Screenshot of the tire calculator comparison

 

I bought the 285/70R17 and there is a difference in size. If I had the money right now I would get 295/70 or 285/75 because mine seem small at times.Your stock tires will look goofy with a lift. The thing you need to look at is are you using this as your daily driver. Because the bigger tire you get ,the more your power and mpg we be affected. With my setup I am getting 17-18 mpg. I bought my tires from roadway wholesale for $925 for all five and just paid my tire shop $50 to mount/balance. Either way dont get the 265's if you are lifting.

 

I took the two-set approach, regarding tires. I have OEM Dunlop 265/70/17's on stock alloy rims for daily driving (better mileage, smoother ride). But, bought Hankook M/T 285/70/17's on OEM alloy rims for when I go offroading. I got a great deal on OEM Dunlops and rims from a fellow forum member.

I only offroad around 20-25% of the time, so whenever I plan of weekend of wheeling I just pull up to the garage, break out the floor jack and swap them out.

Works for me, and I get the best of both worlds. I could care less how it looks when I'm commuting every day, and to tell the truth, it's not that strange looking to run 265/70/17's with a 3" lift...

 

I recently leveled my FJ (about +1.25 inch in the front, none in the rear) and have decided on 265-70/17 Duratracs. If I had lifted more, maybe I'd go with larger tires, but the case for the 265's is compelling for me.

 

Hey you know you want the 285 70 17's its in your signature:lol:

 

Haha, true, forgot about that.

Rolltide - thanks for that, it's what I wanted to hear basically - they'll look small, goofy, with a lift.

But would all you guys suggest buying them online from tire rack or discount tire or roadway wholesale and then getting them mounted, balanced, and aligned? Is there any benefit to buying from an NTB or tire place?

Do 5 tires fit in the FJ? or could I throw a couple on the stock rack and a few inside?

 

YES 5 tires fit in the FJ just fine. Place 3 stacked on one another on the section of seat that fold down. Then stand two upright in the back section. Bring a big blanket with you so that the two standing up will not roll back and forth when you take corners. Plus you can protect your rear door and side panels from marks.....

 

Ok, I've settled on the 285s. Here is a quote I got from Todd at Tire Rack, what do you think?

5 BFG A/T KO
285/70/17
Raised white lettering (not available in D)
Load rating E
Shipping from CT to MA $88.20
$232 per tire

Grand total: $1248.20

I'm assuming a mount, balance, and alignment will run $150 tops. So around $1400 all said and done.

Thoughts?

 

Hi!
be careful buying the bfgs from Tirerack or a discount tire reseller. I did a lot of research and found that these places as well as Sam's Club supposedly have the same tires, but BFG makes two different tires. One for the discount places which have softer rubber compounds, tread depth, and materials, and another set for the regular resellers. I bought mine from a regular reseller after finding this out. I also checked the tires at Sam's Club. Look at the sticker on them, and on some you will see the information, like tread depth, etc. They are not the same! I wanted the RWL tires but they are on national backorder. They should be in in about a month. They are available in load range D. An E range is an awful stiff tire for a FJ. My H2 has load range D and has a great ride, and that weighs a lot more than the FJ.
I paid $1160.00 ($220.00 a tire) for 5 of the 285/70/17's and $35 to mount/balance at the Toyota dealership. They balanced out perfectly. You will also notice that the BFG's will have either a green or blue dot on the sidewall. That marks the heavy spot in the tire. If you have the dealership mount them, they should mount the spot on the tire completely opposite of the tire valve (which is the heavy spot on the rim). This will basically even out the balance of wheel/tire combo and give you a perfect ride......
I hope this helps you make your decision!

 

in terms of braking and acceleration, you will definitely be able to tell a difference. Installing 285BFG's had the most noticeable negative effect on on-road performance of any mod i have done so far.
Brakes won't feel as firm and "peppy-ness" will be less.

