Welcome back to another Taco Tuesday! If you missed last week’s TT, we looked at several awning setups for the Tacoma. This week, we will be taking a look again at tire options, but with a slight twist. We asked 10 Tacoma owners not only why they chose to run oversized tires, but also we asked them what modifications were needed to fit them with minimal to no rubbing.
As always, feel free to DM the owners on IG to ask any additional questions about their setup if needed.
Enjoy!
Table Of Contents
Why Larger Tires?
There are several reasons why you would run oversized tires on your Tacoma. Now, let’s now talk about some perks you get off-road with oversized tires.
Increased Overall Ride Height
There are several ways to increase your Tacomas overall ride height. The first way to increase your ride height is to lift your truck by either upgrading your OEM suspension or just by simply leveling your truck (not really the best for off-road).
The second way to achieve a bit of a ride height increase is by getting a larger diameter tire for your truck.
Now honestly, these two mods should be done hand in hand since any sort of oversized tire will cause some sort of rubbing on a stock truck. Together, this combo results in significantly increased approach and departure angles, which is crucial while out on the trails.
Increased Contact Patch
Now that we’ve increased our Tacomas ride height, let’s focus on gaining some traction off-road. Most of the time, when you increase the diameter of your tires, you are also increasing their width too. Increased surface contact while aired down will help significantly in increasing your Tacoma’s traction on tough terrain.
One may say, well why don’t I just get a stock-sized M/T or A/T tire if I want my truck to perform a certain way versus airing it down? While that may work to an extent, an increased footprint helps regardless of the tread pattern.
Bigger Tires Have Their Challenges
I hope the 4th Gen Tacoma takes after the 3rd Gen Tundra with regard to oversized tires in stock form. The 3rd Gen Tundra so far has had relatively few issues and minimal modification needed.
The Tacoma’s insanely small wheel well makes it not play well with larger tires. 285/70R17s aren’t a super big tire, yet the modifications needed to fit it under your Tacoma properly are a bit more involved when compared to other vehicles on the market.
Below we have a variety of tire sizes, lifts, and wheel offsets to help you choose the best tire for your Tacoma. We included wheel offsets since they play a huge role in the tire’s position in the wheel well and it’s potential for rubbing while turning.
1. Garret Hunter: Falken
Tire Details
- Model: Wildpeak A/T
- Size: 285/75R16
- Price: $250/ea
- Wheel Offset: 0mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I chose a larger tire so that it will fit better and look better with the 3-inch lift that I have on my Tacoma. 33″ tires are the premier Tacoma tire size! I had to do a little trimming in the front but I solved that issue with a viper cut. The Falken Wildpeaks are a great tire and I wouldn’t want to go back to stock tire size after having these!
2. Cody Wolgamott: Yokohama
Tire Details
- Model: Geolandar M/T G003
- Size: 315/75R16
- Price: $290/ea
- Wheel Offset: -25mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I went with 35” tires for increased clearance, off-road capabilities, and aggressive looks. My 3” lift consists of King Shocks, Camburg uniball UCAs, and AllPro Off-Road leaf springs. You cannot beat the look of a meaty 35” tire stuffed under the fenders along with the lift!
Making them fit my 2019 Tacoma TRD Off-Road required an aggressive body mount chop, fender liner removal, pinch weld hammering/folding, firewall indenting, as well as a high-caster alignment (+4 degrees of caster).
3. Nathan Pease: Kenda
Tire Details
- Model: Klever R/T
- Size: 285/70R17
- Price: $395/ea
- Wheel Offset: -25mm w/ 1.25″ Spidertrax Spacer
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I chose the Kenda R/Ts because I wanted to have a more aggressive look and a bigger tire/sidewall for off-roading use. To make them fit, I installed a King 3-inch suspension lift. With so much offset, I had to adjust the ride height because of the weight of the bumper and do a cab mount chop to make the tires fit without rubbing.
4. Som Xiong: Falken
Tire Details
- Model: Wildpeak M/T
- Size: 285/70R17
- Price: $320/ea
- Wheel Offset: -10mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
The enlarged tire footprint makes for an increased ability to conquer different terrain while increasing ground clearance and looking good all at the same time. In order to fit this wheel and tire combo, you need a cab mount chop (CMC), pinch weld hammering, and a heat gun to the inner fender liner. You can not run OEM mudguards with this setup.
