How are 35" on a 80 for a expo rig?

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rc51kid

rc51kid

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I have a 94 FZJ80 that is my DD and my travel/exploring rig. I put about 20,000 miles a year on her traveling around the country and exploring trails and wheeling. Most of it is highway driving but when i get where i am going i enjoy being off road. Nothing really crazy but i like a good challenge. I currently have 285/75/16 and with a few inches of lift and lockers it goes everywhere i have wanted at this point. When i wheel with some other locked 80s with 35s i do have to work a little harder than they do. Also my KOs do give me a little trouble when things get muddy.

It will be time for new tires soon and i am pretty well set on Toyo Open Country MT. I was set on 285/75/16 because my current setup really works well. But i have been thinking that 315/75/16 really would be nice off road. The topic of gearing is pretty well covered. What i want to know about is the other aspects of driving. How are the other things like handling, brakes and tracking with 315/7/16? I am not really concerned about things like noise. But i do care about safety feeling or how they do over road grooves and imperfections. It is hard to put in long days driving cross country if you feel like you are fighting with the truck all the time. What do you guys think about 35" on a expo rig? Should i just stick with the 33" because "if it aint broke dont fix it"?
 
I daily mine with 315 MT's. Other than taking another hit in mpg's I love the look and the being ready to jump offroad. It doesn't drive any differnetly than when I had the 295's. But I'm lifted with no front sway bar so it moves around a little. ;)
 
Fuel would be the big thing. If you aren't playing in rocks stick with 33s. I have 315 MTRs on one of my current 80s and right now I'm hating it because I haven't regeared. On a previous 80 I ran 315 Toyo MTs with 4.56 gears and it traveled pretty nice. We put a ton of miles on it. In 9 weeks in 2007 I put 12k miles on it. Braking is not as quick. I never felt stability was an issue. I ran both sway bars. I'm running the DBA slotted and drilled rotors on another 80 based truck with 37s and it stops better than my stock 80 and way better than the one on 315s. A really neat tire combo for what you are talking about doing is the 295/70/17 Toyo MT. That would require different wheels but it is an awesome fluke size.
 
I am on 35s with a 2" lift. My rig is well armored, SC'd, etc. I am a rally driver and noticed immediately a difference in cornering and handling if driven aggressively. Just be careful until your lizard brain is dialed in... As far as offloading is concerned, I actually did not notice much of a difference except felt that my ride was, for some odd reason, rougher than with the 33s. Doesn't matter either way- I simply like the look better. ;)
 
No experience with 35s, but I don't see the need for them.

One aspect of being an expo rig is that parts are stock or stockish. Once you start with significant suspension mods, that gets less plausible. While lift kits aren't unheard of beyond the USA, they're much thinner among the LandCruiser population. Then you have to find the parts that match your lift...

Which is not to say you shouldn't go for the lift, just don't get too exotic with it.
 
My rig is more expo oriented and I run 37s and wouldn't run anything less. I'm actually considering making the move to 40s.

Braking is very meh but then again when me and the family are loaded up for a trip it's tipping the scales at close to 7,000lbs. But even unloaded it's still nothing to brag about and I've got DBA T3 rotors and EBC pads.

Handling and tracking are good. We just got back from a 7,000 mile trip. Went from my home near Houston to El Paso, then to Ouray Colorado, Moab, SLC, Reno, did the Rubicon trail, down to Bakersfield, and then the long drive back home and it did great as usual. Grooves and imperfections don't bother it at all.

The only thing that is tiring is the lack of power, especially in the higher elevations. But you get it out on flat road and it will cruise happily at 90 all day long. The lack of power is being addressed next year with something along the lines of a LQ9 engine swap.


So yeah, go ahead and do the 35s. Bigger is better :grinpimp:


:beer:
 
if you are set on doing 35" tires..skip it and do 37s.....you won't regret the decision........if you are not so sure, stick with the 33" tires.

35's is a size that is the swiss army of tires....little bit of this and little bit of that!

37's give you the balls to try different things!
 