 

If you spend most of your time on the road 265's will be better but I have found that they also do well offroad:rawr:

 

God damnit! I feel like Brett Favre over here. Now you guys make a good case for the 265s - most of my driving is on-road and I really don't want to feel less pep or longer braking. It may be a while till I lift or upgrade my bumper, idk now.

(Plus they don't offer the raised white letters in a 285 load range D, only the E which is way to heavy for me, but maybe they do at other places)

I just called Tire Rack, and they said they don't get a different tire than the regular tire places. They come from BFG, same place, same tire as all the others. Just cheaper in price because they buy by the container and not single orders.

I do find it hard to believe that BFG or any other manufacturer would have a cheaper duplicate of every tire they make to sell to the discount distributors. He said people just accuse them of that to sell you on going to a regular tire place and spending more. Or maybe the guys just lying to me, wtf do I know.

 

The biggest difference in visibility for me was the width of the 285's. It made a big difference visually when looking at it from the front (headon and from the side). I only had my 265's on for a day before I had my lift... but, it really didn't look too bad. But, the lift looked so much better after the 285's were mounted.

The FJ performs the best on the road with 265s... I have to agree with everyone. But, the difference offroad was worth the loss in gas mileage. Visually... I can't go back though. Do not regret moving up at all when it comes to that.

Anything you do to make your vehicle better offroad... will sacrifice onroad performance. It's the nature of the game.

 

There are definitely some special versions of major brand name tires made for discount chains like Walmart, but as far as I know they are identifiable by name.

 

This is true, the only place I have seen the discounted version is at Walmart and they have different lettering on the side.

As for price, get Discount Tire to price match I got 285/75/16's for less than $186 apiece. Don't get load range E stick with the D unless your a masochist, the RWL only come on the D rated tire at least in the 16" size.

 

I have the 265's BFG, no lift. i love them.

They do great on road and off. I only do level 1,2,3 trails. Never had an issue with my tires.

 

I have been running 265 BFG ATs on my truck since I drove it off the lot. Having driven the truck at both stock height and lifted, I still like the look of the tires. So far I have no regrets sticking with this size. Both on and off road performance have been great. For me its hard to justify the loss in performance, braking, handling, along with higher cost for only 0.5" more ground clearance. My FJ sees mostly road miles as a daily driver between its excursions as a weekend warrior, and I have been tracking my fuel mileage since the truck was new. So far, despite a lift and heavy winch bumper the truck has been giving me the same mileage as the day i drove it off the lot. I am willing to bet that a change to larger heavier tires would end that pretty quick. The larger 285s do look great, but I dont think you can go wrong with the 265s either from a practical viewpoint.

 

The larger 285s do look great, but I dont think you can go wrong with the 265s either from a practical viewpoint.

Gotta agree here. As someone that switched to 285's, they definitely lower your on-road performance. I first had 265 Nitto Terra Grapplers and they were great. No noticeable difference from the stock tires in terms of noise and handling. Then I lifted and upsized to 285 Nitto TG's. (bump in noise, bit of floating, and loss of mpg) All these things you have to expect from those mods. BUT...BUT they look awesome and have worked great off-road.

 

Put the same tires on my stock FJ this spring, except that I also added a Toytec leveling kit to ensure "rub elimination" and to give it a better look. As a DD vehicle, didn't make sense to go to a full 3" suspension lift, cause then I'd have to go to 35s ;-)

 

I just got the 285's today and put the 35's with polished rims in the garage for the winter. Like the 285's so far. I went to Discount Tire here in town and got just about the same price you indicate since I had to make 2 trips with the 35's back to the house the fact that the place was right around the corner made the difference to me.

 

1. Is there a significant visible difference between the 285 and 265? If you put them both on the FJ could you tell the difference?

