Best Tires for the Toyota Tacoma

When Toyota decided on the factory tires for your new Tacoma, they tried to strike a good balance between cost, treadwear, fuel economy, and performance. You might have different priorities when the time comes to replace your Tacoma’s tires.

Maybe you want the most durable tires that will last the longest. Or maybe you’re a penny-pinching cheapskate and just want the least expensive tires your meager funds can buy. Whatever your needs are, we hope our overview on the best tire options for the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck can help.

Have an older Toyota Tacoma? See tire sizes for previous years.

Best Tires for the Toyota Tacoma SR:

• Kumho Crugen HT51 - Best budget tire
• Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza Plus - Best mid-priced tire
• Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo 3 - Best superior tire

Best Tires for the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro:

• Sumitomo Encounter HT - Best budget tire
• Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus - Best mid-priced tire
• BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K02 - Best superior tire

Best Tires for the Toyota Tacoma w/ Optional 17-in Wheels:

• Cooper Evolution H/T - Best budget tire
• BFGoodrich Advantage T/A Sport LT - Best mid-priced tire
• Michelin LTX A/T 2 - Best superior tire

Best Tires for the Toyota Tacoma w/Optional 18-in Wheels:

• Kumho Crugen HT51 - Best budget tire
• Goodyear Assurance MaxLife - Best mid-priced tire
• Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo 3 - Best superior tire

Original Equipment Tacoma Tires

What tires are on my Toyota Tacoma? The current generation Tacoma is sold in multiple trims with several tire sizes:

• The SR trim comes with 16-inch wheels with tires size P245/75R16. The OEM tires can be one of three choices: the Toyo Open Country A31, the Firestone Destination LE 2, or the Hankook Dynapro HT RH12
• The TRD Pro trim comes with 16-inch wheels and 265/7R16 tires. The OE tire for this trim is the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar.
• The Tacoma is available with 17-inch wheels that come with P265/65R17 tires. Toyota uses one of two different tires for this wheel size from the factory: the Toyo Open Country A30 or the Firestone Destination LE 2.
• The Tacoma is also available with 18-inch wheels that come with Michelin LTX M/S2 P265/60R18 tires.

Top Replacement Tire Brands for Toyota Tacoma

We’ve recommended three replacement tires in 16-, 17-, and 18-inch sizes, in budget, moderately priced and cost-no-object varieties. Whether your pockets are deeper than the Mariana trench or Ebenezer Scrooge considers you a role model, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. All of these tires have ratings of four-stars or higher based on consumer surveys:

16-inch Tires for Toyota Tacoma

• Budget: General Grabber HTS 60 - The $113 tire has an old-school style with white lettering and an excellent treadlife rating.
• Moderately Priced: Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S - This off-road, all-terrain tire is a perfect companion for the rugged Tacoma. It’s moderately priced at $150, and has great consumer ratings.
• Cost-No-Object: Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar - If you can afford them, Goodyear’s kevlar-infused Wrangler tires will take you and your Tacoma far off-road and will stand the test of time.

17-inch Tires for Toyota Tacoma

• Budget: Kumho Crugen HT51 - The Crugen HT51 is one of the highest rated tires of any type or price, and offers a long life and tread rating.
• Moderately Priced: BFGoodrich Advantage T/A Sport LT - Though they’re rated as all-season tires, there’s enough grip in the Advantage series to make for decent winter traction.
• Cost-No-Object: Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo3 - At $220 per tire, the Bridgestones are not cheap, but they bring the hardcore all-terrain traction needed to take your Tacoma off-road.

18-inch Tires for Toyota Tacoma

• Budget: Kumho Crugen HP71 - Once again, it’s Kumho with the best budget tires. Great customer ratings, long treadlife ratings, and solid all-season traction make the HP71s a good pick for budget tires.
• Moderately Priced: Cooper Discoverer AT4 4S - It’s got the looks, the traction, and the long life to be a great all-terrain tire for the Tacoma. The price isn’t bad either, at just under $200.
• Cost-No-Object: Michelin Latitude Tour HP - Though they’re much better suited for on-road use, the Latitude Tour HP tire will last a long time and provide excellent wet traction.

When Should You Replace Tires?

There are two regular milestones that will suggest that it’s time to replace the tires, not only on your Tacoma, but any vehicle in your driveway: Time and mileage.

Considering most drivers cover between 12,000 and 15,000 miles per year, the vast majority of Tacoma owners are going to be past the mileage that their original equipment tires were intended to cover before they’ll go past the tire’s usable age.

The life of your tire can be somewhat predicted by its UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grade) rating. Tire manufacturers apply their own grades to tires for treadwear, traction and temperature. When you’re researching tires online, a UTQG will come up next to the tire name in three digits and a number (ex. 500 A A).

You can glean a bit of info from the tires by reading this rating:

• 500 - The durability rating of a tire, compared to a control tire with a treadlife of 100. To obtain a grade, tires run on a 640 kilometer course for 11,520 km. Every 1,280 km, the tread depth is measured, to provide a projected tread life. The higher the number, the longer the predicted treadlife.
• A - This is the Traction rating of a tire, which indicates how well a tire stops in wet conditions. The highest letter grade is AA, followed by A, B and C.
• A - The second letter in the UTQG is the Temperature rating, which indicates how well a tire holds up to extreme heat. A is the highest, followed by B and C.

