Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Toyota FJ Cruiser Wheels on my FJ80 Land Cruiser

Ever since I purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, I knew I wanted to replace the factory Toyota 15 inch alloy wheels and 31/10.50 BFG AT tires with larger tires and wheels. The primary reasons for wanting to complete this upgrade included:

• The “C” load rating of the 15 inch tires were being pushed to their limits with the weight of a fully loaded and accessorized 80-series Land Cruiser. I didn’t want to trust them very much longer on a 6000 pound vehicle.
• There are very limited tire sizes that will fit a 15×7 wheel. I wanted to run narrow 33 inch tall tires.
• I wanted to increase the ground clearance by a inch or more. Every inch in the vertical direction helps with a 112 inch wheelbase.
• The 31/10.50 tires looked very small in the abnormally large wheel wells of a 80-series Land Cruiser running the medium weight Old Man Emu (OME) suspension. Even my wife thought the tires looked small.
• In the future, I want to install a full float rear axle from a later 80-series Land Cruiser which requires a minimum of 16 inch wheels to clear the disk brake rotors and calipers.

With that in mind, I was planning on eventually acquiring an inexpensive set 16×8 black steel wheels and purchasing some narrow 33 inch all terrain tires to fit. My plan was to hold off on the tire and wheel purchase until I had the opportunity to regear my axles from a 4.11 to a 4.88 or lower ratio.

FJ Cruiser Wheels and 285/70R-17 BFG M/Ts

I guess plans don’t always work out as intended. I recently came across a set of five tires and wheels at a price I could not pass on. So on the Land Cruiser they went.

17 inch Toyota FJ Cruiser Alloy Wheels and 285/70R-17 BFG M/Ts

The wheels I purchased are the factory 17 inch alloy wheels from a Toyota FJ Cruiser. The FJ Cruiser wheels have about 1/4 inch more backspace (approximately 4.75 inch backspacing) than the factory FJ80 wheels (approximately 4.5 inch backspacing). I was not able to use the FJ Cruiser center caps on the front axle due to the hub does not clear (the same will apply to full float rear axles). To make it look a little cleaner, I painted the visible portion of the hub with a fresh coat of back paint. I will be doing the same to the rear axle soon.

The tires are 285/70R-17 BFG M/Ts that measure approximately 33 inches in diameter. A great improvement over my old tires that barely measured 30 inches in diameter.

A side by side comparison of old and new tires and wheels

My Driving Impressions

At the time of writing this article, I’ve only tested the tire and wheel combination on paved city streets and the freeway. As expected, its a little more sluggish when accelerating. I don’t need to shift into overdrive until I exceed 60 mph. The speedometer is off slightly (5 mph under at 60 mph). There is no rubbing when turning lock to lock or rubbing of the wheels on the fenders. The BFG M/Ts are not much louder than my old A/Ts (at least as far as I’m concerned). The Land Cruiser tracked down the freeway just as with the old tire/wheel combination. The handling actually seemed to have improved due to the improved load rating of the tires. The tires are sized just right for the overland / expedition style travel I participate in. The tires fill up the wheel wells just right.

As it is currently set up, with the ARB Bull Bar, the medium Old Man Emu suspension, the 285/70R-17 tires and FJ Cruiser wheels, I am still legal in Washington state per the state vehicle code. The width of the factory mud flap is ever so slightly beyond the tire tread and extends down to the center line of the axle. The front bumper height is also within the limits of a vehicle with a 6500 GVW.

Toyota FJ Cruiser Wheels on my 80-series Land Cruiser

I still need to fully articulate the suspension to see if I get any rubbing. If so, I may have to resort to wheel spacers if its really bad. Hopefully this won’t be the case.

And of course, I now have the bling factor going, maybe a little too much for the subdued colors of my Land Cruiser, but I’ll happily live with it for now. A little mud or road grime will tone things down a bit.

See more photos of this tire and wheel swap on my Land Cruiser at Photos of Toyota FJ Cruiser Wheels on my FJ80 Land Cruiser.

Tags: 80-series, fj80, land cruiser, landcruiser, toyota

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 6:00 am and is filed under Vehicle Mods & Repairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.