Another 2nd gen tire story: puny 31's or skinnies ftw?

Hi folks,

Long time forum creeper first time poster.

After what seems like an age of research on this forum and others and a few thousand spent chasing the dream I have reached a crossroads with my (de?)build.

I bought a 2014 dclb sr5 2 years ago and it came loaded with a spacer lift all around, front diff drop and hanger bearing drop, SCS ray10 -12 wheels with 285/75/16 BFG ko2s. Fenders/mudflaps had been trimmed a bit on the front and it functioned reasonably but rubbed pretty good with suspension flex.

Being a fan of function over fashion I decided to ditch the spacers on the front and threw in some new 5100 adjustables with stock springs, this lowered the front slightly and caused more rub. Diving through the forums the consensus seemed to be that positive caster might be able to correct this and avoid the CMC (decided I'm not going this route). Purchased some spc UCAs and finally had them installed with a proper alignment, pushing caster as far as the tech recommended as I want to maintain good tracking and stability on the road (around 3+ caster, the guy is a pro and I take his advice not to push it further than that). That being said there is a slight improvement but it will still rub with even moderate suspension flex.

At this point with several pennies invested to make minimal difference I stopped throwing money at it and dug in for some real research on tire fitment and have reached a point where I feel I at least have a vision of the situation: the -12 offset of my SCS wheels (which I love the look of, really too bad they don't make them in a + offset that will work with these trucks) combined with the 285 tire push the scrub radius of the wheel out significantly further than the factory (+25?) offset and 245 tires.

I don't want to go with skinnier tires on the SCS rims (I'm not a big fan on the "poke" as it is, and with skinny rubber I think it would look even worse), and I don't believe it would help on its own with the negative offset still fighting me. This has led me to start looking for some OEM Rims (not a fan of a lot of the aftermarket rims out there) and begun the debate of: 265/75/16 tires and drop the lift, I feel they would look too small in the wheel well with the lift and if they clear fully then there is no real need to keep it high OR 255/85/16 and try to keep my 33's (really like the look of a taller tire on these trucks and the skinnies are more of my style) and take a chance that the skinnier tire added to the +offset with my pushed caster will be enough to clear the cab mount.

I know this topic has been beaten to death here and elsewhere on the web but everytime this is discussed and people mention running them with no rub there is always a factor that gives me doubt (no mention of rim/offset, 3rd gen vs 2nd gen etc.)

From what I've read, lift or no lift the tires either "fit" or they don't, and with the added drivetrain stress and part wear (I just replaced my needle bearing with the ECGS bushing and had my hanger bearing/u-joint replaced in the rear and it has a noticable vibration in the rear even with the drop) I would rather get the extra clearance from the rubber and bring the front lift down a notch or two and remove the rear blocks.

Fwif I am willing to trim a little body or heat gun and push some wheel tub, I'd even put a slightly larger bump stop on if the clearance issue was top of wheel well. What I don't want is a truck that "looks" the part but rubs and is only semi-functional.

Anyone been in this situation before? Anyone with this setup running 255/85's without a cab mount chop? How'd you do it? Rims/tires/offset - lift/bump stops/clearance?

Either way I believe I'll be looking for some OEM Rims and selling my SCS wheels and tires (really a shame I love the rims, looks and quality are there for sure!)

Thanks for your time and I'm hoping I'm doing this right, pics of the truck shortly after I bought it:

 

More pics just cuz:

 

I can tell you that my 2nd gen runs 285/75-17’s with no rub at any point in flex/turn with -12 offset rims, a minor BMC, pinch weld done, and good UCA’s. I know that doesn’t address your decision because you don’t want to chop, but it at least applies to the quoted section of your post.

 

Hi @RockinU and thanks for the reply,

How minor a BMC? You run a body lift or something to limit the up travel? I find that hard to chew as your running 1" bigger.

In the end bringing the tires in closer is the best thing for the truck all around in my eyes, save the paint and center the wheels more on the flaps (could ditch them but then I'd be taking even more paint abuse). If SCS made a +offset wheel for this truck id buy some blaze10s ditch the pseudo-beadlock look and be happy till the end of days but you can't have everything.

Someone in my area is selling some Mickey Thomson 0 offset rims with 265/75/16's that I'm tempted to pick up but that throws the pizza cutter possibilities out the window for sure. Figure If I get some higher + offset rims I can always throw some spacers on if I need to, not as easy to bring them in closer.

