Arrrgh Tires

[duncb]

Hello everyone, I'm relatively new around here but I am beginning to loose my mind about tires... I have searched far and wide on so many forums but I'm finding mixed answers

The time has come to replace the duratracs and I'd like to go bigger... (I know, I know , yet another tire thread...)

I have a 2020 power wagon and I've been considering either 285/75/17 or 315/70/17. I would like the larger size and as long as I can still get in the garage for the occasional hail storm that's the direction I'd like to go but I'm struggling to understand if they will rub.

I like the duratracs and they do come in 315 (my stack tires have been pretty quiet to date, just a little short in that they only lasted 25k) but I also like the Toyo Open Country RT Trail (similar tread pattern...

Is anyone running these tires in these sizes - I've seen so many people say zero issues with 315/70/17 and other say they rub on full lock. This bolt is what concerns me... Or should I be worried about other things?

Thanks all - the photos in the 35s thread have been great

 

[duncb]

@Shocktrooper392 - just messaged you on reddit but couldn't work out how to attache a picture but happy to see you are on here too!

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

I can’t help you on garage height. I’m also not sure about the radius arm clearance of 315s on stock wheels but I can help you measure. The bolt you pictured is a tie rod end on the drag link and it won’t get any closer to the tire if you change tire size.

What size is your current tire? 285/70-17? ( based on google) which is 32.7” Are you staying on stock wheels? (I don’t recommend going to 18” wheels. 17 is a better size for tire availability and cost) Going wider is usually a tighter fit than going taller when it comes to clearance on stock wheels. If you go up to 315/70 that’s like a 35 (34.3) or 1.6” taller so you need 7/8” of height and you’re going wider by 30mm or 15mm (5/8”) out each sidewall. So check your lock to lock and see if you have room to go up and out by that much at the radius arm and swaybar etc whatever is closest. 285/75 is only ~1” taller without being wider but it’s about the same height that comes on non pw 18” trucks

Side note a regular 2500 has taller tires from the factory than a pw despite the power wagon having taller suspension. My Regular 2500 stock size was 275/70-18 (33.1”)

Anyway i have aftermarket wheels but I have duratracs in 285/75-18 which are taller than those options (taller than 35 shorter than 37) and they fit my non-pw2500 just fine. No rubbing through the entire range of suspension and wheel travel. With a 1” level my truck should still be shorter than your truck.

Next to a 37x12.50


On the rig.

 

[jetrinka]

Your PW will fit either size just fine. I ran the 315/70R17 for a little while with zero run - not even close to rubbing actually. Most tires in that size range in the mid 34”ish overall diameter.

I really liked how it looked but decided to switch back to stock due to better studded snow tire availability in that size.

 

[Crusty old shellback]

I've been running 35x12.50 17 on the stock beadlock rims for 53K miles now. Ran BFG AT and now MT Baja Boss. No rubbing issues with either and I've stuffed it at full lock.

 

[duncb]

Thanks for the reassurance everyone, I’ll try giving it lock to lock tmw to check everything else and check that bolt.

I’m running stock wheels (the other half would hammer me if I bought new wheels) but I doubt the wider tire would instantly be wider as it still has to fit the same wheels.

53k - I read that as “on a single set of tires” at first glance! Wow, now that would be great.

I think I’ll be asking about Speedo recalibration at some point too (dealer vs tazer ram vs aev) but will start a separate thread for that… next will be a spod or garmin module for some brighter lights)

Thanks again!

 

[Brutal_HO]

You're fixated on a bolt that attaches the steering tie-rod end to the spindle arm(knuckle) that is fixed in relation to the wheel. It's a red herring.

If you have tire rub it will be at one or more of three places.

• Rear inner fender liner/pinch weld.
• Radius Arms
• Swaybar

 

[jsalbre]

Thanks for the reassurance everyone, I’ll try giving it lock to lock tmw to check everything else and check that bolt.

I’m running stock wheels (the other half would hammer me if I bought new wheels) but I doubt the wider tire would instantly be wider as it still has to fit the same wheels.

53k - I read that as “on a single set of tires” at first glance! Wow, now that would be great.

I think I’ll be asking about Speedo recalibration at some point too (dealer vs tazer ram vs aev) but will start a separate thread for that… next will be a spod or garmin module for some brighter lights)

Thanks again!

A wider tire will absolutely be wider, even if you don’t change the wheels. It’ll just be squeezed in more at the bead than the narrower tire.

The dealership cannot adjust the speedometer for different size tires. The other two options you listed are not ideal for just changing tire size. Search this site for AlfaOBD and you’ll find lots of information on the usually recommended system to go with.

 

[Enve46]

Go 37s! You only live once hahaha… I will never be the voice of reasoning on tire size choices.

 

[g00fy]

I've got a 2019 6.7 Tradesman 4x4, so it sits a little lower than your PW. I grabbed a set of 2012 Power Wagon wheels and put them on my truck with 35x12.5R17 Kenda Kelever RT's, no rub at all, and they look great, but I should've gone with 37's, they look a little small on the truck.

