Smaller Wheels for Winter Driving?

[Jets Fan]

I have a question for all you tire/wheel experts on this forum.
Here’ s the situation. I am currently waiting for my Limited to ship (receive delivery) but just this past week I was forced to buy a new set (4) of winter tires for my 5G SR5, 17” rims. If my Limited arrives before spring switch over to my summer tires again, I want to avoid having to buy another set of winter tires to fit the 20’s on the Limited. The added $ aside, I’ll have a virtually new set of 17’s that I do not want to go with my SR5 trade-in that the dealer won’t give me squat for Or be stuck with trying to sell them - I live in a rural area far from any potential buyers.
Here’s the Q. Can I just buy 17” winter rims that will fit the 6G and use the tires I just bought? Will this cause me any issues with driving characteristics, speedo, odometer, sensors etc? Is there any changes I have to do to the truck for this to work?
Your help and advice will be greatly appreciated by a non-mechanically inclined Runner fan.

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[Dinosoar21]

I would think yes, you could put your 17" winter tires on your 6G 17" rims, though no tire size and aspect ratio was listed, but my guess in winter tires aren't too big. The spacing would really be a factor of the rims. As far as speedo, they are already off from the factor...mine by 3mph when measured by GPS. I do not think you'll have any driveling concerns.

 

[Limotint]

I would think yes, you could put your 17" winter tires on your 6G 17" rims, though no tire size and aspect ratio was listed, but my guess in winter tires aren't too big. The spacing would really be a factor of the rims. As far as speedo, they are already off from the factor...mine by 3mph when measured by GPS. I do not think you'll have any driveling concerns.

Did the dealership or factory acknowledge the mph difference in your SR5? I’m in the middle of battling with my dealership…. 3 mph at 55mph is excessive. I can’t use my insurance app to reduce insurance cost… it’s accumulating miles faster. The mpg is off. Kinda feel swindled by Toyota…

 

[Nodak]

if you are using 5th gen oem wheels, you will need a hub centric ring plus longer lug nuts (if you carry over the 5th gen lug nuts)

6th gen lug nuts are 14x1.5 vs 5th gen 12x1.5

also the hub is bigger on 5th gen 106 vs 6th gen 95

 

[Dinosoar21]

Did the dealership or factory acknowledge the mph difference in your SR5? I’m in the middle of battling with my dealership…. 3 mph at 55mph is excessive. I can’t use my insurance app to reduce insurance cost… it’s accumulating miles faster. The mpg is off. Kinda feel swindled by Toyota…

I did not discuss with dealer, no. I have found that this is not an uncommon "adjustment" by manufacturers where they under-rate the speedo; you're always going slower than what speedo conveys. The big question for me is odometer accuracy as this affects registration and value of a vehicle. For sure, changing wheel diameter affects this clearly....bigger makes you faster than speedo will show.

I will say, although GPS, I did measure it many times, and speeds varying from 20-80 mph. All showed I was going slower than the speedo....more of a percentage than "3 MPH," of course, but one can interpolate. Again, I think this is somewhat common.

 

[Limotint]

I did not discuss with dealer, no. I have found that this is not an uncommon "adjustment" by manufacturers where they under-rate the speedo; you're always going slower than what speedo conveys. The big question for me is odometer accuracy as this affects registration and value of a vehicle. For sure, changing wheel diameter affects this clearly....bigger makes you faster than speedo will show.

I will say, although GPS, I did measure it many times, and speeds varying from 20-80 mph. All showed I was going slower than the speedo....more of a percentage than "3 MPH," of course, but one can interpolate. Again, I think this is somewhat


Its my understanding that if your speedo is reading faster than you are actually traveling, you are adding additional miles on the odometer that you are not actually traveling.

For me, at 60mph, I’m really only going 57. So if I travel “60 miles” according to the odometer, I’ve only actually gone 57 miles…

This negatively effect everything for the consumer if you drive enough. Registration, value, maintenance schedule, warranty duration, mpg reported, insurance discounts…

It’s kinda shady..

