A Sea Of Red

I'm looking at buying a 1997 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 Extended Cab with a 6" lift and 35" tires on it. I am just wondering if this will greatly effect the gas mileage of the vehicle. It's supposed to get 17/19 mpg. Anybody know what kind of loss I'm looking at, if any?

i have that truck minus the lift with 31-10.5 tires. i get 18mpg. i have heard that the mileage drops alot with a lift and bigger tires

more contact with the road = more friction = lower gas milage. But I'm guessing the purpose of that truck is not good gas milage. Besides, what's a few mpg?

yes, my gas mileage went down significantly with a very small change... stock tires to a 31x10.5 tire and i lost around 5 mpg

agree w/ MALLET.

switched to 31.5's on my Explorer from 235 R15s and lost the same.

the odometer is now by about 1/2 of a tenth per mile though, too. So every 20 miles it records only 19- so I've probably put about 5000 more miles on the thing in the last 2 years than it says. Not a real big deal though.

Larger tires also affects your speedometer. At normal driving speed with a 30-inch tire, the speedometer will read 5-10 mph slower than your actual speed. Something to keep in mind on I-95.

I heard on car talk one saturday, a discussion about larger tires. And this woman, who incedently was a math teach and should know better, couldn't grap the fact that larger tires actually would make you go faster. Larger circumference means a greater distance traveled per rotation of the wheel. Even if only a fraction of an inch.

LUconn wrote:I heard on car talk one saturday, a discussion about larger tires. And this woman, who incedently was a math teach and should know better, couldn't grap the fact that larger tires actually would make you go faster. Larger circumference means a greater distance traveled per rotation of the wheel. Even if only a fraction of an inch.

But is that really going to change the top speed of the vehicle? That's more tied into the hp? Is it not?

sure it would. The tires are still spinning at the same speed. But with a greater circumference, more distance is traveled per revolution.

lets go the opposite direction....think if you were able to put 6" tires on your car....your top speed would probably be 30 mph....

RubberMallet wrote:lets go the opposite direction....think if you were able to put 6" tires on your car....your top speed would probably be 30 mph....

Okay, now it makes sense.

The lift kit might decrease the mileage more than the larger tires. The wind resistance would probably go up significantly. The contact patch for thr larger tire will be a little bigger too but I doubt enough to kill the mileage as much as the lifts. Also more air in the tires would help cut the rolling resistance--top of the allowable range for the tire--and your teeth. As some noted your odometer will now need a correction factor. Larger tire circum. = fewer recorded miles on the odometer. Yokohama had a nice nice chart for different tire sizes giving the circum. for each one.

badger74 wrote:The lift kit might decrease the mileage more than the larger tires. The wind resistance would probably go up significantly. The contact patch for thr larger tire will be a little bigger too but I doubt enough to kill the mileage as much as the lifts. Also more air in the tires would help cut the rolling resistance--top of the allowable range for the tire--and your teeth. As some noted your odometer will now need a correction factor. Larger tire circum. = fewer recorded miles on the odometer. Yokohama had a nice nice chart for different tire sizes giving the circum. for each one.

my 79 cj stock susp stock tires (235's) - 17 mpg
my 79 cj 5" susp lift w/ stock tires - 17 mpg

and on another note...

my 79 cj 5" lift and 35" tires - 13 mpg