Upsize tire questions

[Zaraspook]

I've nearly worn out those sucky stock tires on my '04 and i'm starting to consider new shoes. For those of you who've gone with the 265/70/17, what advantages or disadvantages have you noticed? Have you had a flat using the smaller stock spare and did it actually cause the ABS/VSC/ATRAC to kick in or act abnormal?

Does anyone have pics of their ride with the taller tires?

Aren't the taller tires actually narrower and thus offer less traction than stock?

How can I get everything adjusted so the odometer and speedometer read correctly?

Z

 

[olliebear]

still waiting to wear out the stock tires but...

265/70/17 is not narrower than 265/65/17. Both at 265mm across. The slight increase in height is the 5% increase of the aspect ratio, 13.25 mm higher, or about 1/2 inch. IT is only "narroower" in proportion to the increased height. Traction is not affected in any significant amount. In fact, traction would increased by the quality of the tire you replaced the sucky stock tires with.

Just check around the Performance tire page or General page and you'll see lots of members with the 265/70/17.

I spoke to the service manager at the dealer and he says the small differnce in size would not or should not affect the VSC control if you need to use the spare. Here's an option. Replace the four with the premium brand you want. Then later on as more cash is available, replace the spare with a cheaper brand so all 5 will be the same size.

The speedo would be ever so slightly off, not enuf to really cause any noticable difference. Just compare the revolutions per mile on each size on tirerack,com and find just a bare amount of change. hardly worth the trouble to pay for recalibration.

 

[HuntRunner]

As far as actual measurements, a while back I was looking at the manufactures web pages for their specs. This is what I found.
Dunlop 265/65/17: 30.6" tall and 10.4" wide.
Bridgestone 265/65/17 Revos are 30.5" tall and 10.5" wide
Bridgestone 265/70/17 Revos are 31.7" tall and 10.6" wide

Some advantages of the bigger tires are a little extra ground clearance and in my opinion they look better. The speedo is not enough to cause concern (I think my 4runner with stock tires is slightly under on the speedo according to my GPS anyway)
Some disadvantages to the bigger tires are you change the effective gear ratio from 3.73 to 3.61 (v8). Probably not a big deal if you are not towing heavy loads often. You basically lose about 3% of power/torque to the rear wheels. But, on the flip side, you should be running at a lower rpm at a given speed. There may be other issues with the stock setup of the vehicle (VSC, ATRAC, front end, etc.) but no one can say for sure.

 

[TeCKis300]

What about upsizing tires in terms of width on stock wheels?

 

[Spider5]

What about upsizing tires in terms of width on stock wheels?

I remember when I looked a couple of weeks ago that REVO's are not available in wider tires for the 17" rims.

 

[olliebear]

Wider wheels does not mean wider tires.

A wider wheel will give better lateral corning, to an extent that teh overall height remains the same. The wider wheel allows the tire to have "straighter" sidewalls and not pinching the mounting bead onto the wheel lip. If you notice some folks who put wide tires osn too narrow wheel, the sidewall bulges out and the inner bead is really stressed as it tries ot stay on the wheel lip. Cornering further rolls the tire back and forth causing more stress. High performance set up prefers to have a wide enough wheel so the tire has s fairly straight on mounting--and lower profile sidewall to resist flex.

Whne we are running 70 series rubber, less pinching and less bulging = better traction nad performance. IF you can find wider tires but retain the same wheel width, you'll have that pinched mounting and rubbing. If you get wider wheels, then you run into posibble rubbing and wheel offset issues.


If you off road, such bulging sidewalls present a nice vulnerable place for rocks nad stumps to gash and tear into the sidewall. Not good. If you air down, you create more pressure on popping the bead off the lip..Hardcore off roaders use bead locks to lock the bead onto the lip to allow extreme airing down.

SO the short answer is changing out bigger tires and wheels can always add issues and problems you might not anticipate.

 

[CuzzinOlaf]

Re: Wider wheels does not mean wider tires.

Would having a stock spare (265/65-17) really hurt if I went with 265/70-17 inch Revos?

 

[olliebear]

Re: Re: Wider wheels does not mean wider tires.

Would having a stock spare (265/65-17) really hurt if I went with 265/70-17 inch Revos?

It should not hurt at all. That's what I plan to do. 265/70/17 on all fours. Remember that your spare is just that, a spare to limp to a service station or tire place to repair or replace the flat. I might later on replace teh spare with a cheap tire in the 265/70/17 to keep all 5 tires the same size.

 

[TeCKis300]

olliebear

I completely agree with you, however, I am planning to only up the width by 10mm. This would still be well within the manufacturers spec for the tire.

Anyone try 275/65/17s or 275/70/17?