AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

I have the 35x10.5R17 D-load Klevers, and really like them. No complaints.

 

Were you able to weigh the tires before mounting?

 

of what? your truck looking better? Of having way better traction all around to the point you'll go more places easier and then find yourself past the point of no return more often?


Seems like all good problems to me.

 

I think the Cooper tire review needs to be edited, it states you never had a trail flat with them... but you did. I was there to bear witness as the sainted tires fell from grace into the abyss of average tires as was @Blackdawg

 

ahhh good point!

 

I don't think god and cooper ever intended for their tires to be driven on for 110K trail miles.

 

You mean the tires are beyond peak performance and safety when you have to measure tread depth with a scanning electron microscope?

 

Unfortunately, I completely forgot!

More aggressive tires generally mean louder tires, which I'm not a fan of. So far, not too much of an issue, we'll see over time how they do as they wear.

I'm also not a huge fan of the really aggressive look on the sidewalls, which I know is a personal preference. Even the Duratracs were a little more "grr" than I find appealing.

I don't really fault the Coopers for that flat - per Mike's point; they had 70K on them, which is a lot. They were so far at the end of their service life, and I'd already taken a utility knife to that spot to extract the spike that'd pierced the corner of the tire 2 years earlier (photo below -- that thing was more than 1/2" diameter on the tread end), so I put that flat on me and the unfortunate fact that I had to wait a little too long to put the new Kendas on.

 

Are we looking at different Kendas, the RT sidewall is pretty mild, it's just some lil squares. If it were Salsa it would be the one mid-westerners put on their tacos. Regardless I know you run a ton of air on the road usually, sidewall shouldn't be within a country mile of road surface.

Now here's a sidewall with some chest hair

 

So if you don't think a cute little stick puncturing the tire is the tires fault, what kind of failure would you blame on the tire?

 

Gives off this kinda vibe...

https://youtu.be/IZQtihhHQlg?si=fKgPDXBL1efK-naM

He took the blame so the tire can't

 

God that is aweful.

I don't feel like the sidewall is mild, probably b/c I'm comparing it to the Maxx. Like I said, even the sidewall of the Duratrac was a little more than I wanted when I ran them on both the Taco and 4Runner.

And the sidewall on the ground isn't the issue. I've been told by you all in no uncertain terms that the sound comes from road contact. And the Klevers certainly have a more aggressive tread pattern on the road surface than the Maxx. I'm sure there's more to noise than just pattern/lug size, but it's usually a reasonable proxy. As I mentioned, the noise is not too bad yet, but we'll see over time.

See, I'd have said that was bad-ass on the tire's side, and dumb on the driver side for not replacing it for more than a year after it was compromised-but-still-not-leaking. And then even dumber for slicing it out with a knife and driving on it again. And again.

Sometimes, when it is actually your fault, it's good to eat some humble pie.

 

It's badass that it got punctured by a stick? I've never had a piece of wood penetrate my tires. That IS a mark against the tire is it a 1/1,000,000 chance? Sure. But the mileage was more of a contributing factor that the main one in my eyes. But we both look through completely different lenses when it comes to tires as we've established before.

 

Oh whatever. They look awesome. Almost makes me forget the poop colored wheels.

If you rotate them well they should stay pretty quiet. Nothing like a mud terrain. Plus the gains in traction over the st Maxx which honestly I always found underwhelming is well worth a small increase in noise. Which even mine now aren't louder than the wind noise.

 

How are your SPC UCAs holding up? How many miles on them?

 

I mean, a stick at the correct angle is like a nail. And "sticks" hold up houses - a lot more weight than a measly rubber tire can do.

Anyway, to add fuel to the fire, it was a cactus carcass, not a stick, hahaha.

I hope they stay quiet. They did seem to have good traction in the wetness of Canada recently, which might be a difference between my and your usual trail styles; mine are usually more desert/dry, so perhaps less taxing on the tire.

Not all that well. Just swapped them out (under warranty) and went back to the old SpecRide poly bushing variant. Details coming soon.

 

Finally, New Fender Flares

I've never been a fan of mud. I'm not a fan of driving in it, camping in it, or hiking in it. And, I'm definitely not a fan of getting it all over - and in - the Tacoma on a trip.

