Commuting/Beach Tires
 

Hi Guys!

I'm new to 4runners and just bought a 2020 TRD OFF ROAD Premium and I'm looking for different wheels and tires.

I drive a good amount so these are mostly for looks. The only time I get off road is going on the beach, so tires performing well in sand would be helpful too.

I also have a front license plate on because NY sucks

Maybe just a set of really good street tires then?

I have driven our Subaru Tribeca (looks like a minivan) on Nitto 420S (not a tire I would ever put on a 4R) on Oregon beaches with good success. Yes, we got stuck once but that was in a spot no truck dared to drive and the Wrangler that pulled us did so from far away. And I only need a single pull, drove the rest myself to the dismay of the onlookers.

Specialized offroad tires dig themselves down in sand. The stock tires are just flat out awful so I would replace them anyway though :)

I think there are at least two members here that I trust that have had really good success with Michelin Defender.

Subarus do well where most don't think they will. I had a 2012 WRX on summer tires and drove around in 30 inches of fresh snow and was kinda shocked I didn't get stuck. I live in long Island where they don't plow unless it's a weekday for the most part so it was chaos for everyone else!

I'll definitely look into the Michelin Defenders and I appreciate the response. Are you on stock wheels? I was thinking about painting or powder coating the stock wheels, but it's going to cost me $600 on the low end so I'd rather just put that towards new wheels.

The TB is my wife's car. We had a B9 before it. I had an H6 Outback with a 2" lift at one point and a 95 Legacy wagon before it. My H6 OB saw more trails than most Offroad Edition 4R on this site ever will lol.

Yeah, stock wheels. All my upgrades are strictly functional. I will confess that I have looked into wheels for a second set of tires. I had two sets for the OB. But I don't want two sets again so unless I decide I really want a set of MTs, I will stick with a single set.

Stiffening the suspension and using a 1" lift with 3/16 steel armor all underneath is more than enough for all difficult trails I care to drive all the while street manners are WAY ahead of stock. I use stock size tires, too, and if I move to a full 32 it will be due to the specific choices in 255 75 17 than to the size per se. The suspension works so well, I don't feel any need to compensate for a 1" lift via wider track. Nor do I feel I am limited in any way offfroad until we start comparing vs people running 34" tires and full aftermarket bumpers. But offroading a Subaru was a great school.

With the suspension upgrade, I no longer miss the H6 Outback on dirt roads BUT there is no question about its performance on road in mountains vs the 4Runner. This is another reason I stick to stock size and relatively light weight tires. I don't want to know how a 4R with 57lb tires feels in CO nor do I care to re-gear or go the full trail rig route.

For wheels, this site ran crazy discounts last Aug-Sep:
Buy Auto Parts & Custom Car Community | Wheelwell

Lots of people bought so it seems legit. I almost pulled the trigger on a set of Methods at 50% off!

I wanted to take my WRX on the beach, but I didn't have a permit and they would never have sold me one for that car either. I miss the way that car handled and how predictable it was in the snow as well. I'm looking forward to seeing how the 4runner is going to hold up in snow as my 2017 Colorado Z71 was awful. It was great in sand though. I didn't even air down and kept it in 2Hi.

I'm definitely going to look into that wheel website as I was just looking at some bronze Methods!

I'm very grateful for you taking the time to put together such well thought out explanations for me. Thank you so much!

Always fun chatting about such things!

We have seen very little snow in our 20 months with the 4R. This time last year it was very disappointing in 2wd in urban conditions during a snow storm in CO. We were with both vehicles, the Tribeca wearing summer tires was more stable.

However, offroad around Moab, the 4R was a tank in the snow and we had less issues on snow-covered slickrock than I thought we would. Of course we did not drive the steepest slick rock in snow but we did drive some steep enough stuff and I was impressed. We climbed the steepest spot on Rainbow Rocks (part of Crystal Geyser safari route) with minimum wheel spin. We descended to Tower Arch and then the big steep rock on the Eye of the Whale section with no fuss.

Maybe it should be in 4H during a snow storm in town/interstate. I also had a fully stock suspension back then so it was never terribly stable to begin with lol.

Anyway, happy holidays!

That's awesome that you have access to such amazing trails and parks! I'm on long Island, which is basically a massive sand bar, so there's nothing to build a truck for around here. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't stop people from building they ultimate mall crawler.

To me, the stance of the TRD Pro is perfect. I just won't buy it unless they destroy the 6th Gen. Then I'd trade mine in for the final model year 5th Gen. I tend to keep my vehicles pretty close to stock because I get bored easily and to put a ton of money into a build that I'll never really use and then lose a ton of money selling it isn't for me.

Welcome fellow Long Islander ;). I have been going out on the beach (Smith Point) with my stock Dunlops the last couple of years and have had no issues at all (aired down of course). I'm about at 34k miles and will need new tires in the next few months. Currently I am debating between the Falken Wildpeak AT3W and the General Grabber ATX.

Which beach(es) would you be going to?

If you don’t off-road, then I wouldn’t get anything other than a high quality street tire in a P metric load range.

Something like the Michelin Defender LTX M/S would be up there as one of my top picks.

Getting something off-road / aggressive for looks just comes with a bunch of crappy sacrifices.

Personally if I was in your shoes I would use the tires on the rig first and get your monies worth. They are certainly good enough for what it is you need. Some occasional beach sand driving isn’t a tire limited thing…. It’s more of a driver skill thing.

honestly you dont need a second set of tires you just need to air um down on the beach to get and maintain traction. Just carry a air compressor so that you can air um back up again..

2020 sounds good, but I can't figure out why toyota still hasn't changed the body in 10 years

Any good AT tires will work well in the sand. Just remember to air down.