Another lift & tire question - I swear I searched....

I agree. Pay attention to the weight of different 285's and try to keep them on the lighter side. P-rated is all you need for your situation. Check out Firestone Destination AT2's. They are a great mild AT tire that have really good road manners, but will also perform offroad. They are very light as well, so you won't feel any significant power loss or hit to mpgs. There are others out there too, but that's what I went with.

If I was running 295's, I'd consider a re-gear.

 

Life is a compromise and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You’ll only know once you’ve tried yourself. It’s definitely like dragging an anchor. Is that ok? For sure, it’s a personal choice.

 

Wanna race?

 

A regear with 295’s would definitely make the truck run happier. I’ve considered it for the nearish future. It really isn’t bad at all in town (yes it’s more sluggish but not horrible), only times I wish the truck had more of a punch is when traveling on the interstate and having to slow down and then speed back up and/or pass a slow vehicle. You can feel the truck working hard to gain speed on steep hill.

 

I have a 3" spacer lift with 285's on stock rims, also with spacers. I had to remove the front mud flap and trim the rear portion of the front bumper. I also have the caster maxed out on the stock UCAs. It is still not quite what factory specs recommend. When backing down my driveway and turning full lock to the left I think, can't remember, I can just barely feel/hear a slight rubbing of the tire on the body mount. I would not do an actual BMC on my Runner but if it rubs enough to actually leave a mark at some point, I will get down there with a flap wheel on my angle grinder and give myself a smidge more clearance. I have looked several times but can not tell where it rubs so I am not concerned. Gears??? I am OK with the performance on my Runner as it is right now. I don't feel the need for gears, supercharger or even a Power Commander. I know from experience that each of those would improve acceleration I just don't feel the need for it right now. Guess I am getting old.

 

Yup. ❤️

 

with which wheels?

 

Black Rhino Rumble 0 offset/4.75 Back Space / 8.5 wide

 

Ironman foam cell Pro stage 2 is on the way, as well as BFG KO2s 285s - c load.... I’ll try them on stock TRDOP wheels first and post the results.

 

Got my new tires mounted..... BFG KO2s 285/70r17 C .....

Jk tires arrived yesterday. Foam Cell Pro stage 2 is on the delivery vehicle getting dropped off today. Wanted to post these as a comparison to stockers. Those tires are heavy and huge!

 

Just finished installing the front. Took about 4 hours. Still need to put the skid plates back on and plastic dam. Took it for a spin around the neighborhood and gave it a few swerves to settle everything in. Few hard brakes too...
It is currently sitting 3.5-4” higher from initial measurements. I am hoping that it will settle out some and come down more after alignment on Friday. Will work on swapping out the rear tomorrow. Few pics for now....

 

Late to the party but make sure you aren't rubbing on the plastic first. It sticks out considerably more than the body mount.

10x easier to chop some plastic.

Mine unfortunately was rubbing on the front bumper so I chopped some off the front instead.

 

Looks good! That's pretty tall though.

Did you add any lift over what came out of the box?

 

^^, plus keep the number for ECGS on speed dial for their driver's side differential bushing to replace the needle bearing, should the need arise...

 

Just installed the stage 2 kit. Nothing else was added & I requested coil overs be set to 2”. I’ll measure out again tomorrow after the rear gets lifted, too. I think that rear coming up will put some more weight back on the front. It sounds weird, but with reverse rake some of the weight is shifted to the rear. I think ...

 

Yeah. I am hoping not to have to do it. But if I do it should be easy enough. Thanks for the heads up though.

 

It’s amazing rereading this thread and thinking, if Toyota offered a 4 Runner with 285s, wheel spacers, tires rubbing and dead dog acceleration with even worse mileage than it has now, how would you judge it on a test drive? Haha, I can guarantee that no one would buy it. No one. Even if it looked cool. Form follows function!
When we mod vehicles we should think of the medical 1st principle - first, do no harm!
My .02 worth, maybe I’m wrong.

 

Yeah, good idea to measure when it's all done.

Let us know what the numbers turn out to be.

