Toyota Tacoma 4th gen: a full inch taller from the factory

Where this generation starts

Four factory sizes are recorded: 245/75R17 at 31.47 in, 265/65R18 at 31.56 in, 265/70R17 at 31.61 in, and LT265/70R17, which is geometrically identical to the third of those and different in casing standard and load rating.

The spread is 0.14 in — 0.44% — so the trim badge does not move the arithmetic. What moved is the whole platform: the generation this replaced sat around 30.5 in, and this one sits around 31.5.

An inch of factory height changes every upgrade figure

That single inch reprices the familiar steps. 33x12.50R17 at 33.00 in, from 265/70R17, is +1.39 in and 4.41%. On the outgoing generation's 17-inch fitment the same tire was a 7.97% change.

The consequences are practical rather than academic:

• The speedometer effect is roughly halved. An indicated 70 mph becomes 73.1 rather than 75.6.
• The gearing consequence is halved with it — a 4.41% change is comfortably inside what a multi-ratio gearbox absorbs by shifting differently.
• What has not halved is the width. The flotation 33 is 12.50 in across against the factory tire's 10.43 in: +2.07 in, the same as it always was.

Height got cheaper on this platform. Width did not.

The full range of recorded steps

From 265/70R17:

• 285/70R17 at 32.71 in — +1.10 in, 3.49%, and +0.79 in of width.
• 33x12.50R17 at 33.00 in — +1.39 in, 4.41%, and +2.07 in of width.
• 35x12.50R17 at 35.00 in — +3.39 in, 10.74%, an indicated 70 mph becoming 77.5.

Only the last of those is a large change by any measure, and the gap between it and the other two is wide. There is no popular size between a nominal 33 and a 35 on 17-inch wheels, so the decision on this platform is genuinely binary.

The LT option and what it is for

LT265/70R17 appears alongside 265/70R17 in the factory record with identical geometry: 31.61 in tall, 10.43 in wide, 638.1 revolutions per mile. Every number this site computes is the same for both.

What separates them is which standard the casing is built to — which in turn sets the load index and the inflation pressure that index is quoted at. On a midsize truck sold in configurations from a work specification to a heavily equipped off-road trim, that is exactly the kind of variation that gets flattened into "the stock size" and should not be.

The 18-inch trim is not the tall one

265/65R18 at 31.56 in sits 0.04 in below the 17-inch 265/70R17. Same width, one inch more wheel, half an inch less sidewall — 6.78 in against 7.30 in — and a marginally smaller rolling diameter.

Owners of that trim who want the sidewall back generally move to a 17-inch wheel rather than up in tire size, and the arithmetic makes that painless: the two sizes are within a seventh of a percent of each other, so nothing about the speedometer, the odometer or the gearing changes in the swap.

No axle ratios are recorded yet

The ratio column is empty, which for a platform this new is an expected gap rather than a permanent one. The specific temptation here is obvious and would be specifically wrong: this generation changed engines outright, so carrying the previous Tacoma's ratio across would attach a figure chosen for one powertrain to a truck that no longer has it.

Everything above is geometry and does not need it. For engine speed, the gear ratio calculator takes the figure from your own truck.

Clearance is still a question about your truck

None of this says a tire fits. And the inch of extra factory height that makes every percentage on this page smaller does not translate into an inch of extra room: the bodywork moved with the tire, so the gap between casing and liner is not obviously larger than it was on the truck this replaced.