Good evening everyone! I hope everyone's CV's, U-Joints and transmissions are doing well!

ANYWAYS. This is a rather short post with a few pro's and con's I have noticed about driving my 4R daily with 35" tires.

FIRST! I will say that I LOVE 35's. They look good. Sound good. Feel good. Now it did take me a bit of work to feasible fit and moderately wheel my rig without rubbing or binding. And no- I don't have a transfer case drop.

My Parts List to Run 35's.
1. Rancho RS9000XL 3" QuickLift (Bought from 4Wheel Parts)
2. 2.5" Delrin BL
3. Steering shaft extension
4. Light Racing UCA's
5. Supreme Suspensions 1.5" Spacer Lift (front and rear)
6. Trimmed approximately 3" off my front fenders and 1.5" off my rear fenders
7. Custom front bumper (kept ripping my stock one off)
8. Spidertrax 1.5" Hubcentric Wheel Spacers
9. Cooper MTP Pro 35x12.6x17

PROS:
1. Contact patch size when aired down to 10psi
2. Lots of sidewall before you get close to your wheel.
3. They hum nicely whilst on the highway.
4. With the V8, I can happily cruise at 90 and still accel to the fuel cutoff.
5. Flood waters, Mud, Rocks, Snow, Gravel are no issue
6. Better center of gravity (can be debated, but feels more stable)
7. A few extra inches of lift from the tires themselves
8. Great door dingers for people who don't pay attention.
9. When at 30 psi, I feel as if the ride is smoother than when I had 31's at same PSI.
10. Chicks dig it.

CONS:
1. MPG- mine dropped from 17.5 mpg to 13mgp
2. They can stress out the steering box.
3. Alignment shops have a hard time aligning them
4. Price- I picked up all four of my tires new for $1,250. Before military disc. It was $1500.
5. They are wide. They do experience some issues in the snow on streets because they are really wide.
6. Sprung Weight- you're adding quite a bit of weight to all 4 corners. Check your bushings and CV's
7. They can strain your transmission. They are a bit of weight to tow- I know my vehicle has the tow package so I have the extra cooler, but be sure to keep an eye on your fluid state and level.
8. They can REALLY work your brakes. Luckily with the Sport package, I have the larger brakes and discs on all 4 corners. Especially up here in the mountains, it's not easy to glaze pads quickly.
9. Drone. They CAN drone on the highway, but I usually listen to music, so thats not a HUGE deal.
10. Jacking. I keep a large piece of wood in the back of my rig to be able to use my bottle jack on the stock jacking points. I have sliders, but too many people like to walk away with highlifts.


I think the work it took to run these tires are totally worth it. The thumbs up and photos taken at stoplights are worth every busted knuckle. Now, I personally had to overcome the mindset of "I CANNOT MESS UP MY BABY!", and it was difficult, but it passed when I cut my fenders. DO you have to cut your fenders to run 35"s? Probably not. I cut mine because I realized that when I'm at full compression on a side, they wheel would rub, so I chopped it- problem solved.

Do you need to lift your truck 7" to run 35's? NO. I have seen a few on here and on YouTube that claimed to be running a 3" with wheel spacers. I just wanted to challenge of trying to keep my rig looking proportionate. Unfortunately, without undoing my work, 33's look like tricycle wheels and I can't slip back into the known safe zone of tire size. 37"? No. I don't feel like my transmission, suspension, or engine would like that much without a regear- I'll pass.

I feel that if you can safely run this size of tire without a huge center of gravity issue, or rub during daily driving, go for it! They are sweet to have, sweet to talk about, and its fun looking over the roofs of Jeeps

If you are going to run them- the best of luck to you! I know you'll probably be hesitant, nervous, and will most likely question the decision- but if you dot your I's and cross your T's, you should have a blast and not worry.



Happy wheeling everyone!

-Seth

Great write-up! Looks like your having a blast with your Runner!

What about a spare? Do you got a rear tire carrier or throw it on the roof? Will that fit underneath if its totally flat? Im wanting to purchase tires while labor day sales are happening and have been saying I'm doing this for far too long. All that I'm stuck on is where to put the spare and what tires Im buying...I don't want to carry a 35" tire off the roof and I already got a roof top tent pretty much taking up most of my rack.

More pictures, please! Awesome looking ride.

I didnt see you mention the body mount chop ... did you have to trim there too?

It will not fit under the vehicle, anything over about 32" tire will not fit in the spare tire area and even then it might impinge on the panhard.

I need to get off my lazy ass and make a swing out for the 4th gen, so far this is my storage solution for my spare 35" tire:


Zombie Truck 2.0 MPAV Build!

