Do I need better tires?

Hey guys I had a stock 2018 Tacoma sport, I was wondering if I need to upgrade my tires if I plan on doing some light off-roading, mainly trails and sand. I'm planning on driving from New Jersey to Moab / canyon lands / monumentmvalley and lake powell and doing some camping around there. Just wanted to ask if you guys think the stock tires are capable enough to handle something light. Thanks!

 

Something light? Sure, they'll probably be fine.

Tires are probably the best mod for off road though.

 

Yup. A quality tire will perform better and more importantly be less likely to puncture.

 

Hm, would they increase tire noise by a lot? Driving a pretty far distance so we don't want to be bothered too much by road noise. I've heard good things about the nitto grabbers?

 

Naw. You will be O.K. Did BLM land, forest roads, all around the areas you cited. Toughest I did was White Rim Road, Canyonlands National Park. Even then, met an old-timer that told me of a guy that ran expeditions in an old VW minivan on that road.

 

Oh wow, thanks! Were you ever worried about your tires puncturing?

 

No. I assume you have the Goodyear kevlars? I assumed you were not doing rock climbing. Bring along tire repair and air compressor just to ease your mind.

 

No I have the Firestone destination tires.. they don't seem very tough

 

Bring along tire repair and compressor and know how to use them. Lot of places you visit (Monument Valley), cars go through them.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm running Nitto Trail Grapplers. Stock tires came off @ 200 miles. Night and day difference with very little road noise. If your wife was blind, you could swap and she wouldn't even know it happened.

 

If you are planning on going off-road where your truck has a good possibility to be damaged from off-roading then you need different tires among other things. You will be fine on regular dirt.

 

Me personally, I couldn't stand those on the road, much less off.

There's an intersection on my commute that's particularly oily for some reason, and with every mist, sprinkle, rain, or snow, no matter how light or heavy, that intersection turned into a skating rink. No matter how light I was on the throttle, the truck would try to spin me into the oncoming lane- some days I was cussing at VSC for overcorrecting the skid, others I was thanking it.

Finally one day it dawned on me- I noticed that it was mostly my truck that was having problems, very few other cars were doing it also.

I got rid of the Firestones and bought wildpeaks instead, and I am so happy I did. Hydroplaning is gone. Oil on road means I'm the last to break traction, not the first. ABS no longer needs to kick in during a hard brake on the freeway. I'm more confident in the sand, snow, and washboard.

Get rid of the destinations. If I could wage a campaign against them like Nader did against the Corvair, I would. Those are horrible tires for a Tacoma.

 

Terra Grapplers G2s. I had a set of 265/70/17s and really enjoyed them. They are quiet on road and I offroaded in them as well. Would recommend.

 

Your stock tires will probably perform fine. An upgraded tire will perform better. Lots of good options out there. A couple of the most popular light off-road all-terrain tires are Cooper AT3 (4S, LT, LTX) and the Wildpeak AT3W. I have the Cooper 4S and I've been shocked how well these things handle everything from highway to rock and mud and they are nearly impossible to break free on wet pavement.

I toyed with ditching my stock tires for a long time but ended up driving w/ them until about 25k - and after replacing them, I regretted not doing it sooner FWIW

 

I’m sure the stock tires would work well enough.... However, if I were planning a trip like that, I’d swap the tires for something a little better suited for what you’re gearing up to do and sell the factory tires while they’re still nice and new to offset the cost a bit.

 

Definitely this. Plug kit, compressor, tools, at a minimum.

 

My nitto ridge grapplers are super quiet. No annoying MT whine on the freeway and handle very well in all conditions. The only thing I haven't got them in is thick mud, which I avoid like the plague anyway.

 

Michelin LTX AT2 are a good choice to go with