I went from GY Duratrac 285 75 16's to Toyo OC AT 2's 315's and that size/weight tire felt too heavy for my truck. I do have a Slee installed 4.7 V8 and 4.88's, along with DBA rotors and lifted/upgraded suspension (mostly Slee) and all new bushings, TRE's and rebuilt steering box with 105 parts.
The truck still accelerated and braked okay, but the best way to describe it was that "the tires were steering the truck, rather than the truck steering the tires". I decided to move to a 17 inch wheel and tire combo Toyo OC AT2 285 75 17 (33.9") , which was .7" shorter and 9 lbs lighter at each corner, and that felt a lot better (and also gave me room for a big brake kit later if I wanted to do that). A lighter 315 might be the ticket, but I did not want to give up the fantastic ride and tough carcass that the Toyo brings to the game. HTH
 
35's are just an inconvenient stop on the way to 37's :) Other than being slow in the hills and mountains nothing to complain about.
 
Put on a set of 315 GG AT2's in July, stock gearing and DD it and pegging close to 7K with full armor and drawers. Big diff coming from 285's but I would never go back.

You can't be aggressive at highway speed but those of us that drive 80's usually are not in a hurry to be highway aholes anyhow. Off road the diff from 285's is night and day, especially in the mud.

Lots say to skip the 35's and go to 37's but I wasn't ready for the cost involved in 37's so OME heavies front and rear and some castor bushings was a good start for me. My next step will be a slee 4" spring with castor plates and 2.5" reservoir shocks before going to a recentered Humvee wheel with 37's

I'm happy with it, for now.

20150822_092311.jpg
 
37's say, "I'm the big dog, you're gonna have a hard time following me, hehehe, burp, get me to MOAB for some pic's, My rig's name is Lenny."

35's say, "Why didn't I get 37's? I'm such a noob, I'm big tire curious and my rigs name is Denny."

33's say, "I'll follow you up 95% of the way, I don't like dents and I'm going to call my rig an expedition vehicle so I don't have to own up to not having 37's; but, when 37's aren't around I could be the big dog, my rigs name has 12 vowels!"

285's say, "I wish I had a 100 or a 4Runner and that way I could sync my heart rate monitor to the EGR, my Prius name is Claire and it sync's beautifully to my pedometer."

Zona
 
No problems at all with 35's on my rig that's a daily driver/expo rig that gets 20K + miles a year. The guys suggesting 37's make me laugh. Only because they're probably right. I'm shopping for 37's for mine after almost 15 years of 35's. The only reason I've not done 37's already is the extra work needed to keep them from rubbing. I'm not a fan of limiting travel so much with bumpstops or having to cut the fenders a bunch to fit the 37's but I'm headed that way anyway.

 
LandCruiserPhil said:
Define EXPO rig?:rolleyes: More importantly where will you be traveling?
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rc51kid said:
I have a 94 FZJ80 that is my DD and my travel/exploring rig. I put about 20,000 miles a year on her traveling around the country and exploring trails and wheeling. Most of it is highway driving but when i get where i am going i enjoy being off road. Nothing really crazy but i like a good challenge.
Click to expand...



:eek:
 
Box Rocket said:
No problems at all with 35's on my rig that's a daily driver/expo rig that gets 20K + miles a year. The guys suggesting 37's make me laugh. Only because they're probably right. I'm shopping for 37's for mine after almost 15 years of 35's. The only reason I've not done 37's already is the extra work needed to keep them from rubbing. I'm not a fan of limiting travel so much with bumpstops or having to cut the fenders a bunch to fit the 37's but I'm headed that way anyway.
Click to expand...


Not much work at all. I have the Slee 4" lift along with their radius arms. Wheels are 17x8 & 4.5" BS and it only rubs a liiiiiiiiiiitle bit on my Slee rear bumper. No cutting needed on mine.


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I went from 285 Km2's and stock gearing to 315 duratrack and 4:88's this summer on my daily. Love them should have done it sooner. Your Toyos are around 75 lbs, about ten pounds heavier than most of the competition which will effect performance both on and off road but they are one tough tire.
 
just letting you know, you don't need 4" or 5" lift to do 37" tires....just take the right size wheel....slight trimming of the rear fender flare towards the bottom of the fender flares....and the right length shocks.
 
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