Wheel Delima with my 91' amd 96' Cruisers

[dpsmith]

I have wheel dilemma with my 91'and 96' Cruisers. I am a long time lurker but haven't posted much. I would like some opinions. No I an not looking for which, tire, wheel. oil is the best... So here is the background:

I bought the 91' TLC several years ago. It had the 15" factory wheels on it with worn out tires. I found a set of 5 factory 17" FJ wheels with new oem tires that I put on. I sold the 15" wheels. The 17" FJ wheels looked great on the 91' and I could use the rear center caps.

So recently after looking for some time. I found a locked 96' for a good price. I wanted the air bags, ABS and 4 wheel disc brakes when its used as the kid hauler. The 96' had the factory 16" wheels with worn out tires.
So I swapped the wheels and put the 96' factory wheels on the 91' and the FJ 17" wheels on the 96'. So I took the 96' with FJ wheels in and had stock size Geolanders put on. Are you following me?

The 96' has running boards which make the different offset from the FJ wheels look worse. Also the caps don't fit. I know I can get spacers for the FJ wheels to remedy the offset issue. But not sure if I want to go that route. I am going to sell the 91' In the future I plan to do a 2" lift with 33" tires on the 96'. The 96' is mainly used as a back country camping/kid hauler

So finally here are the questions given all the variables.

Should I swap the wheels back and put 33" tires on the 96' factory wheels and the 17" wheels on the 91'? I just bought the Geolander tires that are on the FJ wheels which would go out with 91'. I would then have to buy new tires for the original 96' wheels.

Is everyone properly confused? In retrospect I should have just bought new 33" for the 96" and call it good. I know I am over thinking this but I plan to keep the 96' for along time. So I want to do it right choice before selling the 91'.



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[firetruck41]

If money is no object, get 285s for the 16" wheels and put them on the 96.

Sent from my DROIDX using Forum Runner

 

[pursuit]

If it were me, I'd figure for the price of a set of spacers I could find a lightly used set of 33s on craigslist for the factory wheels.

 

[wcbr]

Any photos of the 96 with the fj wheels? I was considering doing the same, interested in seeing the issues you mentioned with the offset and running boards looking odd.

 

[wspastorbryan]

You could take your running board off. You sound like you described me. I had a 91 with FJ Cruiser rims, and moved them to my 96, and then taking the running boards off was the first thing I did. Just didn't look right.
The new tires may help the 91 sell, but it just depends what you have in your budget. Here's a pic after taking off the boards. I got that bracket off too. It's just hard to get to. Wider tires help it look right too.

 

[Ebag333]

I personally strongly dislike wheel spacers. It adds another point that can potentially fail, and they need to be regularly checked.

Check out TreadWright's Warden A/T. I'm running those in the 285 flavor with the kedge grip on the truck, and love it. Handles well, has no issues with snow or rain, and good road performance.

Price is extremely reasonable too.

They are retreads, but you can barely tell, and the tire shop that mounted them for me was very impressed.

 

[dpsmith]

Thanks for the info fellas. I need to snap some photos and post them.

The 91' doesn't have running boards so the FJ wheels looked better on it than 96'.

For now I want to keep the running boards and flares on the 96'. The kids can get in a lot easier. I like the look without them though.

Yeah the tires are shot on 96' factory wheels so if I swap back it will help sell the 91' Though I won't get the whole $800 dollars back. But of course then I'll have to buy new 285s for the 96.

I search a little here before making the initial wheel/tire decision. But now I wish I would have thought it out more. Hind site is 20/20.

I think I am going to go the 285 route with the 96' factory wheels. Time to confuse the boys at discount tire again.

 

[wcbr]

the Fj rims look grea,t from the side, I'm really curious to see this setup with the running boards, and see how obvious the offset difference is from other angles. My LX450 is stock, but would like to update the rims, and those FJs or the TRD 16" are my top picks at the moment.

passing the time, waiting for more pics...

Wc

 

[dpsmith]

At work now, will get pics posted this evening. I am reluctant to run the spacers needed for it to look right with the flares and running boards.

 

[kirkm76]

I run steel tundra/sequoia rims (2002ish) and use the center caps from non north america 80 series. They are much deeper than the fj cruiser caps. C-Dan can get them and I can't see why they wouldn't work on the fj cruiser wheels. a little spendy at 200 a set but the wheels were nearly free and look stock now. As of making it look right with running boards, a set of front flaps for non running board trucks for 80 bucks and a wrench will fix that issue.

Not sure if my rims have a different offset than the factory alloys, but they are an inch skinnier. Works perfect with my 265/75 16 tires.

Anyhow, the center caps are an option on the fj cruiser steelies...not sure which you have.

 

[dpsmith]

wspastorbryan FJ wheels look great on your LC.

Here are some pictures

 

[dpsmith]

 

[dpsmith]

 

[jynx]

One other thing is that I believe that the later flares and boards are wider than the 91-92 so the backspacing problem appears much worse. I have a 91 that I put some 17" tundra wheels on and I was convinced I would need spacers to make it look right, but they are just barely inset from the flare edge. One side-effect that I hadn't thought about is that with the shallower BS, during a good stuff, you WILL rub the frame and body, especially if you aren't running the rear sway bar.

I like the articulation so I am now looking at spacers more to help keep the tires out of the body than anything else, course I should probably adjust the bump-stops too

Spacers are really a personal preference, there are a good number of folks running them without any problems, but they are another part to deal with. If you go that route just get a quality set. I'm looking at the Spidertrax ones myself.

 

[dpsmith]

Yeah the FJ wheels looked better on the 91. Thanks for the info.