35" tires on 20" wheels off-road?

Thinking about getting a used truck to get around the lease. Just a couple muddy spots when it rains bad.

Will 35" tires on 20" wheels handle pretty well with the Toyo Open Country MT tires?

This isn't a dedicated off-road vehicle. Just maybe once a month usually and more during deer season.

I have read that 20" wheels are not great due to the lower profile but these seem to have plenty of side wall.

35's will generally give you a big enough sidewall either way. If you're buying new wheels, IMHO wouldn't go larger than 18", but 20" will certainly work fine. I have stock 20's on my '14 Mega but will replace with 18" when I replace the tires.

I wouldn't associate the word "handling" with a 35" tall tire as you are also generally going to install some type of lift to get them to fit. How well the truck will "handle" will be determined by how/what you lift to get there, overall tire height and width, etc.

As very general statments, less sidewall will handle better (less flex) on the road. Less sidewall will ride rougher (less flex). Less sidewall is less desirable off-road.

You do want to match rim width to tire width to minimize ballooning of the tire. 35x12.5x20, I'd recommend a 10" wide wheel for example. I wouldn't recommend putting anything much wider on a 10" wheel. Can you though, yes. I have 35x15.5x15 on a 15x10 wheel on my '74 K5, not recommended.

It sounds like it's primarily a pavement pounder, so I'd do whatever you prefer to look at.

Charlie

Charlie pretty much nailed it. I prefer more meat on my sidewalls personally. I'm running 35x12.50-17 toyo mt on my '11 cummins and have been happy with them.

The toyo mt has a very stiff sidewall, so I leave my air pressure (while not towing) at 35 front/30 rear and get even tread wear and a much softer ride.

I ran 35x12.5x20 Nitto Trail Grapplers on my 2008 Powerstroke on the stock 20's. Looked great, handled great, but I ended up scratching the wheels pretty good at the lease. It had roughly 7 inches of sidewall, but when you drive through ruts, mud, and rocks, anything can happen. On that same note I ran 33's on 15's on my Jeep with roughly 11 inches of sidewall, and 33's on 17's on my F150 with roughly 7 inches of sidewall and scratched the wheels on both of them also.

35's on 20's will handle better on the street than 35's on 15's due to the shorter sidewall not having as much flex.

Mud I wouldn't worry about so much. Off-road wise the bigger the wheel means less sidewall flex. Mud tires don't exactly handle well period. 35" on a 20 should be ok for your intended use but I'm more old school when it comes to off-road stuff. Less wheel and more tire.

Thanks guys, very insightful.