[sbsyncro]

I'm new so don't hate if this is already covered I just wanted to post for the sake of learning.

Id like to to lift my 2000 TRD Tundra with blistens maxed out and I know many people go 285/75/16 to fill in the space, height and width wise.
I don't know if I should go 285/75/16 because I know that depending on the brand (I was thinking of buying General Grabber At2) the tire will rub and I don't want to cut the pinch weld. So I thought that 265/75/16 with an agressive tread and put some wheel spacer to push it out under the fender flare would look good.

would the tire look too small in height??
the stock 265/75/16 doesnt come out to the fender flares and looks odd to me. Thus a wheel spacer.

Any thoughts on this setup?

I know a user on here had the blisten and 265/75/16 with no spacers and didn't like them ( I've looked trough his build a dozen times he has a red tundra with a topper, his name escapes me)

EDIT: The user I'm thinking of is Derek from Expedition Portal not here sorry.

A couple of thoughts. First of all, you don't need to go to the top notch on the 5100 kit to fit 285s (or smaller tires). You will find that the ride improves significantly by not using that last notch (I'm down one notch from the top and like it much better than the top notch where I started).

Secondly, rubbing will really depend on wheel offset/backspacing. With 265s and no spacers, I doubt you will see any rubbing at all. If you decide to space the factory wheels out (I'll comment on that separately) then you may get some full-lock rubbing on the mud flaps/fender guards with 285s (don't know about 265s). Basically, the amount of backspacing/offset will determine whether you rub on the frame/UCA or if you go out away from the center of the truck, against the fender guard/mud flaps (which can be easily trimmed, IIRC).

Now, on those wheel spacers: DON'T DO IT!!!

A lot of people seem to recommend them. But I don't know how many of them have used them for 50,000 plus miles on their Tundras. I have, and I HATED them. I bought really good ones (they were like $200 IIRC) and I had CONSTANT problems keeping my front wheels balanced. Luckily I bought my tires from a shop that offered free lifetime balancing, and man, I took advantage of that. I got to know everyone there by their first name because I was in that shop every 5,000 miles getting my fronts re-balanced (basically every time I rotated the tires). Finally it got so bad that they could not get the tires balanced. I lived with some amount of front end shimmy for over 50,000 miles. It wore out my steering rack bushings and also ended up cupping my tires so that they had to be replaced.

My recommendation is DO NOT run wheel spacers - if you run 265s I don't think you'll have any clearance problems with the factory wheels. If you decide to go up to 285s, then plan to buy new 16x8 wheels with 0 offset (4.5" backspacing). I finally bit the bullet and did that myself and I regret not doing it originally. I wish someone had given me the advice back then that I am giving you now!

 

[sbsyncro]

^Uh...
Sounds more like a tire/alignment problem than a spacer problem. If they sucked that bad, why did you run them so long? (Dont reply, I dont really care.)

^Uh....

Not sure why you'd make this comment if you truly don't care about the answer (if that was the case you could have just mumbled it under your breath instead of posting here). But since you asked publicly, other people may be curious; so I'll indulge them (and you) in an answer.

Why did I run them so long, you ask?

Combination of factors:

1) I Didn't realize it was the spacers/adapters. I assumed it was me at first, then the shop. Then I tried other shops, etc. I had the front end aligned multiple times by different shops and spent hundreds of dollars trying to get rid of the front end shimmy. Once in a while a shop would get it right and it would be better, but it was a plague I could not rid myself of permanently; the problem always seemed to return.

2) I was (am) busy and have three other cars I drive so it wasn't "top of mind" in terms of the anxieties I think about every day.

3) I figured it was just the "price of admission" for tinkering with the front end and I'd have to just live with it.

It wasn't until I replaced the wheels with ones that didn't require spacers that the shimmy went away completely. Like night and day. Of course, in retrospect I can now slap myself in the forehead and say "DUH!". But I lacked the wisdom and sheer brilliance to figure it out on my own.

Do some people run spacers without problems? Probably. Do some people have problems that they don't notice? Probably. I just figure I'll share my experience and people can judge for themselves. Its all about gathering data to make decisions, and thats what forums like this are great for, even if we have to put up with the occasional trollish comment.