 

That minor. Not a relocate, just trimmed and welded a plate up.

I have Icon coil overs, no body lift.

 

Looks like you did a good job, I originally planned to do the chop but I'm not a welder and have concerns if I ever have to get it resafetied that it might be an issue so I've decided against it. 285s on 17s would be beautiful though!

 

Im not a welder either, but there are so many resources now it wasn’t hard to find what I needed to learn to do basic stuff, and once I did that I figured out that I actually enjoy it. Making your own stuff can be very satisfying. I can’t really speak to the safety stuff…I have no clue, but there are a ton of Tacomas out there with chops or relocates.

I wish you luck on your search for the right solution for you, sorry I can’t be more helpful

 

I just put on 1st gen tundra wheels with 265/75/16. ~2” lift. The wheels brought tires out probably close to 3/4”. I’m like you and don’t particularly care for many of the stock wheels but I do like these quite a bit. Finding a pair might be difficult. 255/85/16 would look awesome on these wheels but I didn’t want 33s.

 

Looks good! I thought the older tundra wheels had a crazy high offset, you have wheel spacers on? Any rub so far?

I'm thinking I'll go with a similar route, go for a smaller tire and ditch the rear lift and diff/hanger drop and just go with a front level. Seems the info on skinny talls are hit and miss for 2nd gens and I don't want to buy them just to have the same issues.

 

no wheel spacers. From what I was able to gather online/tundra forums, the 16x7 1st gen tundra wheels are +15mm and 4.5 backspace.
These will clear your calipers and I have no rub currently under all normal driving conditions, even with mudflaps on. I only go offroad occasionally to cut wood or get deer out of the woods so I’m not able to report on rubbing while flexed. But I anticipate there will be no issues

 

That's a good looking truck!

 

I was surprised how much the change in wheels altered the overall look. I wanted to keep the “stock” look as much as possible. I was second guessing myself before I put them on because I thought I had to go black with the pyrite mica. But I’m actually liking the contrast with the silver.

 

I'm going with these 3rd gen wheels for the time being. They're +25mm offset. Just a temporary set for the time being, but they'll look good.

I'm wrapping them in 235/85r16s, I'll have pictures tonight

I've got a 2.75 6100 lift up front and 2.5 out back

 

I was eyeing the 3rd gen offroads as well. And I also wanted to go with 235/85 so I’m curious how you like them. I couldn’t pull the trigger on them not knowing just how skinny they would look.

 

I have the stock tire on right now, but when Im tire shopping I use this site to compare. It's not perfect, but it'll give you an idea

 

I spent days researching and comparing. I just couldn’t visualize it. I atleast knew the 265 wouldn’t look strange. With these tundra wheels and how they bring the tire out around 3/4” compared to the trd sports I had, I think I could have went with the 235s without it looking like the tires were set too far into the wheel well. What tire are you going with?

 

$164 SUMITOMO Encounter AT LT235/85R16 120/116R E

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0758P7YPH

I went with these. I couldn't justify the price of the falkens and these are a very comparable tire made by the parent company of falken

 

I don’t blame you. Post a few pics later to show the profile.

 

Why not keep the SCS and go to a stock tire size ?
I understand that doesn’t change the offset, but it will reduce scrub radius in this sense due to the fact the wheel has a smaller diameter. As you already mentioned there is no guarantee here due to the number of factors still.

I could understand returning to OEM for reasons but my preference is the SCS over OEM just for aesthetics so .. if they don’t matter to you than I could understand going to a positive offset/stock wheel. Obviously the only surefire way to avoid body mount rub is to return to stock tire size and wheel.. a mild suspension lift shouldn’t affect this although I suppose it’s possible. 5100 can be set to stock height.

everybody on here can only really speak from their own experience, and from what they’ve read here on the forum or elsewhere. I’ve never had your exact setup but I can tell you I had no body mount rub with body mount chop! at full lock on 285/70/r17 with stock suspension at 125k miles (suspension sag)….

my body mount chop was $300 a few years ago and the guy who did it for me was an absolute professional (s/o to BuiltByBruno). That being said but I absolutely understand the apprehension.

Form in the sense of saving money and taking as little steps as possible may be to just do the BMC.. just a thought

 

Sorry your post is a lot to keep in the working memory but I want to say I have seen people say they’ve been on pizza cutters, without BMC without rub.. atleast on pavement which is where the BMC is concerned…. But again you could copy someone’s exact setup and have a different outcome.