How to fit 33x12.50's on a 4Runner with lift

[Jared]

I'm writing this up because I get asked all the time "what did it take for you to fit 33x12.50's under your truck". Since I've written this in a pm at least 4 times now, I thought I'd finally put it somewhere more permanent. Hopefully someone doesn't have something similar here, so this will be some help to people.
I did notice that this thread: http://www.toyota120.com/forum/showthread.php?t=405 talked a bit about it, but I thought I'd write something a bit more complete... enjoy

Here is what is involved with fit and trimming of 33x12.50x17 tires on a 4th Gen 4Runner with 2.5 inches of lift and rims with 4.5" backspacing

* Preface *

Read the sentence before this very carefully, if you have a different lift or different backspacing, forget about this being on the mark. It's a fairly standard setup, but some people want to be stubborn and try to force 33's on stock alloys.
Every tire measures different, some bigger than 33x12.50, some smaller. BFG I hear makes them a bit small, while Interco tends to be on the mark or bigger. Take 33x12.50 with a grain of salt.
Alignment is EVERYTHING - If you have a crappy alignment, or no alignment done after your lift/tires, don't even bother reading this, you won't get the same results. Have your alignment professional push your tires as far forward as they can (while being in spec) because you can trim the crap out of the front of your wheelwell, while the back has this nasty thing called a frame! You can trim that, but not with my help. If it involves more than a sawzall, dremel, or exacto knife, I'm not having it.
There is a lot of play in the way people use their trucks, if you aren't REALLY flexing, you won't rub most things, but I seemed to come at it with a "little bit at a time" mentality. I'd trim, offroad, rub... trim, offroad, rub... wash rinse repeat until I came up with what I'm writing below.


Okay, I'm breaking this down piece by piece for my sake and yours.

[Jared]

*Front tires*

Front of the Front Wheelwell (got that?):

Stock Bumper:
I actually had these tires mounted w/ my stock bumper for a while. So I'm not toally ingnorant when it comes to that.

With the stock bumper I had to cut out a large part (the bottom third I would say) of the front thin wheel well liner. You can tell what I'm talking about by just tapping it, it's real thin and can be cut by a exacto knife. *STRONG NOTE* When cutting this on the right wheelwell, do not cut too deep, or you will slice a big gash in your windshield washer fluid tank *trust me*. It sits right behind that plastic and it cuts like butter. *Side note* When I cut it, I thought, oh sheit I just cut my brake line! Thankfully it had just been refilled, so it really smelled like windex!
Second thing I had to cut was a diagnal piece out of the front of the fender itself. So on mine (I had the old plastic style fenders) it wasn't a big deal, I just cut enough so it wouldn't rub, and you really couldn't tell by looking at it that I cut some. I basically just rounded out the front fender a bit. Mabye a 3" by 3" (3 up towards the hood, 3 forward towards the... front) triangle with some rounding. So I used a sawzall for the diagnal cut and a dremel to smooth it out and make it pretty. You'll lose the bottom rivet that holds that plastic sheet I mentioned above, but that's okay because you should have cut off the bottom third of it anyway.


Aftermarket bumper:
Of course with my tube bumper, I didn't really need to cut anything in the front of the wheelwell because there was nothing there. You do end up having to nearly remove that whole thin sheet of plastic that I was referring to earlier when you get an aftermarket bumper though.

This is because you don't have the stock bumper to hold it in place at the bottom and it will flap in the wind and hit your tire. I learned that the first time I got on the highway after my bumper was installed. I was like "sheit, what's that noise". At about 50mph the wind was bending it so it was skimming off the top of my tire. I ended up cutting it off with a knife right there on the side of the highway.
I still have some left, but no more than about a 3 inch strip that is just connect by the top rivets/screws/whatever.
This is easy to figure out... drive fast and if you hear it hit, trim some more. Save yourself some time and trim a crapload to begin with.
BTW, yes your wheelwell is going to look freakin bare now, but that's life. At least you know your tire is going to hit obstacles before anything else.


Back of the front wheelwell:

Here's where it gets tricky...

First, remove the mudflap, or your tire is going to remove it for you. It will certainly do a worse job than you will.
After taking it off, put those screws back in your fender, as they where nearly the only thing holding it in place (lesson learned).
With mudflap gone (and assuming you read the preface above) your result will vary from here on out it seems. I did not have to trim the body mount or touch the frame in any way (Taco pinch weld method). I think that if you do, you should adjust your alignment and try pushing your tires forward a bit more. Why screw w/ the frame if you don't have to??
You will have to do something similar to the front of the wheelwell though (on a much smaller scale). What you will have to do though... trim another diagnal, but this time not an equilateral one. You might have to trim up the fender 2", but certainly not back 2", or you will be hitting more than plastic. Since this piece isn't like the front where it is a two dimensional sheet, you will have to get creative.

You will basically have to trim a diagnal on the outside of the fender (as is obvious) and will also have to trim a diagnal out of the inside of the wheelwell. Basically imagine taking a sword and sheering off the very corner of your rear fender/wheelwell.
You'll need a sawzall, or a dremel with a lot of patience. I did it with my tire on and it was a pain in the ass to get the correct angles. If you can manage with the tire off, if you have jack stands, that would be the way to go.
Cut slowly and watch how deep you go, you should only be cutting plastic and not metal. Round/sand everything off with a dremel and it'll barely looked like anyone touched it.