2. If I plan on doing a lift in the future, will I regret getting the 265s? Will they look small after lifting?

I have recently replaced the stock tires with BFG AT 285/75/16. I also already have ICON stage one, but the front coils are set to 2" still.

pros:

• They look much better than stock tires especially with a lift.
• Stable ride as the tires are wider.
• More ground clearance as the 285s add about 1" height to the car.

cons:

• They do rub slightly on turns only, so a body mount chop mod is highty recommended.
• More fuel consumption.
• Sometimes slightly noisy.

conclusions: go ahead and buy them, you'll like them :bigthumb:

Hope this helps

 

You guys all make great points on both sides. God I love this forum. You guys rock.

I feel like the 265s are practical, better for a daily driver, and will still have the pep of the stock tires, but smaller and less aggressive looking and not as good off-road.

The 285s seem great for perfomance off-road, better looks when lifted, but will sacrifice some mpg and peppiness.

I'm actually leaning more towards the practical choice now. To be perfectly honest, I don't even off-road that much, it's more of a 99/1 split than 90/10. I'd love to wheel more but I work a lot and have too many other hobbies haha.

At least I'll have a solid all-terrain tire for when I do off-road here in the northeast. And a 0.5 to 1" difference is not that big of a deal for me.

I think I'm going with the 265s guys.

Hey Discount Tire, you guys offering any FJ forum coupons or specials on the BFG A/T KO 265/70/17 Load C with RWL?

 

Glad to help Good luck with the 265 :wave:

EDIT: My FJ is my daily driver.

 

I run my BFG TA/ko 265's on my alloy wheels for daily driving and my BFG TA/ko
285's on steelies when I do serious off-road driving.

I think the different size tires for discount stores is an urban myth! There are differences in tires made in different places, but not for discount stores. Once the consumer was wise to that practice the discount stores would be out of business!

cheers,

dale

 

I was actually thinking about putting my 265's back on for the winter and adding some 1" spacers to give it a wider stance for stability. But, that might be a possibility for you too.

 

If you have no lift then stick with 265....if you are lifting your FJ 3" or more then go with 285/295....as the tire increase is how you are going to get more ground clearance. Lifts dont do that...only larger tires or tucking your parts up higher underneath.

I have 295 Nitto Terra Grapplers....if I was doing it over would like go with just 285s to keep from having to do body mount chop. The 285 will be noticeably larger and you will notice it entering your vehicle as well. Everyone that comes here and says THEY WONT WHEEL MUCH ends up wheeling...so might as well spend the money now rather than trying to wear them out faster in 8 months so you can upgrade. Trust me..I know.


Offroad maybe 3-4 times a year and is mostly sand, dirt roads or some snow then yeah stick with 265. If you are going to do any trail runs with any rocks or off camber at all then go to 285......

My 2 cents.... 33" tire with 3" lift is about the perfect all around mix of functionality and practicality on an FJ Cruiser and likely should have been set up like this from the factory to be truthful.

 

On the subject of price, mounting & ballancing, and allignment. Internet purchase or local store. I recently replaced the tires on my Grand Cherokee and checked online then called the local shops. You can have the tires shipped directly to the shop of your choice, just set it up in advance. Now on the other hand, when I was calling around for mounting, Discount Tire matched the internet price, had the tires instock and did the work that day, and included the free balancing/rotation for I think 3 years or xxx miles. As for allignment with 10K. Have you done any front end mods or work, do you notice any pull left or right. If so get it alligned. If not get the tires mounted and see how it drives. Toyota allows for one free allignment under warranty, this may be within 12k or one year of service. May not be covered if you had mods done. Best to call and ask your local dealer service dept.

 

Another piece of info that leans me more towards 265s is that my FJ BARELY fits in my garage right now. If I go with the 285s it may fit, but I won't be able to do a lift later on (with 265s or 285s for that matter).

Otherwise it's in the driveway under a tree and getting crapped on everyday. That's where my wife's car sits. :lol:

 

yeah that sucks...luckily i got a new house less than 2 years old and with 295, 3 inch lift, and baja rack I have exactly 1/4" of clearance when it goes in garage....the pad for kayak actually brushes the weather seal on header board.