Donahoes' and STT 305/60R18's

M

mytkwik

New member
Hello all my first post and had a few questions...

I got my 07 4Runner a few weeks ago and am about to start the mods. I ordered and plan to install this weekend a set of DR coil-overs, TC arms, DR rear spring and DR rear monotubes. My runner has XREAS so I need to remove this, leading to my first question. Does anyone have the details/pictures on where to disconnect it? I have seen reference on another message board that there is a tech pdf with the details. If someone has it could they please PM me?

I spent a few weeks looking for wheels and man is it tough to find a decent set of 18's, seems like all the main manufactures have switched to only 20's and bigger. But I landed on a set of Helo Syndromes that I had seen on a local 4Runner that a dealership had done. If anyone is curious they are 18x8.5 with a +15 offset. Once I had the wheels in I ordered a test fit Cooper STT LT305/60R18. To my surprise on the lift they cleared the frame by about an 1" and the a-arms by about an 1/8"-1/4", so with the TC's I should get some more (obviously I'll have some from plastic trimming to do :) ). The question I have how much clearance do you guys recommend I keep, even with the arms that seems like it may be a little close. I'm thinking I may need to step down to the 275/65R18 and loose about a 1/3" in height and 3/4" in width.

I'll get some pics for you guys too... Think they look a little too big for the
truck?

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Even with trimming, arms, and susp lift there will be alot of rubbing when start romping offroad. If you just wanna drive on the street and go slow over railtracks/speedbumps whatever you either need to do a BL or lower the tire size.

My two cents, lower the tire size. Otherwise it is somewhat pointless to have all that suspension without range of motion in travel cause your tires will take all that space. I suggest 285 and you will generally fine.

Im running 295's and that is as big as I can get while maintaing full travel in front (spindles). Now that is another story, I rub in the back at full compression kinda bad. NOt damaging anyting, but still. I have orderd custom deaver 3 in lift springs to give me back the uptravel, plus when I get the rear jounces on it will help even more

Hope that helps some

oh, and as far as the pdf. just search xreas on the "other" forum. its there I have seen it many times. just cant remember where right now
 
Thanks, I appreciate your feedback. I've followed quite a few of your posts :). I my self was leaning on downsizing for clearance and because they look so monstrous on there. The reason I had them brought in though is because on the wheel they are only actually 32.64 by 11.89 which is pretty short for a 305/60 compared to some 285/70's that people use on 17's. They are just 3/4 in wider :). The 275/65R18 Cooper STT should come out to about 32.32 by 11.18
 
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That is very true, glad to see you did your homework :D haha

Every tire manufacture's tires vary slightly in size in such, its freakin annoying!! :mad:

Also, rubbing with some m/t's will be more potentially damaging than say an a/t

Your going in the right direction, let us know how you turn out :bigok:
 
Your truck looks awesome! You'll be very happy with the STT's. I do like the look of the larger 305's but as previously stated......if you are going to be doing any amount of off-roading, it is the articulation and turning radius you will need most. I don't believe those 305's will provide that for you. I say downsize.
 
Well after much thought that night and the next day they told be to just take that tire and wheel home with me and test everything as I put the lift on and they would just order the tires for monday to see what happens. So far it has actually fit great! The rear of the lift is done. I test fitted it on the back and had plenty of clearance on the inside and on the outside it is flush with the truck. I haven't got the font completely done. The XREAS and lines are completely removed along with the front coils and a-arms. So all I need to do is assemble the front. I did do some test with the front and it clears everything on the inside with the new a-arms and is flush with the fenders as well. Obviously at full clock I need to trim the inner front fender.

As for the off-road articulation, I don't need much since I live in flat Oklahoma :D. It is more for mud getting through the woods back to paintball, plus looks of course LOL.

I have written a very detailed step by step instruction of what it took to do the back, XREAS, and front coil and arms with pictures of about everything. So I'll try to post it for others as an all in one to read.

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Trik444 said:
Your truck looks awesome! You'll be very happy with the STT's. I do like the look of the larger 305's but as previously stated......if you are going to be doing any amount of off-roading, it is the articulation and turning radius you will need most. I don't believe those 305's will provide that for you. I say downsize.
Click to expand...

I've following your install and that is actually what caused me to start looking at the STTs :D

Your tires are actually taller than a 305/60 and with the spacer you pushed them out further than what these stick out. Do you trail much? have you had any problems yet? If so what? Your setup sure looks good along with the blue one on here that has the similar setup. I was tore on whether to keep the factory wheels or get aftermarket ones.
 
