TL;DR - The new 1st gen Sequoia double 5-spoke wheels sit a little too inboard and cause some rubbing on my suspension components, so I've installed some wheel spacers to fix the problem.
The solution to my problem.
After discovering that the new wheel-tire combination I installed - some 1st gen Sequoia double 5-spoke wheels and 33x10.5 R17 Kenda Klever RT tires - was rubbing on the front shock reservoirs, I knew I needed to take care of the problem quickly. Waiting any length of time would surely lead to my ripping the reservoirs off of their mounts, a much more costly situation than fixing issue now.
First, I needed to figure out exactly how much closer the new setup was sitting to the frame than the previous setup, so I headed over to my favorite wheel offset calculator web site and punched in the numbers for my old and new setups.
My old and new setups were quite similar, but compared to my old setup, the new setup (top right diagram) placed the inside of the tire 0.33" closer to the frame. Just enough to cause rubbing.
With the 0.33" number in hand, I mocked up the addition of a 1/2" spacer to the new setup (bottom right diagram) to confirm that installing the spacer would push the tire at least as far away from the frame as the original setup had been. Of course, this is just simple math (0.5"-0.33") but it's nice to see a diagram that confirms that the spacer will result in the tire sitting 0.17" further away from the frame than my old S/T Maxx tires - which did not rub at all - sat.
And with that, I needed to find parts.
Not only would I need some 1/2" spacers, but I'd also need some longer wheel studs, allowing my lug nuts to engage enough threads to hold the wheels securely. The rule of thumb here is that the lug nut should engage the stud by at least the diameter of the stud, and with a 1st gen Tacoma using M12x1.5 studs, that meant I wanted at least 12mm (about 1/2") engagement.
But that's a minimum. To play it safe, I decided that it'd be best to simply install wheel studs that were 1/2" longer than the Toyota OEM wheel studs, though that meant that I needed to figure out the length of the stock studs. Of course, Toyota doesn't mention the stud size on any of their parts web sites, but after doing a bit of digging, I found them to be 40mm (about 1.5") in length, with a 14.20mm long knurled section).
So, that meant that I was looking for wheel studs in the 52mm-long range. I found that there were two real options:
- ARP wheel studs for a Lexus IS300 (100-7715). ARP has a great reputation, and folks have successfully used these studs, but at 66mm long, they are too long to be fully contained within the lug nut and need to be trimmed by about 3/8" (10mm).
- Kyo-Ei SBT-2 wheel studs. Made in Japan, these are 57mm long, but are harder to get as they can only be ordered from Japan (which I think is a good thing). Cost for a full set of 24 studs - once shipping is included - is similar to ARP.
Ultimately, I decided to go with the Kyo-Ei SBT-2 wheel studs. I liked that they would fit without modification, and that they came from Japan, where I feel like the quality bar is quite high.
Next, it was time to find spacers. With a half-inch spacer, brand is probably less important, since the spacer is simply sandwiched between the hub and wheel, and doesn't provide any structural support. With thicker spacers - where the spacer is attached to the wheel studs in the hub, and then the wheel attaches to studs in the spacer - significant forces are in play within the spacer itself, so a premium brand is a must. Still, I always like going with quality components, so I reasonably quickly homed in on Spidertrax (a smidge cheaper, with the amazon return policy) and BORA (a few more options, but no returns) branded offerings.
I'd have been happy with either, but only BORA seemed to offer 1/2" aluminum spacers, so I ordered a set and waited to see whether the studs or spacers would arrive at my doorstep first.
All the parts.
For anyone wondering about how to actually install extended wheel studs, I've outlined the process, along with all the parts and tools necessary in a step-by-step guide. Hop over there for the details.
What follows here are a few highlights of this particular installation.
After getting the Tacoma up on jack stands and removing the wheels, I still wasn't ready to go. To access the wheel studs, I had to pull off the brake calipers and rotors, which finally gave me access to the studs.
I got started by bending back the dust shield a bit. I tried to do this entirely with a wrench to make the bend as clean as possible, but it turned out that a hammer worked better and was just as clean.
That same hammer (plus a sacrificial lug nut) that worked for the dust shield also knocked out the wheel stud faster than I could take a photo.
Hope this works. Time for the ugga-dugga of the impact wrench. I had no idea how much this would destroy the various spacers and sacrificial lug nut as it pulled the stud in.
Ta-da!
Doesn't look like much, but should keep the tires off the coilover resis.
Ultimately, the entire process took about an hour, and a quick test drive around the block seemed to indicate that the math I'd done at the beginning was correct: there was no more rubbing!
Only trail time will tell for certain, but I think these wheels and tires are finally dialed in.
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