Are the lower profile tires on the Limited model more susceptible to blowouts?

I had 45’s on my last car and had several blowouts on New Jersey highways during the 14 years I owned it. I even had two at one time. That was a great start to a winter day. I dont have to be concerned with the SR5 Premium I have now but I’m halfass considering upgrading to a Limited before the new 6th gen model comes out. I would want to stick with the 20’s the Limited has and not change to other wheels.

Opinions?

Experiences?

"Blowout" means different things to different people, but sounds like you're talking about failure from impact. The bigger the sidewall, the more pliable the tire/sidewall and the more distance you have until you hit the rim, so bigger sidewall tires are generally more durable. This comes with a big caveat, because proper inflation is still extremely important here, so it should be followed.

Now. If you're talking about blowout that was NOT caused by direct impact, that's different. That usually happens due to the owners not maintaining the right tire pressure, letting the tire overheat and then fail. Perhaps even running the tires pas the treat and the cord as well, causing sudden failure. That will cause a blowout too and in this case it doesn't matter what size the tire is and how much sidewall it has.

I have a limited with 20s and while the profile of the tire is lower than that of the sr5 or trail, I wouldn't classify the tire as a 'low profile tire'. there's plenty of sidewall, I've hit plenty of bumps, potholes etc and have not gotten any flats. Now if you plan on serious rock crawling and smashing into boulders maybe they are more susceptible to punctures vs the larger sidewall tires. I wouldn't hesitate to take my limited off-road with 20s but I don't rock crawl over big jagged rocks

I would say in almost all normal driving conditions a properly inflated tire on 20" rim would have a none to negligible increase chance of puncture. It's those really low profile rims you see on BMWs and other high end cars that always puncture over potholes. I wouldnt worry about it for the 4runner and I live in canada where road salt and plows result in some pretty bad roads every spring

I was referring to an impact, with say a pot hole, with the correct tire pressure while driving on the road.

then yes, low profile tires are more susceptible to that kind of damage

My experience with low profile tires is if you get a nail or other small leak in them, they go flat quicker than "normal" tires. This is due to the smaller amount of air they contain.

As already mentioned, lots of different reasons for a tire blowout.

Tire Sidewall Blowout: What Causes it and How to Deal with It

The 4Runner itself is one of the better vehicles out there at handling the dreaded road potholes.

Your unofficial pothole survival guide | Driving

My 2011 Limited has been rolling along on 20s (last couple of winters on 17s with dedicated winter tires) just fine over all of the potholes up here. I keep the tires properly inflated (I use a dial gauge to measure my tire pressures and don't rely on the TPMS)

I rented a Mazda M3 one time with low profile tires, hit a small pothole and it destroyed the tire and even dented the edge of the wheel rim. It deflated in about 10 seconds. Those tires are not very forgiving on less than perfect roads.

I've had my '14 Limited since new... and although I replaced my 20's with 17's after about two years in, the 20" wheels never gave me any problems. I still read all the different threads regarding the 20" Limited wheels though, and I don't ever recall blow-outs being mentioned as a concern. (Most people want to know if you can put a wider tire on the 7" wide wheel)

I'm pretty certain if Limited owners were having issues with bent wheels or blowouts, we'd be hearing about it here.

Don't over-think it too much. Yeah, lower profile tires are generally more susceptible to pot hole or other road hazard damage, but it doesn't seem to be a real issue with the 20" tires on Limited's. Of course, YMMV.

Pothole type hazards stand a better chance of damaging the wheel and tire on a low profile setup vs. something with more sidewall to absorb the impact.

I put 17's and 255/75/17 tires in place of the 20's, and the ride quality was much improved. The roads around here are best described as "war torn", lol.

Low pro is Definitely more susceptible to impact damage, both the tire and wheel. I hit a huge pothole last year in my merc and blew out two on one side at the same time. From my experience I think the low pro tire wheel combo is more controllable in that situation as the overall circumference change from full to flat is not as drastic. When mine happened it stayed very composed and never felt dangerous. That bing said, it was low to ground and a heavy car.

One more thing, the aspect ratio in your example (45) is not a fixed height of the sidewall. It's a ratio of sidewall to width. So, the sidewall height of a 205/45/16 tire will be vastly different from 305/45/16. The 45 is a percentage, so the sidewall is 45% of the 305 width and 205 width in both cases. As you see, the 305/45 will have a significantly taller sidewall than a 205/45.

I've had a bunch of vehicles with low profile tires, and own several currently.

Low profile tires are more likely to incur damage, because there is simply less sidewall, which makes it far more likely to pinch the sidewall between the edge of a pothole or whatever, and the wheel.

Of course there are on-road handling advantages to low-profile tires. Everything is a compromise.

For our 4Runner, I sacrifice on-road handling, in favor of less likelihood of damaging a tire on a 4wd trail, and a more comfortable ride and better traction, due to being able to air-down the tall-profile tires.

There must be more to this story since this is not normal.

Had my Limited since 2017 and only swap out my 20's for 17's for winter, and switch back to 20's in spring. I don't do any serious off-roading, but like hitting the odd gravel road some weekends or when camping in Eastern Canada for some mild exploring with the family. You do hit some mild rockier sections (no rock-crawling) and had no issues, even ended up going down an ATV trail accidentally by following the GPS shortcut, haha!

That said I haven't had any sidewall issues with the stock Yokohama's but have since replaced them with 275/55/r20 Cooper Discoverer AT4s tires.

Versus other SUV's that are more urban oriented (Highlander, Pilot, etc), I'd feel way more comfortable on the Limited's 20's offroad vs. theirs as by looking at the outside diameter of those other urban SUV's look overall smaller and the sidewalls of those do look thinner. At least with the Limited, its a true SUV underneath and overall larger tire.

I like to mountain bike and going from 26" tires to 27.5" tires made it easier to roll over stuff, even more so when going to 29" tires. So even an 1" or 2" more overall diameter than others is going to make it better rolling over stuff.

Like others have said, the 20's are thinner sidewall than other 4runner's, but it not thin like a car's 45 series sidewall.