Good call! I just now realized you are running 60's and I am running 70's. I thought the only difference between our tires was the width. This changes my perspective. I have been able to lightly trail and I haven't had any issues with rubbing. With 305's and no spacers, how much room do you have on the inside of your tire when you crank the wheel all the way in one direction? Do you rub? Same question on the rear. Wheel size doesn't make any difference, correct?

Since I have taller and thinner tires than you (right?), I don't rub on the inside when turning. However, since I have spacers, I used to rub on the bottom corner of my front bumper until I shaved the bumper down. This was due to the tire being pushed outside the wheel well.
 
Sorry it has taken so long to get back to this. I finished the lift and tires Monday and the next night started on custom tv headrests ;):

The difference between your tire and the ones I chose are...

285/70R17 is 11.5" (on an 8.5" rim) by 33"
vs.
305/60R18 is 12.09" (on a 9" rim) by 32.64"

So the height is slightly less (~1/3 of an inch). But the with of yours on your wheel is prolly close to 11.3 since your wheel is 7.5 wide. I think the rule of thumb is usually for every .5 change in rim width expect a .2 change in tire width. But since these have so much sidewall I would give it a .1 to .5 change. So that is how I get the 11.3 for you. The 305/60 is prolly roughly 11.99 on my wheel with the same logic as above. So you can see my tire is about 2/3's of an inch wider.

As for the rubbing I noticed in a post that it sounded like without front spacers the tire was basically on the upper a-arm. That was the same for me, but with the new a-arm I got the clearance I needed. At full clock I do get some rub on the frame though. You may not since your spacer is a little over an inch wide, although I saw you needed to trim the bumper, in which I didn't. Of course I had to trim the inner fenderwell/mud flaps and I'm in the process of making a bracket to support the inside of the drivers finder because it is 'flopping' at speeds over 60. :( The back fits fine all around.

I would say though that if a person wanted to do some serious off-roading this tire is definately too big and the 285/70R18 would work perfect at 10.98 tall by 32.32 wide.

Overall the lift and tires look and handle great. I was impressed with how quiet these tires are also. I've got pics of the final just haven't pulled them off my camera yet to post.
 
I second you feelings about how quiet these tires are. I just finished a writeup over on my thread about my experience with these tires and I mentioned that specifically.

Can't wait to see the photos. Switching out wheels to 18's may come whenever it is time to order new tires so I'm interested to see how the finished project looks.
 
Hey, quick observation. You may want to check your tire pressure to see if you are over-inflated. In the pic you posted with the little one on the tricycle, it kinda looks like your rear tire is riding primarily on the center treads and not evenly dispersed across the whole tread pattern. Is it just me or does anyone else notice?
 
Trik444 said:
Hey, quick observation. You may want to check your tire pressure to see if you are over-inflated. In the pic you posted with the little one on the tricycle, it kinda looks like your rear tire is riding primarily on the center treads and not evenly dispersed across the whole tread pattern. Is it just me or does anyone else notice?
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the truck is still on jack stands in that pic
 
Trik444 said:
Hey, quick observation. You may want to check your tire pressure to see if you are over-inflated. In the pic you posted with the little one on the tricycle, it kinda looks like your rear tire is riding primarily on the center treads and not evenly dispersed across the whole tread pattern. Is it just me or does anyone else notice?
Click to expand...

Yep, as rook said, the tire is just sitting in the fenderwell and the jack is holding the truck at that time :D. Thanks for for looking out for me though.

Thanks for the feedback guys, been driving it for a few weeks now everything seems fine. I rub the frame a bit every now and again when doing hard turns in and out of parking spots but thats about it.

Trik444, do you feel the tread on slow turns though. It feels like a light bouncing rub but it's not a rub. Almost like I feel the outside of the tire were the tread protrudes only on every other lug. Make since? Gas mileage seems to still be pretty good, better than I thought it would be
 
mytkwik,

How is the on-street ride with the new suspension compared to when it was stock with X-REAS? I'm looking into the same suspension setup you have....but am a bit worried about on-road sway etc.
 
I only had the truck a few weeks before I did this and prolly only 200 or so miles but from what I could tell...

The current setup with the tires is a little more stable side to side going around corners but if you are driving straight and whip the wheel slightly left to right the tires do absorb some of the steering because of the height. Overall I like the ride better now. I will say the trip up to the tire shop to get them installed with the lift and factory tires did suck, it felt real top heavy. But since the wheels stagger out more and the tires are so wide (~12") it has been eliminated and feels solid around corners. Other than that the tires I have did add a little road noise but not much. My wife says she can't tell, but it is definitely there at 75mph :D The lift kit itself is of quality, no doubt about it. Although adjusting the lift height with the spanner wrench was not for the fate hearted ;)

Seeing those pics make me more set on needing a bull bar or something to even out the front.
 
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