Tall and Skinny Tires
- Thread starter Swimmerboy2112
- Start date
gm350reratliff
New member
I also like my skinny 33’s. I wish they made a skinny 35! They work great off-road and on road.
255’s vs 285’s
255’s vs 285’s
octanejunkie
Elite Member
smurray711
Member
I love my 255/80 st Maxx.
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psraff
New member
I'm another looking for a skinny 34" or 35". I loved my 255/85-16 and went up a 315. As much as I love my 35 inch tire, I don't want a 12.5" wide tire.
Wowitsseamus
New member
Man I love the look of this.
Road Bull
Senior Member
Have you considered 285/75/17 size? Cooper makes their ST Maxx in this size, that is basically 34.06" tall and 11.1" wide. You'd have to jump up a wheel size to the 17" wheels, but it IS a 34" option.
I haven't been able to find a lot of pics of people running 255/85/16's with wheels that have 3.5" BS. I am tempted to try running this size. Some say they wonder a bit on the highway. I wonder if a slightly wider stance would plant them a bit more. I might change my gearing up soon if all goes well and I regear when I add a rear locker. This would make getting a taller tire easier to swallow.
So the 35's aren't really to your liking?
psraff
New member
I've looked into 17" wheels in the past but figured due to shipping costs and issues with getting what I want to Alaska, I gave up. There isn't many true 34" tires out there so I'll save this info, Thanks!!
I was just looking at the new KM3 tires and even talked to them about future sizes. I don't see these sizes in a 16 or 17 inch.
My Pro Comp Wheels have a 4" BS and with the 255/85-16 tires I could really tell the difference going around sharp corners. When I added my 1 1/4" wheel spacers it made a world of difference. I loved the feel. If you look at my build thread and go back a few pages you should find pics of mine with and without the spacers.
Don't get me wrong, I love my 35" tires. Even with the extra work I have to do to make them work. But my 4Runner is being built more for Overlanding type of exploring and not heavy 4Wheeling. I'm thinking if I could drop down to 34" I could save me a few CV Joints or other issues. I definitely feel their weight in my steering. I do plan on putting a SC on next year so that would help with their extra weight. I feel them even with my 5.29 gears.
Jetboy
New member
I have a set of 285/75/17 Cooper AT3's and they're great all around for highway and moderate offroad duty. The place they're lacking is in the mud. I'm guessing in AK you have a lot more Mud/muck than I have in the desert so they may not be ideal for you. But they're narrower than the numbering convention suggests. They're actually narrower than my 275/60/20 street tires I also use on my 4runner. But of course you have to run 17" wheels. I think upsizing wheels is going to be part of the program going forward. Not many new sizes will ever be made for 16" wheels because almost no one is selling new vehicles with 16" wheels.
If I had 18" wheels - I'd have probably gone for 285 75 18's. They're very similar except an inch taller. But 18" OEM wheels are few and far between. Around here OEM Trail edition 17's are ~200/set so it's hard to find a cheaper wheel. And the OEM trial wheels are very well designed for offroad use with heavy protection around the bead area and a recessed valve stem that's all but impossible to damage - even grinding in the rocks.
For comparison side by side:
285/70/17 (Toyo AT2 - crap tires IMO) : 285 75 17 (Cooper at3 - good so far) : 275 60 20 (dirt cheap, great highway tire).
Eyeing 255/80/17s for my new to me 3rd gen. Looking at the Wildpeak AT3Ws.... curious if y'all have input on running the tall/skinnies in load E for the lightweight of our trucks. Load C would be preferable for my use case but just trying to gauge how stiff the ride would really be with Es.
CITYRNR
New member
Interesting white paper on the subject. The owner of pure4runner sent it to me after a chat when I picked up my ladder from him. Solid guy.
https://www.purefjcruiser.com/docs/Skinny-tire-White-paper.pdf
https://www.purefjcruiser.com/docs/Skinny-tire-White-paper.pdf
David9962000
New member
Any more experiences on 5th Gen?
Sure do… I’ve been running Cooper AT3 LT 235/80/17’s for almost 3 years now. These E ply are only marginally taller than stock at almost a full 32” tire (I keep them aired up to 45lbs but air down to 20lbs off road) and are no heavier. Thus far, they’ve not left me wanting. For what I do and my overlanding expectations they’re dang near ideal: Some very rough and rocky mountain/desert trails whenever I can following some long road trips getting there and back. A few water crossings now and then, some muddy or otherwise questionable dirt roads, but almost no deep mud or soft sand—at least none to the point of causing me trouble so far. Last spring’s surprise snow storm of +14” drifts didn’t give me any trouble either… until I went looking for fun on purpose, but even then they did fine. Daily driving is a treat being smooth/quiet/easy to maneuver and better mpg’s do make me smile. Acceleration is not doggy and she seemingly coasts forever. Snow packed and frozen roads have been uneventful tho Ive not had it on genuinely icey treacherous roads nor seriously evasive maneuvers just yet.
Not saying these are some super tire, just that the skinny tire thing with moderate tread has served me well for whatever Ive wanted to do. So much do I’d run another set of these again if I were to choose tomorrow.
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Jetboy
New member
Fwiw, this paper has been passed around forever. It's an opinion paper, not a science paper despite it using scientific sounding explanations. Some of it is wrong on the physics as well. I wouldn't give it much or any weight.
The paper suggests higher ground pressure is better. That's almost never the case off-road. Tall skinny tires can work well for lots of scenarios. But that paper is wrong on why.
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There is so much wrong with that document. It’s frustrating that people try to manipulate others like that. I’m not saying engineers automatically know anything, because I know many stupid engineers, but as an engineer I have to say it’s amusing what people will do to entertain their own brains thinking because they try hard, that they must have a clue.
I looked it over for about 30 seconds. The most hilarious thing I saw was the visual aid showing a thinner tire extending into grooves and providing more contact area. If only it were that simple.
Scoobyvroom
Junior Member
Looking at the Toyo AT3 in 255/80R17 my only concern is the rim widths. Aftermarket rims in 7.5/8 are limited. One of the rims I have my eye on are 8.5. Toyo says that the max rim width is 8.5. My main concern is if I were to air down. Does any one have any input into a 255/80R17 aired down on a 8.5 width rim?
Jetboy
New member
Airing down can be anything from 20psi to 5psi. I think they'd be fine at 20psi on an 8.5" wheel. Probably not at 10psi. So you could air down perfectly fine for normal trail duty. You probably won't want to go way down into the lower pressures you'd want for something like deep snow.
If you're really worried about it you could add some glue to the bead area when you mount them. In the old days before beadlocks people sometimes used windshield glass adhesive glue around the bead area when mounting to glue them in place. Not sure I'd go with that option, but you could if you wanted extra assurance.
Seating a bead isn't as bad as you might think if it does come off. I've done it on the trail many times. The easiest way is with a ratchet strap and about any sort of liquid. You can probably find some youtube videos of it.
