Best tires for stock 4Runner

WOW. Thats pretty funny. I had the BFG KO2 on my last Tacoma which was also a plow truck. And I installed them on my new 4Runner a month after getting it. The Load Range "C" is more than enough to handle the weight of the 4Runner ( 2470 lbs at 50psi ). The Load Range "E" is for bigger and heavier trucks ( 3195 lbs at 80psi ).

 

Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT's 265 70 17's on zero offset rims. Fantastic tire and balanced better than KO2's, which they could not do. Porter Tire did a fantastic job and were cheaper than Discount Tire..

 

It's because Toyota spec'd the 4Runner with 265/70/17 P-metric tires. From a legal perspective that's what BFG has to match, which means the KO2 doesn't fit there. I suppose if someone running K02s had an accident because of those tires and sued BFG, theoretically BFG would be on the hook for officially recommending an out of spec tire. It keeps them legally safe to only recommend what Toyota spec'd.

Now, just based on math the K02s are fine. The PSI thing has been incorrectly beat to death on forums for the last few years. Somehow everyone decided to use the load rating of the factory tire (P265/70/17 at 32psi) as the load calculations for PSI conversion, which is equivalent to a 265 K02 at 44psi. They will handle terribly in the rain like that because the contact patch is so small.

However, if you do the same math with the OEM limited tires (P245/60/20 at 32psi) you'll get 35psi. I've run that on two 5th Gens since 2016 on C-load KO2s and have never had an issue with wet traction or anything like that.

35psi in a stock size KO2 has a load rating of 1890lbs, so 7560lbs total load ability for the vehicle. The GVWR of the 4Runner is only 6100lbs (maximum load). Normal running weight is only about 4700lbs.

Toyota fitted the FJ Cruiser Trail Teams, which is essentially a 4Runner, with BFG KOs from the factory and I believe they had to overlay amended door placards with that tire spec on those.

 

Thank you for that. I have tried to point out several times how the Limited ships with a 107 load rated tire. K02 Cs @ 35 PSI have worked well for me.

 

So BFG cares, but the tire retailers don't.

 

Stock size load C KO2 for me, on and off road, on my '21 Venture. I have no issues with them

 

it's 6300# according to Toyota...unless you're talking about 2wd.

And the reason everyone uses the load carrying capability of the 265/70R17 as a basis is because Toyota decided to go with 32psi when they could have gone lower and, according to the TRA charts, you are supposed to use the original tire size and pressure to determine pressure in the replacement tires. What you're saying makes some sense except when you start talking about total load ability because that presumes evenly distributed which is unlikely. Also, I know that I for one had no idea what came on the Limited since I do not have one...

Now if you can explain why Toyota lists a payload capacity of like 850# on a vehicle with a wet curb weight of 4750 and a GVWR of 6300#, that's one I'd like to hear.

(and, FWIW, Toyo AT3's are fine in the rain at 44psi, maybe the problem is that KO2's are the most overrated tire around?)

 

My point is that there is much more to an OEM picking a tire pressure than just load capacity. There's rolling resistance, tread footprint, ride quality, etc. that goes into it.

I've read posts on other forums screaming that you're asking for a catastrophic failure if you run a C load 265 lower than 44psi because that doesn't match the load capacity of the OEM P 265. That's incorrect simply because Toyota puts a lower load rating tire /psi on the Limited, which is the same vehicle.

The crossover between the factory load rating of the limited 245/60/20 tire at 32psi is the equivalent of a C load 265/70/17 at 35psi. I've got about 100k miles on a couple sets of K02s on my 4Runner at 35psi and haven't had any handling issues. I get 18.5mpg on the dash computer and don't baby it. They've been great for me and I'm confident of the load capacity via tire pressure. I see no reason to bump up to 44psi which would, I imagine, ride rougher and wear unevenly.