[Jared]

*Rear tires*

This is easy. Remove the mudflap and forget the rest.

That damn rear tire will stuff itself to death, but it will fit quite nicely actually. Of course it will rub a little on the inside of the well a bit at completely full stuff with high articulation angles, but it's not like you can make the wheelwell entirely bigger. The rear is really not a problem. I removed the mudflaps and haven't had a problem yet. I've been airborn, the whole 9 yards and haven't seen any evidence of damage anywhere. I had ppl ride in my back seat with the windows down to see if they could hear any rubbing, but I didn't have a problem. On full stuff, you should be going slow enough that rubbing won't cause many problems. Now if you are a psycho-speed-racer-rock-crawler, and you are doing it in a mid sized SUV, well, you are a psycho and there's no trimming that.

**************************************************
Okay, that's all I can bloody think of at this point.
If anyone has any comments or questions, let me know and I'll come back and edit this as need be.
**************************************************

[bulldog]

Great write up thx.

So can I send you a PM on how you fitted your tires now? :wavey:

[Jared]

Great write up thx.

So can I send you a PM on how you fitted your tires now? :wavey:

Sure, and I'll just send you a link to this post.

The post is very wordy and perhaps too verbose, but it basically wrote itself.

[Mikestang]

Needs pictures, but other than that thanks for the info!

[AlexJet]

Jared, thanks for the info.
Could you post some pictures. It will be much easier to get it while reading and comparing your info to the images.

[Jared]

I'll see what I can dig up. My digital camera decided it would be fun to break, so I'll have to just photoshop some existing pictures to show you what I'm talking about.

[AlexJet]

I'll see what I can dig up. My digital camera decided it would be fun to break, so I'll have to just photoshop some existing pictures to show you what I'm talking about.

:poke: Any pictures yet?
I need to make a final decision on my tires and your pictures will be very helpful.

[Jared]

:poke: Any pictures yet?
I need to make a final decision on my tires and your pictures will be very helpful.

Couldn't find any of the cuts. Just my general pictures in flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/jaredm

If you are staying with the stock bumper and don't want to cut much plastic 12.50's might be a little much. If you are okay to cut plastic, then I think you'll be fine.

[AlexJet]

Couldn't find any of the cuts. Just my general pictures in flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/jaredm

If you are staying with the stock bumper and don't want to cut much plastic 12.50's might be a little much. If you are okay to cut plastic, then I think you'll be fine.

I think I'd go with 33x11.5x17.
Your pictures are nice, but I couldn't find what have you trimmed. As soon as you'll get your camera, could you make close-up pictures and post them?

[Jared]

I think I'd go with 33x11.5x17.
Your pictures are nice, but I couldn't find what have you trimmed. As soon as you'll get your camera, could you make close-up pictures and post them?

Yeah. A digital camera is a must have nowadays, but when one breaks, it's so freaking hard to go out and spend $$$ on a new one. I'm still pondering whether to get a point and shoot, or finally a DSLR, so that's why I still don't have one.

[my034runner]

Thanks Jared for the great write up. But Andries, shouldn't this excellent write up be more appropriate in the suspension and Tire section?
Sorry, just my 2 cents......

[Jared]

I thought about putting it there, but I thought since it was 4Runner specific, that I'd put it in here. By all means move it wherever it fits!

[my034runner]

I thought about putting it there, but I thought since it was 4Runner specific, that I'd put it in here. By all means move it wherever it fits!


Good point I guess. :devil:

Hey, how come you're not coming out for our Mojave trip? Is that the weekend that you're doing the decathlon? :devil:

[Jared]

Good point I guess. :devil:

Hey, how come you're not coming out for our Mojave trip? Is that the weekend that you're doing the decathlon? :devil:

Triathlon, last one of the season. Now I have to start thinking about what mods I need to finalize before the big offroading season hits again.

My short list is: beadlocks, winch, rear shocks... but we'll see.

[my034runner]

Triathlon, last one of the season. Now I have to start thinking about what mods I need to finalize before the big offroading season hits again.

My short list is: beadlocks, winch, rear shocks... but we'll see.


Whoops, sorry, I got the wrong sport. Good luck again!

Hey, aren't (for some unknown reason) supposed to be illegal for the street? They would be cool to have though. :cool1:
Staun make an internal beadlock though, that are street legal. :wavey:

[Jared]

Whoops, sorry, I got the wrong sport. Good luck again!

Hey, aren't (for some unknown reason) supposed to be illegal for the street? They would be cool to have though. :cool1:
Staun make an internal beadlock though, that are street legal. :wavey:

No problem on getting the sport wrong. You guys have fun on the mojave road!

The beadlock illegal/legal thing has been hashed out a million times, and no one has found any proof that they are ILLEGAL. I'm not worried about being ticketed, because there are so many fakelocks out there.

I thought about stauns, but they don't protect the rim at all, and that's one of my big reasons to get beadlocks.