Original equipment MIchelin LTX M/S2 tires on the Tacoma earn a solid 720 AA UTGQ rating. Unless they are damaged, these tires could last as long as 72,000 miles before you need to replace them.

The other consideration is time. Each tire has a raised date code on the sidewall. The number begins with the letters “DOT” followed by 12 digits in three four-digit groups. The date code is the third group of four digits. To decipher the date of your tires, the first two digits represent the WEEK the tire was produced, and the second two digits represent the YEAR.

For example, if your tire’s date code is 3217, that indicates the tire was manufactured in the 37th week of 2017, or some time between September 11 and 17th that year.

Once tires go beyond five years old, it’s time to consider replacing them. Tires are made up not just of rubber and steel or kevlar belts, but chemicals that help the tires resist UV rays, temperature changes and a lot of other environmental hazards. Those chemicals start to break down after five years or so, and the tires aren’t doing the job that they need to do.

Why Not Replace with Original Equipment Tires?

There’s no harm in replacing your tires with the shoes it came with from the factory. However, depending on what kind of driver you are, there are significant reasons to purchase something different.

You only need to purchase ONE set of tires for your car every four years or so, depending on how much you drive. When an auto manufacturer purchases tires, they buy them by the hundreds of thousands. For the manufacturer, the decision to choose a supplier one brand or another comes down to a price point.

For you, your consideration may be completely different. If you could get a tire that stopped 20 feet shorter for an additional $10 per tire over the original equipment, you’d probably do it. Similarly, if there was a tire that made less road noise for a minimal investment over stock, you’d probably decide on the slightly more expensive tire (that is, unless you’re trying to drown out the conversation of your back-seat-driving spouse.)

Changing Toyota Tacoma Tire Sizes

Depending on the year and model, you may be shopping tires to fit anything between 15-inch for older models to 18-inch wheels with various widths and sidewall sizes along the way. It is possible to change the wheel and tire sizes, but a general rule of thumb is to keep the total diameter of wheel and tire the same. So, that means that downsizing an 18-inch wheel to a 17-inch wheel would include a proportionate upsizing of the tire sidewall to compensate.

Downsizing wheels has its advantages. Benefits include:

• Better ride quality – More rubber means more cushion for poor road conditions.
• Cost reduction – Big tires are expensive, so moving to a smaller wheel size will mean less costly tire purchases.
• Seasonal changes – Winter and snow tires are available for a larger selection of smaller wheel sizes and the narrower footprint will provide better traction.
• Off-road – Many people choose to downsize wheels for off-road use to increase the vehicle’s shock absorption capabilities and bump traction on loose surfaces.

On the other side of the coin, going up in wheel size has its benefits:

• Better handling – Slimmer profile tires makes for less rubber to move around.
• Better looks – This one’s subjective, but many people feel that larger wheels look better than smaller wheels with more rubber.
• Better braking – Larger, wider wheels provide a bigger patch of rubber on the ground to slow the vehicle, reducing braking distance.

See our recommendations for the Best Extended Warranty for your Toyota Tacoma

How to Read Tire Sizes

When reading tire sizes, it’s important to understand what the numbers mean. The Toyota Tacoma’s 18-inch wheels come with P265/60R18 109H all-season tires:

• 265 - indicates the width of the tire from one sidewall to the other in millimeters. This tire is 265 millimeters wide.
• 60 - indicates the aspect ratio, or sidewall height, as a percentage of the tire’s width. In this case, it’s 60 percent or of the tire’s width.
• R - means radial tires. Radials are the most common type of automotive tire and have fabric woven in at various angles with tread that is strengthened with additional layers of rubber.
• 18 - indicates the wheel diameter.
• 109 - is the tire’s load rating.
• H - is the tire’s speed rating. H-rated tires have a maximum top speed of 130 mph.

You may have noticed that the Toyota Tacoma’s three tire sizes have different diameters and also different aspect ratios. Generally, automakers choose tires that have the same outer diameter. This allows them to have only one speedometer setting.

Now that you know what comes on a new Tacoma and how to read the size numbers, let’s look at the different types of tires available to you. Depending on the type of driving you’re doing, where you live, and the weather, you have a variety of choices for tire types:

• Touring and All-season tires - provide a smooth ride, good wet and dry traction, decent winter traction, and longer tread life. These tires are acceptable for winter use but can’t be expected to provide the traction and stopping power that a dedicated winter tire can.
• Performance tires - are focused on providing confident handling, better wet and dry traction, and a sporty feel. Their higher grip and speed ratings come with a tradeoff of shortened tread life and reduced ride quality.
• All-terrain tires - are built to maximize off-road traction and provide good durability overall. Their construction means more noise and less comfort on the road, but winter traction and tread wear is acceptable.
• Winter and snow tires - are made with special rubber compounds that maintain grip and pliability when temperatures drop. They are also built with special tread patterns to maximize the vehicle’s ability to start and stop on very slippery roads.

Tires Sizes By Year

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