Nothing catches my eye more quickly than a Tacoma with large tires. Just how good do they look? If you want to perform serious off-roading and overlanding with the Tacoma, you really need to go bigger to notice the wheels and enhance break-over angles. This explains why so many people are interested in learning what tire size will fit comfortably on a stock Tacoma. Can 33 inches fit without a lift? Will you require a front leveling kit or wheel spacers? This essay will provide answers to all of these queries and more.
What size tire can you fit on a Toyota Tacoma that is factory-fresh? The largest tire that will fit on factory rims without a body or suspension lift is 275/70/17. To fit 33-inch tires, or 285/70/17, on a stock suspension, the front fender liner and rear fender flair must be altered.
Therefore, there are three things to think about before upgrading the factory tires on your truck or ute.
- Clearance for fender liners
- Wheel offset and backspacing
- spare wheel room
Since the 275/70/17 tire is narrower but still offers more ground clearance with the 70 profile, which is 1 inch taller but the same width as the factory, you can get away with installing a wider tire on the stock Tacoma rims.
But what if you want to travel 33 miles per hour with a factory suspension and a 0 offset wheel? What adjustments are necessary to make them fit?
In This Article...
What size tires will fit a Tacoma that has been leveled?
A 32-inch tire will be the most typical setup that we are seeing that is suitable with a leveling system. The standard pairing appears to be a 32-inch diameter and a 9-inch width, or 275/65. You shouldn’t have to cut or trim anything with a leveling kit on your third-generation Tacoma to accomplish this.
Which tires will fit my Tacoma?
P265/65R17 tires are available for the Tacoma’s 17-inch wheels. The Toyo Open Country A30 or the Firestone Destination LE 2 are the factory-recommended tires for this wheel size by Toyota. Additionally, 18-inch wheels with Michelin LTX M/S2 P265/60R18 tires are offered for the Tacoma.
Can my Tacoma have larger tires?
Tire sizing is popular among Toyota Tacoma owners for a variety of factors, including as improved off-road performance or simple aesthetic preferences. What size tires can you fit in a Tacoma that is entirely stock? For your reading pleasure, we’ve put our research together.
No modifications are required for a 2022 Toyota Tacoma to use tires with a maximum diameter of 32.5 inches. Some Tacoma trims may have different tire sizes because they ship with different-sized factory wheels or rims.
You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking to upgrade the basic Tacoma’s tires. Please continue reading, and we’ll try to explain how to select the appropriate tire size for your undertaking.
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Can a Tacoma with standard tires fit 33-inch tires?
No and yes. You can put 33s on your car without making any adjustments and drive straight without any problems. There are issues when you turn. It takes very little cutting and spacers to completely clear 33 tires without a lift.
Without using wheel spacers, we initially installed the 33s on our third-generation Tacoma. However, once you turned, the tires rubbed horribly on the upper control arms. The rubbing on the body wasn’t all that severe, and you could drive on them with little contact on the fender plastics.
When we installed 33s on a lifted 2nd Gen Tacoma even with aftermarket control arms and a lift, we encountered the same problem. While the friction on the body was barely noticeable, it was intolerable on the control arm. The truck is not appropriate to drive and is absolutely not suitable for off-road travel with just one problem.
The rubbing on the 3rd Gen Tacoma’s UCAs was gone after we installed a 1.25 spacer, however the rubbing on the body was quite unpleasant because we extended our scrub radius by extending the tire outward.
No, you can’t simply install wheel spacers and trim the fenders and fender well plastics to fit 33s on a Tacoma.
Spend some time making room for that size tire in order to fit 33s without using a lift. Both on- and off-road testing should be done in this.
Can I fit tires of what size?
When making tight turns or when the suspension bottoms out, the tires may rub against the fender well if the new wheels and tires are larger than the stock ones. Speedometer readings can be erroneous because they measure speed by measuring the distance covered with each wheel rotation. Both the factory diameter and breadth of the wheels and tires must be preserved in order to keep the suspension and speedometer operating properly.
On the original rim, it is generally safe to install a tire that is up to 20 millimeters wider than stock. Depending on the rim’s width, the tire’s actual width will change: For every half inch (12.5 millimeters) increase in rim width, the tire will enlarge by 5 millimeters.
Because tire sizes are a combination of metric and percentage measurements while wheel sizes are in Imperial measurements, switching to a different rim becomes a little more challenging.
For instance, the car’s current tires are 225/45R15. This is what it indicates:
- Sidewall height expressed as a percentage of tire width is 45.
