Are new lighter wheels worth it?

Hey Guys!

So my current set is the following:
05 Tacoma Reg Cab 4 cyl 5 spd
DynaPro's 265/75/16
TRD Off-road rims

After going from my stock 245's to the 265's I saw a slight decline in MPG's and power. I believe I read that the TRD Off-road's are 24 or 26 pounds.... My question to you guys is would spending some extra money and switching out the TRD's for something like the FN F5's weighing in at 19 pounds? I want to hear what the benefits would be if I did so...... I'm sure many of you on here have this same setup and could really give me the right answer. Look forward to hearing some of your guys thoughts!

 

It's such a small difference in weight that I personally wouldn't care about. Say you swap them out and save some weight, you're just going to make up the difference when you have a passenger in the truck or a full tank of gas versus a low tank of gas.

There's more than tire weight that affects the MPG. The wider the tire, the more friction on the ground; the taller the tire, the higher the truck is so there's more wind resistance when driving around. All sorts of variables that wouldn't make the change worth it. Granted, little savings here and there add up.

 

You're also talking about saving seven pounds per wheel, so to spend more money on new wheels to shave off 28 pounds from the total seems a bit extreme in terms of cost and potential savings in fuel.

But if this is what you need to tell the boss to get approval for new wheels, I fully support it!

 

Even though it is only 28 lbs of total weight loss there is a difference between sprung weight and unsprung weight whereas reduction in a rotating mass has a larger effect than say taking out your rear seats. It would probably require more research than google though.

 

Lets be serious, we're truck guys. If the lighter tires look better then by all means! If they look ugly then heck no they aren't worth it.

 

Yes but either way the more weight on or in the truck, regardless of its position in or on the truck, will still affect the MPGs which was his reason for thinking about getting newer, lighter wheels.

 

mpg and power are effected by 4 things:
-tire height
-tire weight
-tire friction (determined by contact patch of tire and tread pattern)
-wheel weight

So, you're still decreasing mpg/power performance on the other 3

 

That's exactly what I've read during my hours of research on this subject. No matter what some say, I know rolling weight does have an effect. I'm just trying to hear some peoples thoughts so this is good.

 

Thanks everybody for these quick replies....... Keep them coming! I know it will help out and will feel a difference but I'm trying to hear some actual personal experiences.

 

The TRD OR wheels weigh 23lbs. If you switch to a 19lb wheel, you are saving 4lbs per corner or 16lbs total. Rotating weight is said to have 4x the effect of static weight, meaning switching to a 19b wheel would be the equivalent of removing 16lbs x 4 = 64lbs from your truck. Note the same holds true for tire weight changes which is why I always try to bring people attention to the tire weights before purchasing new tires.

EDIT: Disregard this info below. I just realized the pre runners 254/75/16 original tire size.
What you are more likely feeling is the effect of increasing your tire diameter by about 8% (though I'm not sure what your original size was other than 245 to 265), which will reduce your tongue multiplication by 8%. This effectively means you have lost 8% of your power. So if you have 177lbs/ft or torque, you have effectively reduced it to the equivalent of 163lbs/ft. A regear will restore that power lost from tire size changes, but isn't cheap.

 

Aren't TRD wheels alloy? Those shouldn't be affecting MPG much if they only weigh 24 pounds. The stock Toyota steelies on my double cab are heavy bastards. Idk how much they weigh but when I first rotated my tires on the truck they made me think I was rotating the 35" tires and 18" wheels on my 3/4 ton diesel. I will have to weigh them, but they are damn heavy I know that! Shocked the hell out of me tires on such a small truck would rival the tires on my 3/4 ton!

 

So, now from what you're saying I'm getting that loosing 4 pounds a wheel will make no difference on MPG's and performance? It just doesn't sound right.... Anybody else have any proof or anything?

Thanks guys!

 

I've run a few different wheel / tire combos on a Solo II car. The car was only 2300# in street trim, so small changes were more noticeable.

I could feel a 3# per corner change. Less than that was not noticeable. The OE wheels were ~ 13#. A 15-16# wheel was about max on stock suspension w/o negatively affecting acceleration, ride quality and handling response.

I went from a 14x6 13# wheel to a 15x7 10# forged wheel. This allowed me to go from a 185 x 70 tire to a 205 x 50.

In a street/touring tire, the whole package weighed less, was compliant and handled nicely. With stiff sidewall soft compound street legal race rubber, the whole package was about the same weight, but the increased grip and lateral g's was stunning. (this is all on a race/street upgraded suspension).

So.

All that ramble about a car that would almost fit in the bed of your truck to say this.

Don't waste your money on lighter wheels for a truck, and how a truck is normally used, just to get a few pounds off or in hopes of MPG.

You'll get no payback.

If you're wheel shopping anyway, sure, weight should absolutely be considered. Less unsprung weight is always good.

Everything that's changed on any vehicle is almost always some form of compromise, improving one thing to the detriment of the another. The key is striking a balance you can be happy with.

 

from a racing stand point there's a 10:1 ratio of sprung vs unsprung weight on the vehicle effecting power and efficency
ie; 10 pounds added to the tires or drivetrain is like adding 100 pounds to the vehicles cargo or body mass. the biggest savings in efficency is in the suspension dampening over bumps and in corners.
power to rotate and stop the tires takes less overall effort (4:1 vs.10:1 ratio) than it takes to turn a corner without the tires tilting like a bike. it'll handle better! although i doubt that it'll be incredibly notable as its a truck with tall soft sidewalls not a go cart or f1 racer...

 

this. in a nutshell.

 

Hey all. First post on tacomaworld. Been lurking for awhile and really appreciate the wealth of information here.

But I do have a factor that's missing here to bring up:

I'm a novice so please correct any misconceptions I might have.

Now sure more $$$$ on wheels or tires to save money on gas may not make sense. But how about wear n tear on the components?

A little background...

I got a lifted Tacoma with 285/75r16s (nitto terra grapplers) and, while they look killer I simply don't off-road - at least not in the serious sense. I traded the previous owner for his extra set of 265/75r16s E-rated BFG ATs rated at E and that solves the rub issue and gives a minor economy and low end torque improvement.

But I basically traded 57-lb tires for 53-lb tires. Not huge. I just had to replace a bunch of mounts and bearings in my drive shaft, not to mention my left front Toytec strut is failing. And I'm reading so much that rolling all this extra weight is really hard on the components.

So I'm thinking of going down even further, after losing the lift of course, and putting on cooper discoverer ATs in either 265/70r16 Es (46 lbs) or 245/75r16 Cs (42 lbs)

Sure the fuel economy savings alone won't justify that. But aren't I prolonging the life of the components? Isn't that a worthy consideration?

And yes, I'm losing a serious coolness factor. Of that I am guilty. But I'm more interested in making this truck last a long a$$ time.

Thanks all

 

Btw I realize the thread was started about wheels and I am talking tires but since it's still rotational weight, I figured it was relevant. I hope my query isn't too tangential