another rim question.

[Jamesn]

My dealer has a Titan with those beautiful 20 inch chrome rims everybody has and I was commenting on it to a service rep. He said that he would not recommend going with 20's because it's to hard on the suspension. Told me to just stick with the 18s. Does this make sense?

[Vegas04]

Originally Posted by Jamesn

My dealer has a Titan with those beautiful 20 inch chrome rims everybody has and I was commenting on it to a service rep. He said that he would not recommend going with 20's because it's to hard on the suspension. Told me to just stick with the 18s. Does this make sense?

i guess what the guy is saying is that the tires are a part of the suspension and a smaller sidewall = less shock absorption and so the rest of the truck's suspension has to take up the slack. makes some sense.

[ionsky]

I sell lifts tires and wheels to the dealership down here. We've lifted 12 trucks now, 8 with 18's and 4 with 20's. Both set ups are 6" Pro Comp with 35x12.50 Toyo Open Country Mud Terrain tires. The service manager and I had this discussion and he personally felt that it was no big deal, that the upgraded suspension helped. We've also put 20's on trucks that are not lifted, Usually with a set of 285/50R20 Toyo ST's or Goodyear's. We've put 22's on several times with 305/45R22 and even a set of 24's on an Armada with 305/35R24. (The owners, of course) The only drawback is that you add alot of weight and your stopping distance is affected, and, if you ride your brakes all the time, you can warp your rotors, causing a slight shimmy when braking. Nothing dangerous, just annoying, easily fixed with a rotor turn. At the dealership they have four techs, three think it's fine, one doesn't like it. The point, I guess, is that it's a matter of opinion. People are afraid of what they don't know about. Including custom wheels. They work fine for the dealership I sell to, and they'll work fine for you. As a matter of fact, the 24's get switched around about every couple of months when the owner changes rigs and have been on three Armada's and two Titan's in the last year since they were bought. (Be nice, wouldn't it?) And he tows a horse trailer with them on and everything. I guess people see the low pro sidewall and think of a lowered Honda or something, but the truth is, these tire and wheel setups are engineered really well. Load carrying capacity is good and, yes, the suspension is taken into account. If this helps at all, I'm glad I could. And if you need anything else, let me know. Thanks, Ian

[badlooser]

well the suspension is set up from Nissan for 18"rims the shocks are valved and spring ratings work together to give you the smoothest ride. When you add bigger rims and tires you add unsprung weight to your ride which will affect steering response,brakes,shocks,acceleration and other components in a negative way all those parts are now working overtime to get you down the road you will loose some ride quality when you hit bumps or worse off road. The only real benifit is looks.