 

[MikeD]

if you are using 5th gen oem wheels, you will need a hub centric ring plus longer lug nuts (if you carry over the 5th gen lug nuts)

6th gen lug nuts are 14x1.5 vs 5th gen 12x1.5

also the hub is bigger on 5th gen 106 vs 6th gen 95

Nodak is right (of course:>) but that is not the whole story. Your 5G wheels have an offset of +15 - very different than the 6G stock +55. And if you use a hub-centric ring adapter to deal with the hub diameter difference I think that will, by definition, decrease the offset further - meaning yet more poke. Which may not be an issue depending on the tires you choose but less offset definitely makes fitting bigger tires more problematic.
And since the lugs are smaller on the 5G (12 vs 14) the lug holes are smaller too - but they do fit if you can line them up well. (I tested this last week when verifying that my son could use his existing 5G spare on the hub centric adapter I got so he could use my 6G TRD ORP wheels on his 5G SRD Premium.)

However, given that you were talking about putting your 17" tires (assumedly 5G stock 265/70R17) on new 17" wheels bought to fit the 6G, you should have no issues. Certainly those smaller than 6G stock tires will fit. I just wanted you to be sensitive to the differences in the 5G vs 6G wheels - and what it might take to re-use your 5G wheels on your limited.

 

[Jets Fan]

Sorry. Yes I am using the stock OEM wheels with both the summer and winter tires which are 265 70R17’s. Those rims will go with the SR5 when it is traded in, but with the Limited I had already decided to buy seperate rims for the winter tires.

 

[Nodak]

Nodak is right (of course:>) but that is not the whole story. Your 5G wheels have an offset of +15 - very different than the 6G stock +55. And if you use a hub-centric ring adapter to deal with the hub diameter difference I think that will, by definition, decrease the offset further - meaning yet more poke. Which may not be an issue depending on the tires you choose but less offset definitely makes fitting bigger tires more problematic.
And since the lugs are smaller on the 5G (12 vs 14) the lug holes are smaller too - but they do fit if you can line them up well. (I tested this last week when verifying that my son could use his existing 5G spare on the hub centric adapter I got so he could use my 6G TRD ORP wheels on his 5G SRD Premium.)

um wait

how are you fitting a 95 hub wheel on a 106 hub center?

typically you can fit a larger hub to a smaller hub with a hub centric ring, but not vice versa

 

[MikeD]

how are you fitting a 95 hub wheel on a 106 hub center?

Turns out that SpiderTrax makes a hub centric adapter that works perfectly to put 6G4R wheels on 5G4R: SpiderTrax Toyota/Lexus 6 on 5-1/2" (M12) to 6 on 5-1/2" (M14) Blue Wheel Adaptor. This is how I did exactly that to put my TRD ORP wheels my son's 5G4R. The adapter almost but not quite matches the stock 5G4R offset (+15) to the 6G4R wheels (+55mm - 1.25" = +23 mm effective offset)

AND I was wrong about increasing the poke in my note above. For fitting 106 hub wheels on 95 hub all one needs to do is fill the gap. Lots of choices, including this example: Hub Centric Rings 106.1mm to 95.1mm

All of this may not be relevant to Jets Fan since he will be getting new wheels and can buy them to fit his SR5 but probably the info doesn't hurt. And I keep learning...

 

[Nodak]

yeah i am not sure that is a good idea to add another layer like that.

but thats just my opinion, i have no hard facts saying its good or not or what it does to the geometry of the suspension to have a load that far out from the main hub and being flush with the original hub

 

[onlywayman]

I have a question for all you tire/wheel experts on this forum.
Here’ s the situation. I am currently waiting for my Limited to ship (receive delivery) but just this past week I was forced to buy a new set (4) of winter tires for my 5G SR5, 17” rims. If my Limited arrives before spring switch over to my summer tires again, I want to avoid having to buy another set of winter tires to fit the 20’s on the Limited. The added $ aside, I’ll have a virtually new set of 17’s that I do not want to go with my SR5 trade-in that the dealer won’t give me squat for Or be stuck with trying to sell them - I live in a rural area far from any potential buyers.
Here’s the Q. Can I just buy 17” winter rims that will fit the 6G and use the tires I just bought? Will this cause me any issues with driving characteristics, speedo, odometer, sensors etc? Is there any changes I have to do to the truck for this to work?
Your help and advice will be greatly appreciated by a non-mechanically inclined Runner fan.

Walmart has a steel 17” rim for about $120

 

[Jets Fan]

I’m leaning towards rims direct from Toyota at $117 each.

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