- Dimensions of 15Rim in inches
- Millimeters of tire width, 225
Multiply the wheel size by 25.4 to get the millimeter equivalent:
1.5 times 25.4 equals 381 millimeters.
Next, multiply the tire width by the height percentage to determine the sidewall height:
101.25 millimeters is equal to 225 millimeters times 0.45.
To determine the combined height of the wheel and tire, add the two figures together:
482.25 millimeters (381-201 = 381.25)
The new tire and wheel should be within 3% of the height of the original combination in order to maintain speedometer accuracy. A tire with a height of 75.85 millimeters, or 34 percent of the 220 millimeter width, or 220/34R16, would be needed to move to a 16 inch (406.4 millimeter) rim. The closest size produced, 220/30R16, is well within the size tolerance of 3%.
The height of 275 70R17 tires.
275/70R17 tires have a 32.2″ diameter, a 10.8″ section width, and a 17″ wheel diameter. They had a 101.0″ circumference and 627 rotations per mile. They can typically be put on 7-8.5″ wide wheels.
Can 20-inch rims be used for off-roading?
The advantages of 20 wheels over 17 wheels are a topic on which there are many differing views. There are some who fervently support 17-inch off-road wheel configurations, while there are others who favor 20-inch off-road wheels. It is true that a 17-inch wheel performs a little bit better because it has a longer sidewall on the tire. Better off-roading capabilities and a smoother ride are provided by this. Having said that, it is quite safe to operate a 20-wheel vehicle that excels on both paved and rough terrain. However, the 20 has the extra advantage of being more aesthetically acceptable to a wider audience, particularly those who don’t off-road much or at all.
Which wheels suit the Toyota Tacoma?
16×8 wheels with 265/70R16 or 265/75R16 tires. 17×9 wheel; 265/65R17 or 265/70R17 tires. 18×9 wheel; 265/65R18 or 265/70R18 tires. 20×10 wheel; 275/55R20 or 285/55R20 tires.
Can a Tacoma handle 35-inch tires?
Your Tacoma will need to be upgraded with aftermarket suspension in order to install 35s. The required lift will be at least 2 inches, ideally 3 inches. These tires don’t require a costly setup to function. Here, any lift—including a spacer lift—that offers you enough clearance will work.
Spindle gussets were also added by me. Making room for 35s does not necessarily require doing this, but the larger tires are large and heavy, and they significantly increase the stress on the suspension parts.
This change is strongly advised so that you never find yourself hobbling home after challenging your ban. Spindle gussets have been known to budge following a rough landing, running into a big obstruction on the trail (such a log), or jumping the truck, even for brief lengths. It won’t break the money, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
How much lift is required to pass a 33-second Tacoma?
While it’s not impossible, you will undoubtedly need to cut or trim something in order to fit 33s without a raise. Depending on whether you clear the control arms or not, you ought to be capable of lifting 2-3 pounds.
Although suspension lifts technically do not clear tires for off-road use, they can nonetheless be useful. Your body’s static ride height is altered when you lift your truck. For instance, while driving every day, you might not rub, but when driving off-road and stuffing that tire into your wheel well, you almost certainly will. This rubbing would be significantly harsher both on and off the road without a lift.
In response to the infamous query, no raise is necessary to accommodate 33-inch tires on a factory Tacoma; other modifications may be necessary, such as fender liner pushback, CMC (cab mount chop), rocker panel cap trimming, fender trimming, body trimming, etc. Having said that, you can still bolt the wheel and tire to your hub; you may simply need to perform some trimming. Something needs to give since even when you grow taller, the inner fender’s size remains constant.
In order to determine exactly what needs to be trimmed, we will place 33 tires on a stock, third-generation Tacoma without the use of a lift. Snail Trail 44 will shortly donate that truck.
Realize that it’s crucial that the tires under your Tacoma don’t rub, regardless of the size you choose. If they continue to rub and you don’t fix the problem, eventually you’re going to destroy something or rip something off.
Our up/down travel on the Bilstein 5100 kit 2.8 front with Icon Add a Leaf 2 rearit has cleared everything fairly well after mounting, operating, and flexing it. Following tire installation, there were NO general on-road rubbings on the fender liners or fender well. That included the curb drop test as well as full-lock reverse. The tires cleared the pavement fully.
Driving off-road is a little bit of a different situation. Even driving on a bumpy dirt road wasn’t too difficult, although when the tires were jammed into the wheel wells, they did rub a little. It wouldn’t take much cutting at all to completely clear 33s since they hardly ever rub on the inside of the fender close to the pinch weld.