5. Jay Andersen: Yokohama
Tire Details
- Model: Geolandar M/T G003
- Size: 315/75R16
- Price: $330/ea
- Wheel Offset: -12mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I have been extremely happy with the Yokohama Geolandar M/Ts! They are very quiet on-road and have excellent off-road performance. I decided to go with 315s and not true 35s because I still wanted to run 16” wheels. However, there’s a ton of work that needs to be done to properly run 35” tires, especially if you wheel your truck.
My truck has aftermarket suspension, UCAs, spindle gussets, cam tab gussets, CMC, 5.29 gears, an OTT tune, a high clearance front bumper, and a bunch of cutting. I should also add that the more aggressive wheel offset you run, the more cutting it will require, and possibly a full fender trim. Luckily, with the -12 offset, I’ve been able to avoid the full fender trim. However, I will most likely go that route in the future for extra clearance.
6. Alexis Bell: Cooper
Tire Details
- Model: Discoverer AT3 XLT
- Size: 285/75R16
- Price: $285/ea
- Wheel Offset: +10mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I wanted to go with a larger tire for multiple reasons! I like the look of a beefier tire rather than the stock tire size and love to off-road. Having a larger tire helps in the aspect of having more grip and control on rough roads. I also wanted to give the truck more of a lift with a larger size. I have a 2.5/1.5-inch leveling kit on the truck, and these tires give about another inch of lift on top of that. Luckily, I didn’t have to cut anything and do not have any rubbing.
7. Nathan: Nitto
Tire Details
- Model: Ridge Grappler
- Size: 285/75R16
- Price: $225/ea
- Wheel Offset: 0mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I am building my Tacoma as a capable, yet budget-friendly overlanding vehicle. In order to travel off-road to some of the places I camp, I needed larger and more aggressive tires. I always liked the Nitto Grappler series and thought the Ridge Grapplers fit my needs the best. Luckily, I didn’t have to do any fender trimming. However, I do have a 3-inch suspension lift.
8. Josh Young: Yokohama
Tire Details
- Model: Geolandar M/T G003
- Size: 285/75R17
- Price: $350/ea
- Wheel Offset: 0mm w/ 1.25″ Spidertraxx Spacer
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I chose to run a larger tire for several reasons. They give me a much larger footprint while off-road, which means more traction and that’s always nice. With these being 34″ I felt like they would be the biggest I could go without doing the major modification it takes to fit 35s.
I have had to do an aggressive cab mount chop, chopped a small portion off of the front bumper, hammered my pinch weld, and used a heat gun to push the fender liner out of the way. I run Camburg UCAs and have my caster maxed out to help get the tires away from the cab as well.
9. Daniel Alexander: Kenda
Tire Details
- Model: Klever R/T
- Size: 35X10.50R17
- Price: $415/ea
- Wheel Offset: -38mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I decided to go bigger, because why not!?
We had to do a very aggressive cab mount chop and I still have some rubbing. I need to go ahead and do the Cab Mount Relocation kit to get rid of the rubbing completely. However, the rubbing has not kept me from absolutely loving and using this truck to its fullest potential. We get after it out there, living in Arizona and airing down in the driveway to go hit trails makes it really easy to get the party going.
10. Alberto: Maxxis
Tire Details
- Model: RAZR M/T
- Size: 35X12.50R17
- Price: $385/ea
- Wheel Offset: -18mm
How Did You Fit Larger Tires? What Do You Like About Your Setup?
I think the main reason to put larger tires is mainly to increase the height of the vehicle. The higher the truck, the easier we can pass over obstacles. To be able to have 35″ tires you need at least 3″ of lift, a good offset on your rims, a good alignment, and of course, lots and lots of cutting (hehe).
Final Thoughts
What a great group of Tacomas for this week’s Taco Tuesday. I personally ran 295/70R17s on my Tacoma for about a month. I did a BMC, proper alignment, some fender heating, and trimming, but it still wasn’t enough to stop the oversized tires from rubbing.
Now, I have 285/7R17s and it rubs just a little with my -12mm offset RRW wheels. For my next truck (which should be here in the first week of December), I will probably run 285s as well. I just don’t want to trim a lot under the wheel well of a brand-new TRD Pro. But hey, who knows where the mod rabbit hole will take me!
If you want to be featured for Taco Tuesday, submit your build through TrailTacoma.com/Feature. Next week’s Taco Tuesday will be featuring Ditch Light Brackets that owners are running and what they like about them. We’re looking for sweet rides to showcase! If this is you and you love your setup, send in your details because we want to see it.
Thanks for reading guys. I’ll see you next week!
Awesome article and feed back.