Not many people running 35's and even less documenting it, so I am curious if anyone is running 35's(35x12.5 or 315/70) without cutting around the entire fender flare and cutting the metal as well?

BMC, pinch weld mod and rocker cap are givens. I would rather just not cut up the stock fender just to run them. If not, 34's is probably the way to go.

I am not worried about the rear and the metaltech bumstop extensions are longer than normal to accomodate the long travel and meant to limit stuffing 35's correctly.

Current suspension setup:
Front: 6112 heavy load with RSG tophats giving 3" lift in front, dirt king UCA and caster at 4*, energy bump stops
Rear: Metaltech Icon 2.5 resi long travel w dobinsons 677v springs 3" lift, dr kdss panhard correction, extended brake lines, metaltech lower and upper links

Wheels are 17x9 -12 so no crazy offsets to make fitment more difficult.

There is no way you can run that tire size without ripping your fenders and flares off road. Anyone who says otherwise is just mall crawling.

Just space down your front bumpstops like the rear ones, and keep a little extra room if you hit higher speed bumps to allow room to compress the bumpstop material. Slow rock crawling won't compress the bumpstop material much.

Even if slow crawling offroad and not taking jumps etc?

I was hoping something like that would be possible as long as it is still functional offroad.

I was also looking into MPD fenders possibly but I would hate to lose the fender line or be forced to add a snorkel to protect the intake.

I run 35s without cutting the fenders...

With that being said, I'm about to cut my fenders

Daily driving is fine, but if you want to use off road, you will need to cut, or deal with misaligned fenders.

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Yea I'm thinking about just doing 34's (285/75) or if I do decide on 35s I would need to get fiberglass fenders. I really don't want to chop up nice OEM fenders if I dont need to. I would definitely need to use them offroad, as that is all I use it for since it's not my daily. More crawling type of offroading though and not baja style in CO/NM/UT.

Every truck is different a little bit and every setup varies some. I ran 34's for a long time with plenty of clearance. So - first it'll depend on which 35" tire you want. If it's 34.5" tall - I think you could realistically run it with only a front fender liner mod, bumper trim, and BMC if you use stock ish offset wheels. Like a BFG AT. I think that would fit pretty easily.

The other thing that will help is to NOT lift it much or at all. If you keep it to low ride height, you can retain proper caster angles by maxing out your forward position of the lower ball joint and NOT need to use aftermarket upper control arms. All of the caster correction UCAs move the upper ball joint back toward the firewall. Keeping stock UCAs gives you more firewall clearance. You'll have more clearance for larger tires at stock height than lifted with UCAs.

A third option is to make a custom LCA. I've detailed somewhere on here how I would do it, but I have not done it. I don't even have a 4Runner anymore. But I would buy new LCAs and have a professional welder - I mean a real professional - weld the lower ball joint cast steel ends on the opposite arms. That will move the lower ball joint about 1 inch forward on both side. That alone should get you both plenty of clearance for the 35s and enough caster to run a higher lift without needing UCAs. And it probably won't cost much more than a set of aftermarket UCAs. One other note is that the cast end part that is the ball joint mounting piece incorporates a cast in steering stop. You'll need to re-crate that. Don't leave it without the steering stop or you might damage something.

A second option would be to take the stock LCA, press out the bushings, cut the bushing sleeves off and relocate them to move the LCA forward half an inch to a full inch, then re-weld back on. This should also net the same result. The only difference here is that you would also be retaining the relationship between the lower coilover mount and axle. My one concern with the ball joint swap was whether you'd end up with contact between the coil over and the axle as you sweep through the turn radius. In my case - using fox coilovers, I could just modify the misalignment spacers to adjust the lower shock mount fore/aft location. With other coil overs you may or may not need some adjusting. You'd just have to mock it up and see how it works. I think it'll work, but I don't know.

To be clear on this - I have not done it myself. My 285/75/17s - 34's - fit fine with good alignment and BMC with stock bump stops and full flex in all situations without rub. I think the modified LCA is the best solution for this and I'm a bit surprised no one is selling this as a pre-packaged solution.


Is the extra tire size worth the effort? That's really a question only you can answer. For me it wasn't, but I also wasn't using my 4Runner as a primary trail rig.

Here's a picture of what you'd get just by switching sides on the lower ball joint outer cast assembly. It's subtle, but would be enough I think to clear 35's without any firewall modification. And - side benefit is that it'll look completely stock. So you can play dumb "Yeah, mine fits 35's easy. It's all stock under there. I just bolted them on and it had plenty of clearance, not sure what's up with your 4Runner." :

Yes, if you have your suspension setup dialed correctly you want to use most of your travel. I see all these folks on here putting 700lb springs on their coilovers and I dont think they realize the negative impact it has on ride quality and articulation.

I actually have the 6112s with heavy load 700lb springs since I have a lot of weight. They still seem to articulate and handle well though since I think it is pretty well dialed in for the current weight.

This is very true but call me a suspension nerd, I wouldnt be ok with the loss of up travel.

I've got a buddy who runs 40's on his and i'm actually quite impressed by how little of the fender he's actually had to cut.

Now to be fair, he'd stripped his interior, tubbed his rear wheel wells to accommodate the wider, taller tires on the rear axle, added custom limit straps, completely removed his sway bars, removed his inner fender liners and no longer daily drives it, but it can be done.

my plan is for 35's when i'm due for new tires. I'll do the BMC, likely trim my fenders up a couple of inches, see if I need to remove any more fender liner, but it's not a big step to take. Wheel and tire combo, especially offset will play a big part in finding the sweet spot for articulation.

Here are the issues I see for myself going to 35's. I don't mind doing fiberglass wide fenders, but then id be tempted to do the long travel. the washer fluid bottle probably needs to be relocated as well but I am not sure if I have enough room for the relocation in any spot as I have a compressor on the passenger side and my dual battery too. inside the radiator support area I have cabling for the dual batteries, my winch and supercharger radiator. Going fiberglass fenders also does away with the fender liner which I don't like as mine will definitely fill with mud and salt/snow mix. I also would not want to be forced to need a snorkel for this reason.

I don't believe fiberglass fenders are necessary at all for 35" tires, it's actually not a big tire. Again, it all depends on what you're using the vehicle for. Mine is a daily driver and a trail rig, but it's not for show. Cutting fenders and trimming fender liners would be more than enough for me to run 35's, as long as the BMC was done, proper offset wheels were used, etc.

I understand if guys have newer, low mileage rigs and they want to keep them looking minty fresh, but i'm way passed that stage in life. It's a tool and i'll modify it to do a job. At this point, the pinstripes, dents and missing pieces are just trail badges. While 33's aren't big and I won't be a rock crawler anytime soon, they are a good enough tool to go most places I want, 35's will just make me less picky on what line I take, and leave my skid plates with less damage at the end of the day.

Washer fluid bottle relocation is easy as long as you don't need the same capacity bottle. It can me mounted literally anywhere and you can buy any bottle you want, or retrofit a milk jug if you're desperate (kidding). Just buy some rubber tubing bulk, some wire to extend the harness, find a spot to mount a new (smaller) bottle and put the pump in it.

I don't think theyre necessary but id rather pay that cost(small in comparison to OEM fenders) to not butcher my oem fenders. Or stay with 33/34 so none of that is necessary. As you said 35's would be a nice to have but not totally necessary. It would make picking lines easier.

Love this quote, I think we need to send it to all of the folks who are playing offroad cosplay out there