How does it effect the ride?

**nstaricha** · 07-08-2009, 02:26 PM

I've been told the bigger the wheel the rougher the ride. I am just curious what everyone means when they say this. Does the ride feel rougher because the rim is bigger and the sidewall on the tire is smaller. You can just feel more bumps in the road? Or does it effect the suspension at all and that iin turn decreases the ride quality?

If anyone has large rims please help me out....is the ride really that bad with the big wheels?

**dsfloyd** · 07-08-2009, 02:42 PM

I don't have big wheels but the rougher ride is typically attributed to the tires that go along with it. when you go large wheels you get shorter sidewalls on the tires. With shorter side walls there is less flex in the sidewalls so after that my guess is that the tires take up less of the road dampening. stiff sidewalls are good for cornering but from what I understand that is what gives you the rougher ride.

**adidasboy918** · 07-08-2009, 03:01 PM

I have stock 20's on my truck and the ride is great. everyone says they are impressed with how smooth of a ride my truck has with my big rims. Of course I don't have low profiles on my truck either. The smaller sidewalls do make the ride rougher.

**5speedsilverado** · 07-08-2009, 03:24 PM

on my moms old dodge with the 20s the ride sucked, then we put a lift on it with 17 inch rims and 35 inch tires, it rode alot better then stock. so yeah bigger rims ride worse the small rims, but bigget rims handle better then small rims, so its pretty much a trade off

**kgibson181** · 07-08-2009, 06:00 PM

I agr'ee with dsfloyd, Since putting larger tires on my truck it seems the tires dont have as much "give" to them and that one main factor is what I believe contributes to the rougher ride the most. Also a beefy tread design can also cause this.

**silveradotrailblazer** · 07-08-2009, 06:14 PM

My wifes Trailblazer has 20s with 275/45-20 tires and Belltech lowering kit. Rides just alittle stiffer than stock, but she feels its worth it.

**hunky** · 07-08-2009, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by adidasboy918

I have stock 20's on my truck and the ride is great. everyone says they are impressed with how smooth of a ride my truck has with my big rims. Of course I don't have low profiles on my truck either. The smaller sidewalls do make the ride rougher.

X2 It ain't the wheel it's the sidewall/air pressure.

**zachh1020** · 07-08-2009, 07:46 PM

IMHO, Larger tires wear suspension parts out much quicker! It puts much more strain on everything.

**adampaul1964** · 07-08-2009, 08:36 PM

I replaced my stock 17" rims with factory G.M. 20"s but I went with a slightly higher profile tire, 305/50/20 which gives me about 6" of sidewall. The stock setup had about 7" so I don't notice a lot of difference.

**nstaricha** · 07-09-2009, 04:37 PM

I know that most on this forum appreciate the offroad look but I was thinking of either 22s or 24s for my truck. I have a 06 crew cab silverado, 2wd, and was hoping to maybe get some opinions. If I went with 22s, do you think it would be possibile to fit 305/45/22 tires? From what I have seen online, these are about 0.4" larger than the 305/35/24 tires that would come with the 24" set up. Would I really notice much of a ride difference between the 22s and 24s?