Wheels & tires for all 2nd gen Tundra builds
Feb 12th 2024
Tired of your Tundra looking like a Kei Truck? You need a proper set of wheels and tires to not be the laughingstock of your ‘Merican-truck-owning friends.
Introduction
This guide is all about second generation Toyota Tundras, including the 2014 mid-gen updated trucks, 2007-2021. Despite the facelift, fitment is nearly identical, so this info can be applied to any truck in this range.
Toyota didn’t do us much of a favor when choosing stock rims. If you got the in-between generation, the 2.5, you’re a bit better off. But still, larger tires make a world of difference. We’ll take a look at different wheel & tire setups, also, suspension and other mods you might need to complete your build. Starting with mild setups on factory suspension, to full-on trophy truck-esque builds.
Quick links
- Factory Toyota Tundra wheel specs
- Spacers, leveling and lift kits
- Examples of Toyota Tundra builds
- Wrap up
Basic fitment info
Factory Toyota Tundra wheel specs
If you’re looking to save a buck, factory wheels are always an option. There’s a .5mm difference in center bore, 110mm pre-2014 and 110.5mm post-2014. However, wheels are still compatible between the two. The slight discrepancy is likely just a manufacturing tolerance. Throw some 2.5 wheels on your 2nd.
All years 2007 and up have a 5x150mm lug pattern and m14x1.5 thread pitch lug nuts. Lug nut torque on aluminum wheels is 97 ft-lbs while steel wheels take 154 ft-lbs (or 2.6 and 4.0 ugga duggas, respectively).
Here is a breakdown of the OEM wheel specs:
- 17" wheels - 17x8” +50, Backspacing (6.5" backspacing)
- 18" wheels - 18x8” +60, Backspacing (6.85" backspacing)
- 20" wheels - 20x8” +60, Backspacing (6.85" backspacing)
Normally we would talk about stock tires, but nah, not this time… You’re gonna though ‘em in the trash anyway.
Recommended aftermarket wheel & tire specs
This boils down to how much lift you got and the amount of work you wanna do. A good size rim for stock or aftermarket suspension is 17 or 18-inch diameter, 8.5 or 9 wide, and around +25 offset. You don’t need zero or negative offset on these trucks, the axles already stick out a good bit.
For tires, we’ll get into the nitty-gritty later, but here’s a summary:
- Stock suspension
- 1.5-3” lift, leveling or lift kit
- 4”+ of lift
Spacers, leveling and lift kits
Spacers - making factory wheels... cooler?
All second gen wheels are considered high offset, compared with first, which are mid offset. A high positive offset of +50 or +60 makes the wheel tucked deeper in the fender. If you wanna stay with factory rims, but fix the ‘tucked’ look, hub centric bolt-on adapters are a good way to go.
Here is what 1 ½” spacers look like with 2020 TRD PRO wheels. The tires are factory Michelin 275/65R18. As you can imagine this is about as OEM+ as it gets. With a leveling kit on a similar setup, you could expect to run up to a 295/70.
A lot of Tundra owners go with spacers as a cheap, temporary aesthetic improvement while they save up to fully build their truck. In this case, you’ll eventually wanna ditch the spacers and go to aftermarket wheels.
Leveling kits
Leveling kits are another bang-for-buck mod. You can lift a Tundra to 3” before needing to go to a more exotic setup. These are best for trucks that aren’t used extensively for heavy loads or hauling. We like the Function & Form front/rear kit.
Kits like these can be used in conjunction with spacers for a badass, low-budget build, or throw ‘em on paired with some aftermarket wheels.
Lift kits
There are a million brands that offer good kits: Toytec, Rough Country, Procomp, Fabtech, Icon, etc, etc… The Bilstein 5100 is a popular option for a modest lift of 2-3”. Other kits can take you up 6+ inches. Going with a lift kit is the right direction for serious show trucks, offroading or overlanding.
Examples of Toyota Tundra builds
So now that we have the basics down, time to look at some builds. For each, we’ll look at the wheel & tire, plus the suspension mods needed to complete the setup.
Starting with a mild, OEM+ look, this 2021 SR5 Crewmax is on Method MR318 18x8.5 +40 (6.27” backspacing). Stock suspension and no spacers. Not super aggressive, maybe 1” wider than stock, but the result is a poke of about .5” outside the fender. The tires are Toyo Open Country A/T3 LT275/65R18, around factory size.
With this kind of setup, you don’t need to mess with trimming, simply plug-’n-play, no rubbing or scraping.
From this point, we’ll transition from pavement princesses to stuff that's jacked up in some way, be it leveling or lift.