It works well, but you lose about a 1/3~1/4 of the rear cargo area and it pushes slightly on the 2nd row seat so if you ever fold it down it's a ***** to get it latched back in place. But it just barely squeezes into the back standing up like that.

A swing out would be the ideal solution, but inside the vehicle is doable.

This is trickier to answer because of the variances in suspension geometry when you lift them. To give you an idea, I had SPC Upper Control Arms when I first did 35's, I chopped my Body Mount and hammered my pinch welds and fought my SPC UCAs to about 5* of Caster. The tire still rubbed on the remains of the body mounts on slight compression during a turn.

After smacking a log on the trail and rebuilding the front end, I upgraded to Camburg Kinetik Upper Control Arms. Those arms adjusted super easily to 6.5* Caster and even brought my SAI more inline with the factory specs, I have a healthy amount of clearance from the body mount and the pinch welds now.

So the reality is that it's going to be a case by case thing here, the best you're gonna get is a rough guideline to follow that will require adjustment for your particular set-up.

@MrSeth

I would say that the droning is more a matter of tread pattern and tire brand. You just can't get away from that be it stock size, 33's, or 35's. If you're running a more agressive tire you're gonna have noise/tire feel that goes with it. I have a lot of new Tacomas, Tundras, and 4Runners at my dealership that get anything from stock sized to oversized Toyo Open Country MT or RTs, to Coopers, Duratracs, ect. they all develop their own noise/road feel (Duratracs seem to be the worst, they just get loud, rumbly, and wear the weirdest it seems, I have no answer why.)

I also agree that you don't need to jack your vehicle up 7". I probably could have made just the 3" suspension lift I have work if I trimmed a lot of the fenders up and installed some bump stops to control up-travel. But even with the 1.5" body lift I have, the vehicle feels very planted and looks great without getting that almost toy-monster truck look where the body is sitting on all this metal for minimal clearance.

Body mount chop- yeah, I did it BEFORE I had added the Supreme Suspensions 1.5" spacer. It DID help, but the rubbing seemed to be more severe on the fire wall.

Where do I keep my spare? (I'll take and post photos tomorrow) but I built a tilted holder that houses my subwoofer, first aid kit, and tire. It stays in the back of the truck under lock and key. I've tried to mount it where the stock tire fits, but that doesn't even come close to working!!!

Agreed- drone 100% depends on your tire brand/tread pattern. BFG AT KO2's are nearly silent these days, but my mud terrains sing a glorious song.

As for more photos....

After a few miles on the Supreme Suspension lift- thats a Powerade Zero bottle.



VS Stock?



VS Me? (I am 5'11" Tall)



Tuck testing. No Rub!!!



When I had my hood Green before the Rhino Liner Gunmetal Grey. and also baja lights. because why not? Shes a little wide.



I mean, basically you just gotta feed it small children and unsuspecting livestock every now and then. Scares the ever loving crap out of other drivers. They seem to try and stay on the outside of their lane always.

I once considered selling my rig, but recently I've only fallen more in love with it. I catch myself turning back to look at it when I walk away.

Safe Wheeling all!

-Seth

ALSO! I'm in the market for a new grille--- some kids sliced my raptor light wires and stole my setup. I am quite depressed about this.

i hate you all (the ones with 35s) i'm hoping you were going to tell me it's the worst and you regret it.. =(

thanks for making my choice to 35s that much harder.

My 35's aren't really any more difficult to daily drive with than my 33's, just can't use cruise control as much on the interstate. 33's didn't have an effect on my truck from stock so maybe my butt dyno is stupid. 33's didn't have much effect on the V8 'off the line' but you can tell the 35's do. It's still plenty fast though.

They are a lot of work to fit properly to wheel with, and I'm sure there is more wear on steering components and maybe the driveline but I wheel my truck anyway, they see abuse no matter what.

The hardest part is destroying the perfect factory-like appearance of your truck on 33's to fit the 35's by how much trimming you have to do. If you have upgraded 2.5" diameter shocks and all the other supporting mods it's a cakewalk otherwise.

As promised, a few shots of where and how my spare is mounted. Plus, a shot of the seats in the front. Those same style seats will be installed replacing the rear bench soon.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/X7dG77]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/X7dF45]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/XLZgzu]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/XLZkGh]


A lot of people ask me why I removed the rear interior 1/4 plastics. Well, when they are removed, you have LOADS of metal compartments to store food, supplies, gear, medical equipment, and other items without taking up space in the main cabin.

Safe wheeling!!!

-Seth

What seats are those?

These are JDM cloth racing buckets that I modified to work with the stock seat rails and sensors. Like $220 on ebay!

Looks mean. I'd love to see 35's with no body lift. It looks like you have loads of space up front with how much cutting you've done.

35"s look so good but those fuel economy numbers don't.

Looks awesome!