Tag: KO2

The Rub

That is tight! Front drivers side.

Right after I put on the new wheels / tires I started to get a little rubbing. I knew from my research that others had similiar issues, so it wasn’t a total surprise.

Getting tight in the wheel well!

You can see that there was about 2 1/2″ of space from the new tire to the front of the running board.

Right after putting on the TRD wheel /KO2 tires.

Under normal driving it wasn’t really an issue, but with hard turns it became apparent that I needed a fix. Hard turns included getting into and out of parking spaces. It was a bit embarassing! At one point the rubbing actually pulled the front of the running board away from the wheel well; it just pulled out the plastic retaining clip, and it would make this horrible creaking sound! This became a real issue because it was rubbing against the loose running board and could have broken it off.

There is just over 7″ of space from the tire to the top of the wheel well edge at the front.

My fix? I came across this idea from somewhere, so I borrowed it. I used a heat gun to soften the running board in the wheel well. I concentrated on heating the bottom edge at the inside of the wheel well. These are ABS plastic, and with some care you can heat it up and reset it.

Once I applied some heat I used a short 2×4 cut off to wedge between the tire and the bottom edge of the running board and let it cool. That did the trick! Sorry, no pics of that. I was a bit preoccupied with just getting it squared away.

I did one more part to secure the running board well away from the tire. I put on new plastic retaining clips, and on the inside of the wheel well, I wrapped a piece of wire around the retaining clip and pulled it back as tight to the wheel well as I could, then I secured the wire around a bolt underneath the running board. I didn’t have any issues after that.

Spacing between in the wheel well, rear tire. There is about 3 1/2″ of space here.
Spacing between the tire and the rear mud flap. Here I had 3″ of space.

I had no issues with rubbing at the rear.

A whopping, almost, 9″ to the top of the wheel well in the rear!

First Things First

I’ve owned a decent number of cars over the years, but this Lexus GX470 was my first vehicle with true off-road capability. Knowing I wanted to make this over-landing and off-road worthy, wheels and tires were my first order.

With the GX470, alternate wheels & tires can get confusing! I’ve read countless forum threads, google search-result articles, and websites.  I’m hoping my experience can offer some insights for others.

New wheels and tires:

Stock GX470 wheels & passenger tires

Here is my truck with OEM wheels and standard passenger tires: Stock 17” wheels with P rated 265/65/R17 tires

Where I started, with stock GX470 wheels & passenger tires

My GX already had a ‘lift’ due to the Icon Stage 2 off-road suspension. The previous owner put it in, and deleted the stock airbag suspension completely. I really liked this due to it not being something I had to do, but also because it really beefed up the truck and gave it even stronger off-road chops.

There is a lot to consider when looking at new wheels and tires! Wheel dimension, including diameter, width, off-set etc. This is where I spent a good deal of time reading up on it. There are a lot of people with way more knowledge on this than me, but that’s kind of the point. It helped me get focused on what made sense for my gx build.

The punchline: TRD Sema Pro wheels (17″) and BF Goodrich KO2 All Terrain 265/70/R17 tires.

I did consider the FN Wheels version of the TRD Sema Pro wheel, but I decided that if I want that look I would stick with Toyota. They’ve designed, engineered and tested these things to their Toyota expectations, and they have quality control with their manufacturing that is best in the world. Why go with anything less?

TRD Sema Pro wheels & BF Goodrich KO2 All Terrain 265/70/R17 tires