 tire manufactures say 8" is the widest recommended wheel. 7" wheel is my recommendation as the side walls of the tire will be slightly wider than the wheel which help prevents your wheels getting curb rash.

As for wheel spacers, you'd likely rub your cab mount with 255/85r16 on 16x7" +13mm TRD Pro wheels. I'd recommend having 255s installed, and if you really feel the need to widen your stance get wheel spacers and prepare have a cab mount chop done. 285/75r16 will rub on either wheel setup, and will rub more with 3/4" wheel spacers.

 

OK, so you're suggesting the 255s would be ok even adding a wheel spacers to them? And I know I mentioned not being a fan of the aftermarket wheels, but the Motgis would be my exception! I forgot about those, I saw them on a build shared on youtube.

 

Ahhhhh yes, THATS where I was getting confused with the setup being similar....backspacing is the same. Ok makes perfect sense with the math. So backspacing being the same, the 16X8 would stick out about an inch more vs the 16X7 on both tire sizes. But all would clear with 255s on the 16X7s without spacers? And I'm thinking they would be right at the line of the fender.

 

I've been looking at Cooper St Maxx's in the 255/85 16 size for my truck. I have 16x8 wheels with 0 offset. I'm currently running Fox 2.0's with around 1.2" of lift. Would these tires rub with my current setup? I'm planning on swapping out my suspension later in the year and moving to a 2" front 1" rear setup. I'm just trying to decide if I should wait on the tires till after the new lift.

 

Lift amount won't change whether you rub or not so no reason to wait. Hard to say whether they'll rub or not as that'll depend a lot on your alignments settings. Plus, every truck seems to have varying clearance as it depends on so many different factors.

I suspect that if you're on stock UCA's with a good alignment you probably won't rub right now but hard to say with those wheels and that offset. If you've got UCA's which dial in more caster then you will have more of a chance of rubbing on the cab mount. If you need to add caster via UCA's when you increase your lift amount then you're increasing your chances of rubbing.

 

Thanks for the insight. I will be adding Dirt King uppers when I swap out the suspension. My 265/75's still have some life in them, so I'll probably just wait until I get my lift.

 

G3's seem to have better clearance than G2's but I suspect with those UCA's you may run into clearance issues. Look like I'll be testing that out here pretty soon myself actually. With a 2.25" lift and stock UCA's I don't rub and my alignment is OK but I'm just hair under 1* of caster and it's recommended I get closer to 3*. I'm thinking it's pretty likely I'll need a CMC after that. Not ideal but not too many other options that aren't multiple thousands of dollars.

 

Yeah, true. I guess if I need to get a CMC then that's what I'll have to do. One would think if you go with a narrower tire that would prevent rubbing. My 265/75's have zero issues with my 16x8 0 offset wheels. I believe the 255/85's are like .5 narrower than the 265/75's.

 

Yes, narrower means less chance of rubbing. But that's only if you don't change alignment, wheel specs or overall tire diameter. 265/75 is a ~31.6" dia tire, ~255/85 is a 33.1" dia tire. So even though the tire sticks out 5mm less on each side of the wheel it also has a 19mm larger radius - meaning the tire is basically automatically 19mm closer to your mud flaps, bumper, cab mount...etc. In this instance, the increase in diameter has more effect than the decrease in width.

265/75 is easy to fit unless you get some stupid low offset wheels. 255/85 is a whole different ball of wax. I've had both sizes on my truck. Not even close to rubbing with the 265's, even with my mud flaps installed. When I switched to 255's I had to remove the mud flaps and clearance the fender liners a tiny bit. And this is with stock UCA's and 1* of caster. Oh, and I'm running 7.5" wide +10 offset wheels which should mean I have better chance of not rubbing compared to a wider/lower offset wheel like yours.

Have you seen Tinker's Adventure's youtube video's about fitting tires and skinny vs wide? There's tons of good info in his videos and really nice visual examples to help illustrate.

 

Just put ST Maxx 255/85 r16s on my 13 Tacoma with stock wheels. No rubbing anywhere... even with the front mud flaps on.

 

Left: 34x10.5R17 BFGoodrich KO2s, Load D - new, installed 03/22/2024
Right: 285/70/17 Toyo Open Country A/T IIIs, Load Range E - around 8k miles on them



The camera lens was in ever-so-slightly fisheye mode so it exaggerates the differences a little, but you get the gist:




Weight is nearly the same between the two: 54# for the BFG and 55# for the Toyo (as far as my research can deduce). The wheels I had on the Toyos weighed 24.54# and the new American Racing Baja AR172s I have on the BFGs weigh 25.31#, so the overall wheel/tire setup went from 79.54 lbs/corner to 79.31 lbs/corner-- effectively negligible.

Put around 400 miles on the set this weekend, combination of highway, around town, and off-road consisting of mud, rocks, and water.

