Can we talk tires?

So my current tires are starting to near their end and I'm going to need to replace them. I'm on the fence on whether to stay with the stock size or get bigger tires. I'm looking at 285/70/17 but trying to wrap my brain around the advantages vs dis-advantages of bigger tires.

We do some off-roading and camping. I would say ~10 weekends during summer months and a couple during the fall/winter. In the winters, we driving up to the ski resorts 1 or 2 times a month.

Vehicle is a 20 TRDP w/stock suspension but we do have plan on lifting it a bit more for off-roading.

Mahalo,
Bert

 

I think hanging with a stock size A/T tire might serve your needs well. There are a lot of choices out there, good luck with your decision.

 

Nothing wrong with stock size. You’re not going to gain a ton with 285’s. Wider tires can perform better, but for the majority of us, a quality 265 is very good.
You can consider a 255/75 as well.

 

What kind of off-roading do you do? Is it more fire roads and green trails, or something more involved?

I like my falken wildpeaks in 265/70/17, they haven't let me down in any of the less intense stuff. I usually air down to 15psi for offroad. They have excellent road manners, and do fairly well in the snow. However, they don't do so well in soupy and rutted out mud so if you frequent mud, look for an actual mt in a larger than stock size

 

I have Passenger rated 285 Falken Wildpeaks (P285/70R17) on my Limited. Since I don't off-road with it, P rated tires are perfect for it. (I only take it on some dirt roads just for fun.)
Comfort is just like an all season tire. Needless to say the look of 285s are so damn awesome to me vs the skinny tires Limited came from factory.

 

I agree with this. I'm also a Falken guy. It's a quiet, smooth riding A/T.

 

It's a little more involved, nothing to extreme. I would say they are mostly intermediate/blue trail with some black obstacles. As for mud, I only do that if necessary. We were in some mud last weekend over west of Pueblo and that stuff was nasty/snotty. Took $10 at the car wash to get all the mud off.

Thanks for the reply.

 

If you're wanting to do blues/blacks, I would definitely suggest something larger than stock size and a good skid plate. Not sure where you're located, but on the east coast I find myself getting into muddy/rocky stuff and dragging my skids. Large tires will help to bring you up off those things, and skids will keep the goodies safe

 

We're located in Colorado. Not too much mud to deal with, at least when/where we explore but definitely have our share of rocks. We have the stock skid plate and plan on adding more if needed/required. We like to get out on more difficult trails as it tends to thin the crowd.

 

We do mild off-roading and always seem to find rocks on the trails we go on. I am familiar with the types of places you go, and for that reason we chose a size bigger (275-70-17) tire in a LT(10 ply) rating. It may have drawbacks in one respect, but has a good durability factor as far as rocks are concerned. Are they heavier? Ya. Are they affecting the smoother ride other tires offer? Ya. Are they a tougher tire that doesn't worry about running over rocks? Ya!

 

I do a lot of off roading and went 285 E rated MT's with a BMC. The hard lines are the fun lines.
I'd say I'm down to 15mpg but it's hard to get a good MPG average, as I'm off road almost every weekend.

Aired up to around 34psi the ride is rough on gravel roads. I usually air down to 20psi for going off road.

 

I had this same debate. I was running 265/70/17 for ~5k miles. Those worked good but when I got a 2.5” front and rear they looked tiny like a single pepperoni in the middle of a pizza (obviously exaggerated). Anyways I upgraded to 285/75/17 and what a difference.

before:


after:


I know it doesn’t look clear but there is a big difference. Unfortunately these were the best shots I could come up with.

 

Yeah, I agree completely with the look. Once you lift it, the stock size looks small. How much difference does it make on your gas mileage? Did you have to re-sync or do anything with you speedometer?

 

Good questions. I just put them on last Sunday and haven’t got to drive them that much. I still haven’t got alignment done yet since my lift as I was waiting for these tires. I would promise to follow up with this information but I am not going to promise something I would probably forget. I can tell it takes more energy to get them moving for sure. More on the highway than anything.

 

1.8" front level and running 275 70 17 Cooper AT3

 

Love the RRW wheels. I think those are the ones I want. Do you think you could pull off a 295/70/17 or 295/75/17 with the same modification you had to do to fit your 285s?

 

No 295/75/17 would be too much. 295/70/17 is totally possible. I believe thebassguy (something like that) is running that size. It is smaller than 285/75/17 in total height but wider tread.

 

Agreed! The extra footprint makes a real difference!

It will depend entirely on tire weight and how you drive. I have 295/70/17 LT/E mud tires at ~64# apiece and have gotten as low as 12 and as high as 19.9. I think I could squeeze out 20+ at 55-65 MPH if I really tried.

Yes! I love this size! Approximately 33.5" × 12". I'm so impressed with the performance off-road so far!

 

Also what tires were you using before?

My personal opinion is that you should stay with the stock tire size unless the tire size is the only thing holding you back. Try getting more aggressive tires if you haven't already before you move up a tire size. Larger tires can negatively affect the handling and add weight. More importantly, they don't help gas mileage, something that might become more important as gas prices continue to rise.

My parents owned a jeep and they lifted it and got KO2s to wrap around the upgraded rims that they purchased for it. When driving it on the highway it got over 30% worse gas mileage, the steering was even worse, and when we finally got to driving the thing off road they freaked out and turned around because of some sharp rocks that could have been cleared by an unmodified wrangler with its stock tires.

They never saw the benefit of any of the off road mods they did to that vehicle, but they sure suffered the downsides of worse steering, fuel consumption, and road noise. They were the type of people who considered a dusty wash board gravel roads off road. On daily driver rigs its a good idea to do most mods once you have had an experience that required them to be done (mods that are prevent water damage should be done before hand).

 

I went with stock size all terrains on mine. I didn't want to deal with the drawbacks of larger/heavier tires, as I really don't do any difficult wheeling that requireds a larger tire. I also don't want to add much lift, so even if I do get around to lifting the 2"front, 1" rear that I like, I believe the stock size tires will still look fine. One thing about going to an actual all terrain, is that they're going to be more aggressive looking than the stock tire, so they'll just naturally look bigger. When I got my Grabber ATX put on, I had to check the sidewall to make sure they didn't go one size up, they looked quite a bit bigger than the stock Bridgestone's that came on it. I did notice a drop in gas mileage, it was pretty severe at first, about 3 MPG, but over the last few thousand miles as the weather has gotten warmer, I've gotten back up to being able to get back over 20 MPG. I went on a couple road trips over the past two weeks, and was able to get about 21.5 pretty easily.

I don't know if you can really tell from this pic, I took it earlier today when I first saw this thread. Those are the stock size tires, P265 70 R17, on the stock wheels with no spacers. To me they look pretty beefy compared to the stockers .

 

Another option that I don't think I saw, is 255/80/17. Slightly over 33" but fits stock suspension, just depends if you like the skinny look.

I think 33s still look good with a lift too, so you can do upgrades one step at a time

 

I’d like to go 35” but seems like too much work. Maybe 34” is a good compromise then. Should I look at a true 34” or just stick to 285/75? I’d rather have the taller than the shorter but wider 295/70

 

Nice TE.

 

Thanks! Yours looks pretty good too, haha.

 

Good choice, I'm running these same tires and like them a lot.

 

I'm running the same tires in stock size on mine as well and love them. Even with a 2.5"F 1.5"R lift the Grabber ATX look proportionate. I'm not sure I want to go into all the work involved with fitting 285s (and sadly it doesn't look like the Grabbers come in 255/80/17), so, I'll probably go with my original plan of 275/70/17s (ordered them in this size initially, but, stock size was received instead.) when these wear down.