Re: Corvette Rims
Can I get anybody to answer the questions about the wheel diameter? Is it a inch, half inch, or less than that. I'm trying to get some advice about that issue not how the truck looks or how you would of done it! We can start a new post on how I'm going to need suspension, bigger brakes, etc.
Depends on the overall diameter of the tires, but half an inch and probably less for sure. It is supposed to be within like 1% difference. Use the calculator. It was hard enough for me to find tires within spec for 17" fronts and 18" rears that were reasonably priced.
And with tires that much taller than stock your performance braking and acceleration wise has to be noticeably worse. Regardless of how light those wheels are, aluminum is heavier than rubber. Our stock wheels are very light. When I took off my stockers and put on billet 17" front and 18" rear, even being billet they were ever so slightly heavier than stock, and my tire height is .1" shorter than stock with the tires being within less than 1% height difference front to back.
That and with the tires being almost 2" taller than stock you have effectively changed your final drive gear ratio, acceleration will be slower, braking will suffer and your speedo will be off. For instance, my wife's daily driver, a Mercury Marauder, came stock with 3.55 gears. It is heavy, and the 32v ford motor isn't know for it's low end torque. One of the quickest and best ways to make that car faster is to throw in 4.10 gears. The difference is crazy. What you have done by putting on tires that are almost 2" taller than stock is the same thing as me putting 3.08 gears in my wife's car, which would turn it into a complete pig.
Don't get me wrong, I like big wheels if they are the right design and tasteful for the vehicle. I think your truck looks good. Would I have done it? No. But how it looks to you is what matters. When I put 20's on my DD Jeep I caught a lot of flack from the other Jeep 5.9 guys, but I think it looks good and that is what counts. It DID effect performance though, so I race with the stock wheels on.
You just have to take into consideration the "collateral damage" to the drivetrain and performance. You will need taller tires in front to not damage the transfer case, you will need to re-gear to a numerically larger gear to regain performance and you will need bigger brakes to regain braking performance.
Plus tiny brakes behind big wheels don't look good. I hate my stock brakes behind the 17s/18s on my Syclone.
