thanks for the shots.

Let us know how it does on the trail

 

Awesome! What size were those Swamper SSR's?

How do you like the SSR's offroad? On road?

 

The SSRs were 32x11.5x16, they were the best tire hands down off road. On road they were loud and got worse as the tread wore. God help you if you had a chunk missing from wheeling, you would wear your opposite tire out very quickly. If I had the money to have 2 sets with rims SSRs would be the off road only tire. So far I love the Geolanders, have not had the time to take them off road yet.

 

Just got the 295 Nittos installed.
I love them. Nice and quiet too.

I noticed that this size is about the max width without modifying upper arms.
I still think I could have mounted the 315 Cooper with the same mods the 295s will need

 

man..i cant wait to see your truck!!!!

 

295 Nittos mounted
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/295-nitto-terra-grapplers-3rd-gen-77739/

 

When I first got my truck back in late '01 (before YT spun-off from 4x4wire) I slapped OME rears and King fronts (first 4Runner w/Kings BTW) on with a set of 285/75/16 BFG muds. I chose that tire size because everyone said it would fit my "lift" with minimal rubbing. Well I soon found out that "fit" is a subjective word at best. I had fairly serious rubbing on the inner wheel well plastics and the fender flare bolts. I hammered the pinch weld and trimmed the plastics some and that took care of most of it but ultimately I installed a 1" RB body lift as a band-aid to get the tires to clear. I will admit also that I wanted the truck to sit a little taller because it seemed cool to me at the time.

Fast forward to now, 4+ years have passed and based on my driving experiences I decided to get more realistic. I pulled the body lift out and chopped out my inner front fenders as well as trimming the outer fenders front and rear. I knew I was going to 35's (my BFG'S were toast after ~40K). I wanted them to fit perfectly in all conditions but mostly I wanted as low of a CG as possible for stability on and off-road.

Properly cutting the inner fenders to fit a 35" diameter tire is not hard per se but it does require some time and patience. I feel it's way worth it for the benefits. If you don't want to cut up into the sheetmetal you can run a 1" BL but you will still have to do what Schaeffer did at a minimum to really clear 35" tires. I have more compression travel than Steve's old setup AND I don't have a 1" BL so I needed to cut way more but I still was able to do it without sacrificing interior appearance as the kick panel remains intact.

I don't care if you (not any one person specifically) can go down to "Jimbo's Tire Shop" and have a set of 35" tires put on your rims, bolted to your truck and then you were able to drive it home with only minor rubbing, THEY DON'T FIT. The biggest tire that truly fits these trucks w/o serious cutting is a 33x10.5" or a 255/85/16 like Expeditions west runs. And guess what? You don't need ANY lift to run those tires. Lift doesn't help clear bigger tires!!!. Well, body lift can help but that's not really lift as it doesn't raise your ground clearance.

Two things that have bothered me on here lately is the fascination with wider tires and the misconception that a numerically larger metric tire is a larger diameter than a numerically smaller tire. The diameter is equally dependant on ALL of the numbers in a metric tire measurement, even the rim size! You don't want really wide tires, you want tires that WORK WELL, that typically (90% of off-road conditions) means a fairly narrow tire. 315 millimeters equates to almost exactly 12.5", that's far too wide for our little trucks. My tires (305 mm's) measure to ~12" and that's even a tad wide for my liking but it was the closest (17" rim) tire size to ideal of the Maxxis Bighorns I wanted to run. Ideally I'd have gone for something like a 275/85/17 or a ~34.5x11". Not only do narrower tires accelerate and brake faster but they generate more traction on everything but deep sand. I lost A LOT of power going from 285/75/16's to 305/70/17's even with 4.88's and a TRD supercharger.

Sorry if I'm being a but don't you guys care if your trucks actually work not just look cool?

 

Well said and agreed. Lots of web wheelers out there...

 

From personal experience:

I started with a 3" suspension lift and 285 MTs. I ran all the trails I wanted to (within reason) and enjoyed it. As I matured, I had a "practicality" epiphany . I now run 2" suspension, 1" body, 265 ATs and can run THE SAME TRAILS. I beefed up the protection with skids and sliders, added a rear locker, and IMPROVED MY DRIVING ABILITY. These attributes are much more practical/beneficial than wider/taller/aggressive tires or more lift.

See you on the trails

 

Isn't a 305/70/17 a 34" tire and not a 35" tire.

 

yup... a 305/70-16 is a 33x12.2 one more inch on the rim is one more inch in diameter.

 

Yes a 305/70/17 measures out to ~34x12" however so does a BFG 35x12.5 when mounted on the same 8" wide rim. Jesse runs the BFG's on his Taco and I run the metric Maxxis on my 4Runner and they measure EXACTLY the same. To further confuse things eh?!...

 

Who makes 295/85s?

 

Nobody that I know of.

 

so if I want a 35 I pretty much have to do 315s or real 35s

 

Super Swamper makes some 35x10.50's.

 

Ya, but swampers aren't very streetable.

 

the number 315 only makes the tire wider not taller unless they have the same (or larger) aspect ratio. What do you mean by "real" 35's? It's no secret that tire MFG's rate their tires slightly off from the actual size, it's always been like that.

 

I think he means 35x12.50's. For some reason a lot of people consider this the only "real" 35 just like they consider a 33x12.50 the only "real" 33. Why? I'm not sure, most 285's are taller than most 33x12.50's.

 

A 35x12.5" BFG measures to 34x12 on an 8" rim. Does that make it not a "real" 35 then?