My experience with tire/wheel weight/diameter

So we all talk how important a regear is when moving up sizes in tires and usually that’s accompanied by an increase in unsprung weight as well.
My regear is coming very soon so I decided to play around after a few nails in my worn KOs presented themselves..

Replaced my KOs 265/75/16 with Toyo MT 265/75/16 last Sunday. Going from ~52lbs to 61lbs was noticeable for sure. Acceleration slower, etc, just weight alone felt like I went up a few tire sizes.

Had some alignment issues during the week while on the road pulling to the right and shop who did my alignment tried their hardest to correct it and said like a few have said - Toyos CAN pull to the right often for whatever reason. They offered to refund me the difference for another tire (because I wasnt happy at all and didn’t want to get in a pissing match about caster) and I said fuck it - let’s go Cooper STT Pro 285/75/16 with money back in my wallet. I thought for sure this would make my truck even more sluggish with the taller tires, but I don’t notice anything - probably because they weigh the same as the smaller Toyos at 61lbs and Coopers do tend to run on the small(er) side compared to Toyos. No more pulling to the right either... coincidence? I don’t know.

Little food for thought - I always thought tire diameter would play a bigger role in drivetrain strain by lowering the effective drive ratio, but it has me rethinking some things to suit my 2.7 for max functionality. Yeah yeah, I’m sure everyone knows this, but nothing like real world experience first hand making you reconsider future moves.

Top pic - Toyos 265
Bottom - Cooper 285

 

Are you on dirt a lot?

 

With my KOs I was.

Cmc, pinch weld, etc being done this weekend by Milo. Lots of rubbing to take care of.

 

Is there an offroad performance advantage to larger diameter tires? I understand wider to put more rubber on the dirt, rocks or mud. Just wondering about diameter. Is it to add another couple of inches in clearance?

 

Larger diameter tires are how you gain ground clearance to the underside of you truck and axles.

 

The coopers run small(er) for 285s. Not much larger diameter wise to the naked eye than the 265 Toyo which ironically run larger/true. Wider though for sure, feels more planted on the freeway.

Off road I’ll know here soon after cmc, pinch weld, etc.

 

Toyo and Nitto do run bigger. I was told this and then saw it for myself. My 265/70/17s were noticeably larger than a set of BFGs 265/70s when the shop did a side by side comparison. I went Toyos because BFGs are awful when it comes to balancing them.

 

The Toyos are spot on for their listed diameter - problem was they weren’t tracking well despite OK alignment specs. I’m sure the shop I took it too was also lazy and sucked ass (lesson learned), but the 285 Coopers they put on tracked dead straight. Coincidence? I have no idea, but it solved my hard right pull on the freeway, gave me a lot more stability with some more width, and all for the same weight.