Not my idea of a good time.​

As such, I've always tried to keep my tires pulled in, under the fender flares. This worked reasonably well with the stock wheels and tires, but when I bought some 16" SCS Stealth6 to fit the larger calipers that come with the Tundra brake upgrade, I ended up pushing the wheels and tires an additional inch out of the wheel wells. It looked amazing, but after a few wet trips - especially an epic adventure that we referred to as F.U. Rain - it was obvious that this wheel choice was a disaster.

I removed more than 50 gallons of mud after a single trip.​

After that trip, I started looking for a solution in the form of fender flares. Surely, I thought, there must be a ton of options for such a popular truck. To my surprise, the pickings were slim, with only a few options available, and none of them were in my price range:

• Toyota had two versions of fender flares for 1st gen Tacomas:
  1. '98-'00 Fender Flares - made of fiberglass, they were included with the Off-road Package and protrude about 1.0" from the fenders. Attachment is via bolts inside the wheel well. Cost new is prohibitive at more than $1,200 for a set of four:
     • Front (R: 75871-35900 | L: 75872-35900)
     • Rear (R: 75873-35900 | L: 75874-35900)
  2. '01-04 Fender Flares - made of ABS plastic, they were included with the Off-road Package and protrude about 2.5" from the fenders. Attachment is via bolts inside the wheel well and plastic clips through the metal fenders. Cost new is prohibitive at more than $1,500 for a set of four:
     • Front (R: 75871-04010 | L: 75872-04010)
     • Rear (R: 75873-04010 | L: 75874-04010)
• Bushwacker Extend A Fender Flares - made of ABS plastic, these are similar to the Toyota '01-04 Fender Flares, but only extend 1.5" from the fenders. And, now owned by RealTruck, they are cheaper than Toyota, but still expensive at $500/set.
• Several options - constantly changing, I'm sure - on eBay. These generally seem to be similar to the '98-'00 Toyota Fender Flares but are cheaper, though still in the $250 range.

The price of flares changed my focus. Rather than trying to capture the mud from the SCS Stealth6 wheels, I decided to ditch the wheels for something that wouldn't throw as much mud. I found the perfect candidate in a similar-era Toyota wheel - the 3rd gen 4Runner 16x7 5-star wheel. One of the best-looking Toyota wheels out there, they were big enough to fit the Tundra calipers, and yet had 4.5" backspacing that was similar to the stock wheels that I'd had on the Tacoma.

I installed them and was extremely happy. Painting them - a ton of work - made me love them even more.

These wheels have been great for the last 7 years. I've still gotten a bit of mud on the Tacoma, but it's been entirely manageable.​

Still, I've always watched as the newer Tacomas that I travel with seem to get less mud on their bedsides than I do, and I've kept my eye out for something to come along.

Then, six months ago, I got whiff of a set of used '01-'04 fender flares. I've seen these go up for sale before, but generally I'm either too slow to jump on the listing, or the price - around $600 - is still higher than I wanted to pay. This time though, the entire set was $200 + shipping, and I jumped on it as soon as I noticed it.

A week later, they showed up, and with the Tacoma tucked away in Las Vegas, I promptly shoveled them into the back of the basement.

Looks like fender flares.​

Fast forward to today. It was finally time to install the new flares. Since I was transitioning from the smaller fiberglass fender flares to the larger ABS variant, it was a simple process:

1. Unbolt the existing fiberglass fender flares.
2. Remove the plastic clips on the larger ABS fender flares.
3. Bolt on the new-to-me larger ABS fender flares.

The stock '98-'00 fender flares.​

Six (6), 10mm bolts were all that hold the flares in position. It's dirty under there.​

Left (driver) rear flare comparison. Definitely a difference.​

Fits just fine and doesn't seem to need the plastic clips at all.​

A note about Toyota OEM Fender Flares

The '98-'00 Fiberglass Fender Flares attach to the fenders with a series of 10mm bolts on the underside of the fender.

Being larger, the '01-'04 ABS Fender Flares use the same underside attachment bolts plus a series of plastic clips higher up on the outside face of the fender. These flares can be installed without using the plastic clips - on a 1st gen Tacoma that doesn't have the fender holes to accept the clips - and usually work just fine in that situation.

However, some people want to remove the larger '01-'04 flares and replace them with the smaller '98-'00 variant. This will not work, since the fender holes to accept the clips will not be covered by the fiberglass flares.

​

New '01-'04 flares installed.​

 

No idea if that's less taxing or not.

Only major rub that'll be in the desert they do grab and throw stones a lot.

 

Oops.

 

cool! Why is this in dans build thread? lol