In the event that it still sits 3-4" taller in the front than stock, you might need to prepare yourself for adjusting the fronts down a bit. I don't know much about this particular suspension set-up, but settling 1-2" is A LOT and I wouldn't expect that it will settle that much.........unless you're planning to add weight to your set-up down the road.

 

You’re not wrong there. Engineers that built this car knew what they were doing... and every “upgrade” that we do always comes with a trade off. But, you also have to consider that what engineers were going for may not necessarily be in the order of priorities that each user has. Some are ok giving up fuel economy to gain more off road capability.
In my case - I would love to be able to do some overlanding. Go off the beaten path and cover some rough terrain on my way to the remote locations. I want a tire that will give me better traction and a suspension that will give me more clearance - even though it will negatively impact my fuel economy and in reality be “worse” during 98% of the vehicle use.
And of course - I know that some of the mods are not really practical or make sense - but, MAN DOES IT LOOK GOOD!!!!

 

I have to say though, after modding my vehicle I think it performs 100x better than it did stock. Better tires and suspension go a looooooong way on these vehicles. Yeah, I lost 1mpg, but I'll take that over running tiny little 265's that are much too small for the wheel well. But that's just my opinion.

 

It’s all good, nimby. I feel the same way about mine, especially tires and suspension. I would never take a stock off road off the dealers lot onto a trail.

 

All good. We all have our opinions.

Just a little fun fact though........did you know your 265's weigh more than my 285's?

 

I didn’t know that for a fact but I believe it. They’re e range tires and extremely heavy. Fortunately the vehicle doesn’t have to carry them except the spare. I need them though - on the gravel roads in northern Canada even they can get sliced up. Some of the roads recommend carrying 2 spares for that reason

 

Oh wow! I didn't even know you had E-rated tires. I was comparing C-rated 265 KO2's to my P-rated 285's.

C-rated 265 BFG A/T's come in at: 45.6 lbs

E-rated 265 BFG A/T's come in at: 53.4 lbs

P-rated 285 Firestone A/T's come in at 42 lbs

I don't know what the stock Dunlops weight as they don't include that in their specs, but I think it's a safe bet they weigh less than 42 lbs.

Our trucks are impacted by this unsprung tire weight, however. It's more strain on your motor to get a heavier tire rolling which is a hit on power and mpgs. My hit is not as much from weight, but from having a wider tire and increasing my rolling resistance.

Just little compromises we make to make our trucks fit our personal needs better.

 

Yeah, I wouldn’t try to make it up the dempster highway in the Yukon on a c rated tire. Interesting to know the difference! Btw, an e rated tire really makes a 4 Runner feel heavy duty!

 

Yeah, the weight difference surprised me.

 

I have an Elka 2.5 IFP system on my ORP, 0-2” set at the factory default, 1 1/2” w/kdss. You can order with or without kdss. You can also get 2 1/2”-3”. Also, with external reservoirs. I don’t need external reservoirs so I didn’t order them. Elka is excellent. Big, tough, really well designed and made with premium components. I doubt they would let anyone else use their parts for some off brand. This is a premium manufacturer who welcomes custom orders. You can talk with an engineer and they’ll set up your suspension any way you like.
If you have kdss, Elka and Toyota are designed to be together.
You’ll need to decide a rear spring depending on what you want. For my modest lift, I used a Cornfed 1/2” spacer with the stock springs. Perfect.

 

Following to see if you needed to do any BMC?

 

New tire mounting and balance, and 4 wheel alignment is happening tomorrow. I am taking it out for a short drive to help everything settle as much as possible. Here is the truck as it sits right now. (Stock tires look comically small)

 

It all depends on what you define as a "trail". I would say I used the crap out of mine for work (ranges and training areas) and recreation (camping, fishing, etc...), using those times out is what helped point my decision making process for building my vehicle. I quickly realized that it is plenty capable, even with the stock tires, but everything I am doing is nothing more than improving. It also helped me realize that I didn't need to go and spend $3-4k on Kings, ADS, etc on suspension when I'm not going to rock crawl or do serious wheeling with it. And for me trails are mixed between logging roads/trails to gravel with some washouts.

Basically I spent over a year stock (minus some cosmetics) before making changes. Anyone can put their vehicle to use and I would honestly recommend using it in the stock form before making any decisions on modifications.