What's wrong with this plan?

My son just bought a 2008 access cab TRD Off Road, we are making several upgrades. Truck will be his daily driver and will likely only do light off-roading, fire roads etc… He is pretty set on the long travel/wide body look and would like to have the tires about flush with +4” fiberglass fenders and bedsides. To accomplish this, I am thinking about:

-Accutune Stage 2 kit (should give about +2.5” of lift in the front)

-SCS RAY10 17x9 wheel with -38mm offset or 1.25” wheel spacers with a -12mm offset wheel

-Something like a 315/70R17 or a 305/70R17 tire size

-Cab mount chop/pinch weld trimming

So between the wheel/tire width increase and backspacing decrease, this should bring the edge of the tire out just under 4” to match the +4” fenders by my calculations. What are the problems with this plan? What are we missing? Will this combo work or will it rub somewhere hard due to only pushing the tire out and not the spindle pivot?

I know that a +2” LT kit may be better with a 0 offset wheel, but the cost doesn’t seem worth it for the expected use and I am most worried about the uniballs in New England winter salt and don’t want to be replacing them every spring. Would really like to stay with a greased ball joint

Any input would be appreciated as I am way down on the tacoma learning curve (but ask me anything about a Jeep TJ, just finished restoring one with my older son)...

Thanks!

 

Definitely doable!
Best way? Probably not.
Does it work just fine? absolutely!


I already had 16x8 -11 so I added 1.25” spidertrax otherwise I would prefer a -38 or more(less?) wheel. 4” ADV fronts and 4.5” ADV rear.

I was in a similar boat. I would love long travel but I use my truck for a lot of daily driving and for me the cost vs usage wasn’t what I’m ready for just yet. I have owned the truck since new in 2007 and wanted to mix things up without buying a whole new vehicle. For me it’s perfect!

You are correct with the pivoting of the tire, a proper long travel kit would minimize issues.

I first had 305/70r16s and with a heavy CMC I was fine. When I moved up to 315/75r16s I had to beat the crap out of my pinch weld and firewall. Alignment can affect how much you rub as well. You will not be able to use your old fender liners when you go to fiberglass, best bet is to make your own.

 

nice, that is exactly what we are looking for, flush with 4" glass. Does that pic have 305's or 315's? So no more rubbing since you "modified" the pinch weld and firewall? What are you running for suspension/lift?

 

Pic is with 315s.
Here is 305s:


I have bilstein 5100s front and rear, stock offroad coils set at 2.5” with Dakar medium weight leafs. Also SPC UCAs.

On 315s I can bump the inner fender at the top on full compression but I haven’t had an issue with that as of yet, 305s never touched. I still touch the bottom of the pinch weld on a reverse turn, I gotta finish it off with a sledge, but it does not hinder drivability

 

Thanks! Pretty much exactly the stance we are going for. Would you do it again of you were starting over? seems like a cost effective way to get there without sacrificing on road manners/reliability (exception being more stress on wheel bearings), but I guess not gaining much in the way of wheel travel...

 

Yes! I would do it again!
Of course if I had lots of money I would go all out with everything but for now this setup makes the most sense for me. I mainly did it because I was ready for slightly different looks as well as fitting 315s vs trimming fenders.

You are correct on extra stress, because physics. I had replaced my failing driver front bearing about a year before going wider so now it has about 25k miles without any issues! Passenger front has 130k on it now and I can hear an identical crackle starting manifest. So overall I’m pretty happy with it