 

[el_barto]

I might be a rare case, but I get minor rubbing on full lock with 315/70 R17 Falken Wildpeaks on my 2019. It’s no big deal, and i I try to avoid full lock anyways.

Op: I would reconsider the Duratracs. They were a popular tire about 10 years ago but there are better options now. The Duratracs tend to have relatively short life span. And in my experience get noisy with substantially reduced snow traction in the second half of their life. I think the Falken Wildpeak AT3W is one of the best AT options, they are long lasting, quiet, and provide good snow traction (for an AT). Mine have 45k miles on them and I think I can get another 10k or more out of them.

 

[duncb]

A wider tire will absolutely be wider, even if you don’t change the wheels. It’ll just be squeezed in more at the bead than the narrower tire.

The dealership cannot adjust the speedometer for different size tires. The other two options you listed are not ideal for just changing tire size. Search this site for AlfaOBD and you’ll find lots of information on the usually recommended system to go with.

They have offered to do it for $1-200. I heard about AlfaOBD but don't have a PC to run it

 

[duncb]

I might be a rare case, but I get minor rubbing on full lock with 315/70 R17 Falken Wildpeaks on my 2019. It’s no big deal, and i I try to avoid full lock anyways.

Op: I would reconsider the Duratracs. They were a popular tire about 10 years ago but there are better options now. The Duratracs tend to have relatively short life span. And in my experience get noisy with substantially reduced snow traction in the second half of their life. I think the Falken Wildpeak AT3W is one of the best AT options, they are long lasting, quiet, and provide good snow traction (for an AT). Mine have 45k miles on them and I think I can get another 10k or more out of them.

That's an impressive lifespan - there's definitely a relationship between aggressive treads and diminishing miles unfortunately

 

[jenninr]

They have offered to do it for $1-200. I heard about AlfaOBD but don't have a PC to run it

AlphaODB can also run on an Android phone or tablet.

 

[Docwagon1776]

The dealership cannot adjust the speedometer for different size tires.

They can.

 

[jsalbre]

They have offered to do it for $1-200. I heard about AlfaOBD but don't have a PC to run it

They can.

If you found a dealership that says they can, they’re either using AlfaOBD (or something similar), or they just assume they can still use their official tools to do it, which they haven’t been able to for years.

Either way, for less than they’ll charge you you can have a functional AlfaOBD setup that will be useful for other things.

 

[duncb]

You're fixated on a bolt that attaches the steering tie-rod end to the spindle arm(knuckle) that is fixed in relation to the wheel. It's a red herring.

If you have tire rub it will be at one or more of three places.

• Rear inner fender liner/pinch weld.
• Radius Arms
• Swaybar

OK - I went outside and had the wheels turned lock to lock. Looking at @Rockcrawlindude numbers above I think I have plenty of space - closest is on the passenger side radius arm but I think it'll be fine on 35s which is (currently) as large as I want to go I'm happy about this and thanks for the pointers!

 

[Shocktrooper392]

Getting to this thread late, 315/70/17 is slightly smaller than a 35x12.5x17 which is what I run. Never had a single issue with rubbing on the Toyo RT Trail's. FWIW, the Toyos and the Falken Wildpeaks are both great tire options. I have roughly 10k miles on my Toyos and have zero complaints. Great in the rain, great in mud, great road manners, seem pretty quiet to me for how aggressive the tread pattern is. I've had several trucks/SUVs through work with the Falkens and they always have great road manners & wear evenly (provided you rotate every oil change).
I would not consider the Duratracs again if it was me. Had them on my old Jeep XJ and while they were great offroad, they wear fast and eventually become hard as rocks. Hence why I only kept them on my truck for like 600 miles (also so I could sell them and get some money back from the Toyos).
You may have already done this, but as @Rockcrawlindude mentioned about 17" rims having more options for tire sizes, make sure you price out the metric and standard size of the tires. Sometimes distributors will sell the same size tire in metric for slightly cheaper than standard or vice versus simply because of more stock. With my Toyo's the same size in metric was like $15 more a tire simply because they had more standard size tires in stock.
For fixing the tire size, after AEV finally came out with a SNAP that was compatible for 2023's, it worked great. Very easy to pair, very easy to set tire size and lower TPMS warnings.

 

[Crusty old shellback]

On the meteric vs standard, be aware. I found this out the hard way on my MT tires.
They are rated for different loads. A metric 315/70R17 was rated for a higher load than the same 35x12.50 17. Shop I bought the 35s from would not mount them on my truck as they were not rated for the truck. Even though the combined max load of the 4 tires was more than what my truck weighed and the about of weight it was rated to haul.

 

[duncb]

So I was about to make a decision and caught that the 315/70/17 tires are d rated and that seems to mean a 50psi max which won't meet the minimums for the tpms... I know I can change it but in an effort to keep the costs down it seems the only E rated option in that size is a Toyo MT - I can only see that on Discount Tire who won't even install 315/70/17 on my truck (they force you to select a vehicle when ordering)