Mitigating the Mud — 4Runner Wheels for the Tacoma

February 26, 2019.

I love the look of the SCS Stealth6 wheels that I’ve been running for the last 14 months. The dark bronze and six spokes are fantastic. Even the lug nuts are significantly better than OEM. And, as much as I hate to admit it, I really do like stance added to the truck by the 3.5" backspacing — having the wheels and tires pushed out a bit wider makes the truck look ready for anything.

But, I can’t stand the mud. That same backspacing that gives the truck a cool stance also pushes the tread of my 255/85R16 Cooper ST Maxx tires about an inch past the fender flares. And as I mentioned in a recent rig review — that get’s mud everywhere.

So it was time to try and change that. I started by looking into different fender flares. Having a 2000 Tacoma, I knew that the flares for the 01–04 models were slightly wider — about ½-inch wider — and so those were the first place I looked. Unfortunately, they are super expensive and hard to come by second hand… and being only ½-inch wider, they still wouldn’t get me fully covered. Then I looked into aftermarket options. Bushwacker is the most popular option here, and they have three different flare widths — including one that’s an inch wider than stock. Alas, they too are pretty expensive, and frankly, I’m not a fan of the look that their wider flares give — the bolt heads providing more of that #instaflare than I generally go for.

And so, I started looking at wheels.

To see what I ended up with, check out the rest of the story, at adventuretaco.com.

Originally published at adventuretaco.com.