285s are on.

Finally got around to having the 285s installed today. Really not much of an improvement in looks, and only drove it the 15 miles home on the highway, so not much to review so far.

Tires are Cooper Evolution MTs in LT285/70R17. Sexy tire!

Lift is a 2.5" Daystar leveling kit with the 1.5" spacer in rear. Was re-aligned to within spec at the Toyota dealer. No issues at all with the lift; rides great and the rig handles great and looks much, much better.

I had Meineke Muffler do the tire install. $80 out the door with my veteran discount. Took them forever, though, and one of the front tires has a slight vibration between 45 mph and 60 mph. Will have to go back tomorrow.

So, instead of having to try and cram 4 33" tires in the inside, I just hooked up my utility trailer and brought it in, parked in the back corner of their lot, unhooked it, and had them install the tires.

Unfortunately, we are having bad winds today and I forgot tire chocks. The wind blew my trailer into the muddy field next to the shop. After the tires were installed, I had to drive into the field to get my trailer.

Kept it in 2wd and the tires performed very well. Very little loss of traction and they seemed to dig pretty well. Hoping to go to the woods soon and really test them on some mud and rocks.

Highway noise is slightly higher than the previous Goodyears. Hard to tell stability or handling since I was towing my trailer in 50+mph winds, but it seemed to ride just as fine as the previous tires, which was good. Ride is a bit less harsh, but I haven't checked what pressure they set them at yet.

No rubbing! I was really stressing about that, but with the lift and minor trimming, I still have room with the stock rims.

 

Looks great!

Subbed to hear how you like the Coopers after a few months. They look too good to be true for the price. I hope they work out well for you!

 

also commenting to sub for an opinion after a while. have you ever had Duratracs? wonder if these will be as noisy as they wear. I had Duratracs on my 3rd gen and I hated them towards the end.

 

Yeah, I ran a set of Duratracs on the vehicle before this one, which was a 2005 GMC Yukon. I never noticed the noise with them, but found them to be not as good in the snow as I had hoped. They did great in the mud and rocks, but were squirrely in the snow.

I had these siped to help with snow traction, so we'll see.

 

Yeah my Duratracs were horrid in the snow. I've had my eye on the Toyo A/T III but I've been happy with my current Cooper AT3's so will be interested in these if they do ok in the snow.

 

I'll let you know about the Toyos in a few months.

 

My set up is almost identical. Leveling/Lift kit. I put 285/70R17 BFG KO2. Just about 1/2" trim at the bottom of front bumper edge right in front of tire. And I pushed plastic inner also. no rubbing and great ride. It has been just one week but so far so good.

 

Same tire here and I did zero cutting or pushing the fender liners. Verified zero rub on a couple of off road trails now.

 

Very nice! I'm going to have the same size Cooper Evo's installed on Friday. I bought them couple of months ago for $150 something.

 

Awesome dude!!

 

Took them on a local farm road that is usually a greasy mess after some rain. It was completely boring and navigated it in 2wd with ease. I even stopped on a steep incline and started from stop with no slipping.

Can't wait for the snow to hit to try them out.







Checked the air pressure and of course the shop had them at 35 psi. Adjusted them to 45 psi and will see how that does.

 

They look awesome!

How are they on the highway?

LT 285's should be at 38 on our trucks. They might wear uneven at 45.

 

I ran my last LT265 at 45 psi for a year and they wore perfectly...



Highway ride is excellent, but there is definitely a hum. Not as bad as most mud tires, but it is definitely more pronounced than the previous aggressive ATs. Not annoying to me, but I know a lot of folks are triggered by it. The initial vibration I had on the way home is now completely gone. Not sure what it was, but tires are glass smooth from 25 to 70 mph. Speedometer is now 1 mph off at 65 mph. Speedo shows 65 while GPS says 66. I asked the shop to weigh the two tires since Goodyear doesn't list a weight and they seemed awfully heavy. They didn't have a scale but said the old 265s felt the same weight as the new 285s. Gas mileage, acceleration, and handling all seem the same.

Now, time to put the old Goodyears on Craigslist and see if I can get $350 for the set.

 

That's probably because 44 is the proper pressure for LT265's on our trucks. LT265's should be run at 44, according to the same calculations that led me to 38 for the 285's.

 

Got it all cleaned up and drove out to my dad's to do some shooting. Really liking the look with stock rims, mild lift, and 285s. It looks beefier without looking like I wear ballcap backwards...

 

Looks great! 285's look perfect on these 4runners.

 

First run in the snow today. We're getting heavy, wet snow that is super slick. Tires did very well!

There is a very steep hill by my house and I was able to go down it with little ABS activation. Was able to go back up it in 2wd.



Siping is working wonderfully...



Some guy in a brand new Chevy Silverado with factory tires did not fare so well and slid backwards and over a street sign on the same hill..