Starting with this 2013 SR5 with a Toytec 3/1 Leveling kit (3” front, 1” rear). The wheels are Shok D664 by Fuel, spec’d 18x9 +20. +20 to +30 offset with 9J is great for trucks with ≈ 3” of lift, the wheels poke around ¾”.
The tires are General Tire Grabber A/TX All-terrain 275/70/R18. This works out to a 33-inch tire. There is no rubbing with the front air dam removed. Even modest bumps in tire size will likely need the front dam removed; still, no trimming is required.
Icon Alloy Rebounds look pretty sick on a Tundra. This 2018 Crew Max is wearing 17x8.5 +25. Rebounds come in a few different options such as HD , PRO and SLX. The PRO models come with a patented InnerLock Technology, think of an improved beadlock.
Compared with the previous, this has .44” less backspacing. The exact specs are 285/75/17 made by Toyo Tire, model - Open Country AT3.
Pretty similar lift to the last, but the shocks are Toytec/Eibach 3” lift front and 1.5” rear. This rig also has JBA UCAs (upper control arms) for a bit more tire clearance. Front mud flaps have been removed and the skid plate needed some slight trimming.
These Falken FAL Wildpeak R/T come in at 285/70R18, close to 34-inch. This pickup is running Bilstein 5100 suspension adjusted about halfway - so around a 2” of lift. The wheels are SCS Ray 10, similar specs to the previous - 18x9 +25. This seems to be the sweet spot for width and offset.The front bumper is shimmed forward about half an inch and the mud flaps are trimmed. Of course, you could just go flapless if you don’t mind a bit of a rooster tail.
Will 35-inch tires work with stock wheels? You bet…with some lift. Here we see a 2007 Crewmax Limited with factory 18” alloy wheels. The tires are 295/70/R18 Falken FAL Wildpeak A/T3W - an aggressive, off-road capable, all weather tire.
This truck has a 3.5” Rough Country lift kit which allows it to run these tires without trimming; only the mud flaps had to go. The owner notes that there’s a little rubbing at full lock while going downhill.
We know a lot of you Tundra owners come from the JDM scene, so here’s a crowd pleaser. 18x9 +0 Volk Racing TE37XT. This is what zero offset looks like on a Tundra. As you can see, you’ll need fender flares. This truck is running Pro Comp flares. Without flares, this would be 2” of poke, a bit much.
TE37XT wheels are specifically made with 4x4 applications in mind - a great choice for JDM purists. There’s also a badass M-Spec available.
This truck has a lot going on. It’s making 600hp with a Magnuson supercharger, custom lighting & bodywork, OEM TRD Pro Bilstein Suspension with a rear sway bar. The tires? Same size as the previous - 295/70R18 Toyo Open Country M/T. We know from before that these will fit the factory bodywork without the custom front bumper and other mods.
Now, let’s bump it up a notch… like 6+ of lift. These aren’t SEMA builds, but definitely sit taller than the previous examples.
Your Tundra can easily run 35-inch wheels with a 6-7” of lift, in fact, you could go more. This 2007 Double Cab has Black Rhino Armory wheels, specs come in at: 18x9.5 +6.The low offset wheels are wrapped in Nitto Trail Grappler tires, 35x12.50R18 (equivalent to a 315/70/18). The 7-inch lift is provided by BDS Fox coilovers. This truck also has BDS front UCAs, likely needed for the 9.5J wheels.
Probably more lift than you’ll need for the trails, but maybe it’s the look you want.
So you wanna go for a trophy truck/baja look? Or run 37” tires? It will take a bit more work. This 2015 TRD Pro is heavily built. In order to run massive 37x12.50R17 Toyo Open Country M/T tires (something like a 315/80R17), it needed 6” of lift. This truck has King 2.5 RR Coilovers and all the suspension fixings to go with ‘em: control arms, remote reservoirs, etc.
The wheels are KMC Grenade Deserts beadlock, 17x8.5 +0 offset (4.75 backspacing). 37s are less plug-’n-play than smaller stuff; this truck needed a lot of custom work to make them fit, for example a customer front bumper, but it’s definitely one of our favorites.
Wrap Up
So what did we learn? Your Tundra needs some better wheels & tires, unless you got one of those extra cool trim levels - then maybe just tires. With aftermarket wheels, stay around +25 offset, 9” wide, unless you got fender flares. You can go up to 33” tires with factory suspension, after that, you’ll need leveling or lift for 35”. 37” or larger is getting into serious-build territory.
We got plenty of parts to help you build your dream truck; any type of build, mild to wild. Check out the store!