Wheels And Tyres

[Guest]

Hey all,

Looking for feedback on the benefits of fitting bigger wheels and tyres. At risk of sounding like a complete novice , I'm thinking of replacing the standard 17's to perhaps 18's, maybe 19's. I know there is a fair hike in price when tyres eventually need to be replaced, to dress either an 18 or 19 inch wheel.

My intentions intially where to leave ute looking as standard as possible, removing the 'TURBO' badging and gradually raise the power. Where fitting a decent set of wheels may start to give the game away.

Wider fitting tyres will obviously help with traction and handling, and there isn't a lot of leeway on the standard 17's, so new wheels are inevitable...which brings me to my question

As 18's and 19's are larger, will they require more effort from the engine to get them turning, say from a standing or even rolling start, if so should I try to stay with a set of 17's?

I'm not having too much luck finding a 17inch wheel that's at least 9.5 - 10.0 inches wide.

For cornering and handling (especially in the wet, and Ford fitting good ol leaf springs), regardless of wheels size, can I bring the ride height of the ute by lowering the rear end only or will have to change front as well?

Cheer all,

Darren

[Benny]

If you do go for bigger wheels then yes it is going to use up valuable kw to turn them. But if you choose to go with an expensive leight weight wheel designed for racing then the extra effort needed to turn them is going to be minimal. If you choose to opt for a wider tyre combination then my advice would be to select a quality tyre that is going to disperse the extra water trapped under the wider tyre when it's raining. If you do plan on pushing out larger amounts of power and have trouble keeping traction then a wider combination on the rear would probably be best.

[iTec]

you can find 17X9's its just generally they are of the boy racer look, enkei, bbs ect have wheels in these sizes

if you are after real traction then I would go looking for a 17/18 inch rim and avoid 19's, you have to run them at a higher PSI meaning they have less flex in the tyre and therefore less bite in the road also keep in mind that a very good 245/255 tyre will have better grip then an okay ($$) 275/285 tyre

personally I think the 275/30/19's that I have on the back of my car have less grip, under acceleration at least then the stockies I replaced them with just because I went from a pretty good tyre to a pretty cheap tyre. and finding a pretty good 275/30R19 is damn near impossible.

and yes you can get your springs re-set, without having to do the fronts aswell, any good suspension shop should be able to do it for you.

[Swanga]

While we're on the subject of wheels does anyone know the stud pattern for the BA??

[SXR]

5 hole by 114.3 pcd.

I want to know whats the standard offset

[Turbo6man]

  SXR said:

5 hole by 114.3 pcd.

I want to know whats the standard offset

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

nominally 35mm - anywhere from 32-38 according to Ford. Some aftermarket wheels with offsets from 10 to 40 will fit depending on the rim width.