Initial impressions:

• Less rolling resistance with the narrower KO2s (and coasting is subsequently easier)
• Maybe 5% less excited to drop down a gear on long highway climbs, but more time and testing is needed to verify this
• Equally quiet around town
• KO2s are new and slightly quieter at highway speed, though they do have slightly more vibration at highway speed
• Ride quality of the BFGs is better, thanks to slightly more sidewall and lighter load rating
• BFGs have worse wheel lip protection; outside of the bead is more subject to rock rash
• Off-road is hard to compare apples-to-apples, but the KO2s seem to be a little happier on dry rocks (again likely thanks to the greater ability for the tire to deflect/flex), water/mud performance is a wash, jury is out on wet/loose climbs, and KO2s are a bit better to run trails with as they are a little more direct but are also slightly more "floaty" (for lack of a better word)

Overall pleased with the new setup. Longer, more detailed review coming in my build thread in the coming weeks.

 

Looking to go 33" tire, 255/80/17 with a 3" lift and TRD pro 4runner wheels. Will I need to do any trimming with this setup or CMC?

 

I cant tell you about your truck but I had to do a pinch weld fold and a cmc with my setup. 255 80 17 on 0 offset wheel. Lift is irrelevant when talking about this. Barely rubbed the cab mount but I did it anyways to fully clear the tire from bump to strap lock to lock.

 

Hey all, looking for some new tires for my 2009 4cyl AC 5spdMT stock height. Currently living in the PNW. I’m comparing the Kumho AT52 and the Goodyear Duratrac RT both in 255/75/17.
Anyone have any other suggestions, or comments on these two choices?
Thanks!

 

BUMP

 

Probably. The TRD Pro 4Runner with 32" stock tire even requires trimming. See T-SB-0070-19 filed with the NHTSA: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10162789-9999.pdf

Run stock Tacoma wheels with the +30mm offset if you want to avoid trimming. The TRD Pro wheel is +4mm offset, so the tire swings on a 1" wider arc when steered.

 

Yeah, to further your point about every truck having varying clearance, my 33 skinnies would not have fit (without rubbing) pre-lift (2” bilstein 5100 front) but much better after lift. It was rubbing at the outer corners, particularly at the back side.

 

Hate to break it to ya, but it’s not the lift that got you the clearance.

OR… you lifted it as such that you now never have enough up travel to have encountered the rubbing you had before. Lift only changes where you rub - meaning it can change you from rubbing at 1” of compresssion to rubbing at 3” compression instead.

 

Ok… was it not YOU that I quoted in agreement? And YOU that said every truck is different? And are you not agreeing that clearance varies per YOUR comment about varying clearance, to which I agreed? And since I did nothing other than add a lift both before and after fitting the same wheel, and got a different amount of “clearance”, what else would have achieved the increase in clearance? Did you come modify my truck for me when I wasn’t looking?

I simply agreed with your comment about clearance varying based on a number of factors, where I’ve read others fit my same tire size combo sans-lift. Will it potentially rub if I articulate a lot? Yes. But am I actively rubbing while parked post lift? No.

maybe you have mixed definitions of what you are referring to as “clearance”. Do you only consider clearance to mean never rubbing at all even fully articulated? Lol. Cause your now referring to my “extra room” as clearance.

 

It was you I quoted, but I think you're misunderstanding what you quoted. The first sentence of the post you quoted is the most important and I stand by it. Check out this video for why it works this way: https://youtu.be/l1tTelhdEiM?si=g8uo0cRXCLnBMjF7

Yup, this seems to be the situation. Different people seem to get different results with seemingly the same or similar setups. But there are still some general rules that apply to all of our trucks - like the video above shows. Generally, everyone experiences the same things but once you start getting into the nitty gritty it can get quite confusing.

Yes, clearance will vary from truck to truck even with seemingly the same setup. I have a hunch this is due to a multitude of reasons rather than one silver bullet causing it.

You didn't get into details, so unfortunately, we're talking only about generalities here and I'm unable to see the whole picture. For example, did you install upper control arms when you installed the lift? Did you get an alignment after the lift? UCA's would change your alignment. Having an alignment done will change your alignment. And installing a lift without adjusting your alignment will also alter your alignment from what it was prior to your lift. It's almost a certainty that your alignment specs after the lift are different from what they were before the lift. Alignment can greatly affect clearance because it has the ability to shift the wheel forward and backward within the wheel well, whereas when you lift the truck you're moving the wheel up/down along it's normal path of travel.

And, like I mentioned before, the lift may now have just created a situation where you aren't rubbing under the same driving conditions as you were before. But if you cycle the suspension so the wheel is in the same spot you'd still have the same rubbing. You may just never get it into that spot due to how you use the truck or maybe you'll find later on once you do get the suspension to cycle to that same point that the rubbing remains.

This sounds like you're agreeing with me that your rubbing didn't go away and that it would still be there if you articulate the suspension. This is exactly what I said above. The rubbing didn't go away, it just moved and now happens at a different point, under different driving conditions. But, to me, that still means rubbing exists.

Yes, when I'm talking about rubbing I'm talking about any rubbing at any point along the full up/down cycle of the suspension travel AND full left/right rotation of the steering rack.

What you want to do is jack the truck up, remove the front coilover, re-install the wheel/tire and then use a jack under the LCA to cycle the suspension. And test clearance with different steering angles as well. This will help you pinpoint exactly where you have clearance issues and inform you on what might be the solution.