11/9/2004

I want 33" tires. What is it going to take? That question is heard quite often on the bbs'. Many will say you need X" of lift to fit them. The fact is that a spring or spacer lift won't help you. Sound strange? Picture this. When the suspension is fully compressed to the bump stop, like when wheeling, the tire is in the exact same place as on a non lifted truck as a lifted. Where the static tire position is while the car is sitting on flat ground is the only thing that changes with a lift. This means that you have to have enough space in the wheel well to accomodate that stuffed 33" at full compression of the suspension. The exception is a body lift which actually moves the chassis away from the tire at full compression. A 1" body lift should be adequate for 33". The other option is to clearance the wheel well to fit the over sized tire. Many 285 section tires will not clear the upper A-arms with the stock wheels. Your options are: Cut, clearance and plate weld the stock arms a bit, install low clearance arms, install wheel spacers, or wheels with different backspacing and realign. If you are strictly a mall wheeler, you can add a lift and the tires and never have an issue because your suspension will probably never flex into the well.

In any case, 55,000 miles after putting on the Bridgestone 32" tires, it was time to find out how the next size up would suit me. To make them fit I extracted the bottom foot of the plastic fender well and bent it aside to expose the body seam. Using a 4lb hammer, I easily folded the bottom 5" of the seam over which gives about 1" of additional clearance in that area. I then sprayed the area with biege (slider/skid) paint to protect the area. After that, I cut the plastic fender liner out board of the seam and feathered it up into the existing edge above the clearanced area. This way the hole in the fender areas are still covered. The retaining holes in the liner, save one cut, still hold the liner in position.

By the way, if you still have mud flaps it's time to ditch them because they won't fit any more. My 32"s rubbed on them long ago and I removed the flaps after mangling them. If your truck has a lot of suspension travel rubbing will be a problem at full up travel. Mine currently has 10.5" of wheel travel in front and 18" in the rear. In the front you can shim the bump stops with a couple of large flat washers with 3/8" holes. The rear bumper seam, where the flaps used to mount, also interfere with the travel of the tire and need to be pounded and adjusted tight to the body.

It also rubs on the frame at full steering lock. To combat that, I tack welded a piece of 1/8" x 1/2" x 1" flat stock to each steering stop. I tried to think of ways to mechanically attach an extra stop so that the home mechanic could add them too but tack welding was easiest, most reliable way I could come up with and is still reversible by prying it off and grinding down the tack nub.

Since my Dueler AT's served me so well, I ordered Bridgestone 285/75/16 Dueler AT Revos and had them mounted on the stock rims. They measure exactly 33" and are close to the same width when mounted on stock rims. The Revos are a more open tread than the Dueler AT 693 and more like an MT but they are computer designed to be quiet. First impressions are that they are quiet and comfortable. I have 1.5" lift on my '99 (the highest stock 3rd Gen from the factory) and they do not rub on the street with the above mods. I cycled the suspension by driving up my front porch steps and the tolerances are really tight in the fender wells. I'm gong to have to try them off road to see where they'll rub. I find that there is some power loss between the worn out 32"s and the new 33"s. I have an automatic, 4.10 gears and I leave the ECT in power mode.

For off road, be prepared to do a bunch more pounding or add a body lift. I ended up pounding the seam all the way up the wheel well, across the footwell curve and cutting the plastic heavily. Even then it still rubs. In the rear, plan on the tires contacting the chrome bumper returns. I adjusted them up as far as possible but I think that at full articulation it will still rub.

6/14/2001

After 30,000 hard miles the stock Goodyear Wrangler RT/S 265/70/16 (31") tires were pretty badly shredded. Large chunks of rubber were missing and numerous gashes in the side walls were reminders of many fun trips. Though technically they still had about 20,000 miles of tread left, they were in sore need of balancing and their traction off road had greatly diminished. I must say that for such a mild looking tire, they did very well off road. After a trip to Baja with my dad, I saw that Bridgestone makes some pretty good tires. Besides, my Birthday is coming up. My father is now running his second set on his '95 4Runner. With the whole Firestone/Bridgstone debacle, these tires can be bought at a pretty good discount.

I opted to go with the Dueler A/T size 265/75/16 which is a 32" tire. This tire is actually a LT (light truck) version of the 265/70/16 and has a load range C at 2500 lbs. Not that the 4Runner could max them out. I bought them from Discount Tires for $120 each. Truly a steal for this size if you ask me. Having heard many horror stories about the Toyota wheels and their balancing problems, I opted for the lifetime road hazard service which basicaly insures them and lets me get them rotated and balanced every 5,000 miles.

A quick note about tire sizes. 265/70/16 is 30.6" and 265/75/16 is 31.6". The static load height is less again. Many people question why a 31" tire is less than 31". My theory is simple. If your wheel well can handle a maximum 31" tire, then the tire must be slightly smaller to fit in the opening. Just like a 3/8" bolt is actually several 1000ths smaller than 3/8". Otherwise it wouldn't fit a 3/8" nut. The same is true for a big rubber tire that changes shape and size under use. The stock Toyota wheel well can handle a 32" tire. I have a lift for more ground clearance. Under extreme articulation the rear tires lightly rub the rear mud flap and bolts. Under the right combination of bump and turn, the front tires just barely rub the rear of the wheel well but it happens rarely.

The first thing I noticed was that these tires are considerably more beefy than the Wranglers. They fill up the wheel well better since they are taller. Ride height is increased slightly as well. Though they are 265 section tires like the Wranglers, they are definately wider and stick out a little from the wheel wells. The tread is twice as deep as the Wranglers were when new even though both had a 60,000 mile rated lifetime. The tread blocks are a serious A/T design similar to the Goodyear MT/R but with more sipes. My guess is that the Duelers are about as aggressive as the BFG T/A KO tire. Though not as pronounced, the Duelers also have a rim protector like the KO's which is a welcome addition for my bruised aluminum wheels. The Duelers howl a little more than the Wranglers but it isn't unacceptable for a tire this aggressive. Acceleration and cornering power seem pretty much unchanged. Braking requires slightly more pedal effort due to the larger diameter but the excellent Toyota brakes have no trouble at all. Straight line stability is slightly worse with the car floating just a bit more. Initially handling was bad because I didn't have enough air in the tires. I was running 30psi in the Wranglers to keep the ride acceptable but running that little in the Duelers spelled trouble. Adding a few pounds really helped the handling and the ride is still better than the Wranglers. The grinding vibration I had in the steering wheel since the lift has disappeared as well. They also seem to have less rolling resistance but my gas mileage has dropped 1 to 1.5mpg. Mileage now has to be corrected by about 4% because of the diameter change. Interestingly, I checked my speedometer against my GPS and they match exactly. This has me thinking that they speedometer was off before the tire change. If so then Toyota is overstating the gas mileage of these vehicles. The wheels were balanced with a conventional cone balancer instead of the Haweka lugcentric adaptor as specified by Toyota. There do not appear to be any negative side effects on my car from doing this but I also don't think they are completely balanced.

Off road the tires have considerably more traction even with 35psi in them. It crawls up hills better than I can walk them. The extra clearance and approach/departure/breakover angle have me ignoring all but the most serious of obstacles. Tire wear has been excellent over the first eight months with numerous off road excursions. I'm very happy with these tires.

A word of caution is in order regarding the wheel locks. Some cheap locks do not have the depth to consume the entire stud. This will damage the threads and cross thread the end of the stud. Needless to say the stud and nut will be toasted. 

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