I think the sweet spot for 18" rims is the 275/70/18, there are two lightweight choices: The General Grabber AT/X which is 45 lbs, and the soon to be released Nitto Terra Grappler G3 which 46.5 lbs.
Tire Upgrade ?
- Thread starter JPATTERS
- Start date
After parking next to this monster back in July (first photo) I decided to do a small upgrade (because size does matter)... Went from 275/70/18 (33.2") to 285/75/18 (34.8") KO3 tires, requiring only minimal adjustments to the front fender clips. Used Toytec strut spacer and Spidertrax wheel spacer on the stock wheels, without any cutting required. Only downside so far is no room for spare tire.
This looks amazing, great size….I am planning to go to 285/70R18…one concern I have is which tire to get, between the Falken Wildpeak at4 or Toyo Open Country or KO3 - concern is the weight and highway ride. How is the MPG, acceleration and braking feel?
Braking and acceleration feel similar to my 275/75/18 tires. I can't compare to the stock size since I swapped those out at just 5 miles. As for fuel economy, I'm currently getting around 15 MPG, down from the 16.8 MPG I was averaging before. KO3 all the way... Im exclusively BFG on all my Land Cruisers.
17" wheels are a very tight fit. I asked Method about their wheels and they said it's just a few mm clearance from the brake calipers. So they fit, but there's a potential to get gravel or something jammed in there. (I'd say especially in the case of driving through a mix of mud and gravel -- I grew up about 10 miles from the nearest paved roads, sometimes a 4WD was the only way to get to town.) That's probably why Toyota doesn't put 17" wheels on them.
This looks great! The 285/75/18 is a sweet spot and tire choice excellent.
What was actual lift from the spacer and was it only applied to the front struts to level? And what did the wheel spacer do exactly? Did that give you some offset pushing the tires out a bit to give a wider stance?
Not sure where to bring this up… BUT…. With all these 17” wheels going on the LC’s, with such ‘tight fits’ between the calipers and the 17” wheels, can the brakes properly cool when used for heavy braking?
That is a fair question, but not something that I would be worried about. Sports cars that can generate alot of brake heat often have similar tight clearances between the caliper and the wheel.
For a truck I'd prefer more clearance but not because of heat.
I agree with TheBat, they're still open to the sides where most of the cooling will come from.
The 17" wheels I have (Black Rhino Stadium 17x8 +35mm) have about 3/4" of clearance between the wheel and the calipers. Not sure about other wheel brands or styles, YMMV.
At 3/4" I wouldn't be worried at all.
Finally a picture of someone with wheel spacers! I bought some 30mm wheel spacers to use on a temporary basis as the wheels I want are not in stock and I can’t decide on an alternative. What size spacer did you use? Looks great by the way
I’m gonna go against the grain here and just warn some people that the KO3 can be hit or miss. I had them put on with the Tacoma (18” 45mm offset) wheels and the ride at 68-75 is bumpy as if a tire has a hard or flat spot. They’ve tried to rotate, balance, road force balance like 3 times now. I’ll be swapping back to OE nittos or lighter Toyos. I’ve run KO2 E rated on my FJ and Taco and never had this kinda ride. Pretty bummed.
Also, some of the “they feel and sound exactly the same as the OEM tires” sentiment might be wishful thinking. An all-terrain tread pattern is actually at odds with a highway tire design in the sense that the latter wants to have a constant contact patch size and the former wants to have repetitive gripping contact. All-terrain tires unavoidably are going to roar on the highway more or less and transfer some vibration.
Totally. And I’m no stranger to that coming from KO2s and taking the wife’s Rav4 occasionally. I’m pretty tuned to the contrast. Not looking for a ride like that, but I also shouldn’t be sitting in a massage chair dialed to 10 haha
It's really my favorite stance. Is there any rubbing issues with this current setup? I wish they made the stock wheels with a 35-45mm offset. I ran with the 285/70/17s on my stock 4Runner wheels, Spidertrax and an ICON 3" lift it looked like a factory option. Looks good!
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I have the KO3s in 265/70/18 E load and I'm swapping them out for Falken AT4Ws in a 285/65/18 SL load. @Honeybadger's post's got me. lol
68-75 is very hard tire pressure with no load. They will be stiff and bumpy for sure at that p.s.i. I find my E load tires a bit bumpy with them at 33 p.s.i. I couldn't imagine them at 75 p.s.i.
Oh god lol. I’m running 30-40PSI this past week. 66-75 Miles per hour is what I was getting it.
