I'm about to put some 22 inch wheels on my Aspen. Wondering if anybody on here has any experience with larger rims (22 inch and above) on the Aspen. I'm wondering if the 22s degrade the ride at all. Wondering if they change the exceleration or anything like that.

Any info or perspectives would be appreciated.

Joint

 

Yes to both your questions. Anytime you upsize, your ride will degrade, and more than likely so will your acceleration. Anytime you add weight to your drive wheels, your acceleration will suffer. I think 20s look OK. Anything larger doesn't. Your MPG will probably suffer as well.

I have the stock 18s, and they are perfect size for me. I have lots of cushion between me and the road. Recently, my wife slid into a curb on ice with the Aspen. No damage was done what-so-ever. The tires absorbed the impact. Luckily, I have 18s, and Silent Armors with Kevlar reinforcement. Had it been may car she was driving (45-series 18"), she probably would have done $3K worth of damage (I've done it before on a different ride).

Here's a good article C&D did a while back:

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...sted-tech_dept

 

As long as you keep your overall height the same (i.e. the diameter of the wheel and tire combined), then you likely will see very little decline in gas mileage, if any. The added weight (if any) from that much more wheel instead of tire is going to be fairly insignificant to cause much if any noticeable decline in mpgs. However, your ride will definitely suffer as will your load capability in most cases. Also the frequency of rim damage will also increase. The sidewall serves a very important role, and the less of it you have, the less capable your ride will be.

 

thanks for the feedback. well i already paid for the rims. they'll be in the shop on monday or tuesday. i think i'll only keep them on the car from march thru november (about 7 or 8 months a year). i'm not going to ride on 22s in the snow and ice during a NY winter. so sliding into a curb on the ice won't be a problem.

truth is, i don't even drive that much. my aspen is a 2008 (bought it in jan of that year) so it's just over 3 years old and i only have 30k on it. if i drove a lot more than that, i'd probably just go with some 20s.

thanks for the feedback.

 

anybody know what brands of shocks work best with larger rims? can shocks really help to stop the degradation of the ride quality that much? i'm willing to get some new ones if they do.

 

Joint7, my wife's truck is riding on 305/35/24 dropstars D03 and the ride quality actually got better in terms of cornering and handling. Yeah you do feel the road more but it's a give and take. We also dropped the back 2" and the front about 1" but the clearance is still higher than stock because of the bigger wheels. i just ordered new shocks (gabriels) but have not installed them yet so I can't comment on that. About the acceleration, yes bigger wheels means more weight so you will lose a little but it's almost unnoticeable if you have a HEMI, you can always install a cold air intake to get take HP back plus some. Also we upgraded brakes because of the added weight. installed Hawk LTS pads, they work great!

 

thanks bdevil. i ended up putting some 22s on the car. i didn't drop it at all, i kept the same height and everything. i have 265/40/22 tires on there and the cornering and handling is nice. the ride quality (in terms of bumps, etc) did degrade but its nothing i can't handle.

i would like some more feedback on shocks and brakes to put on the car. let me know when you put the "gabes" on and how the ride responds after that.

-- Joint

 

I've got 24s on mine and the ride is actually tighter and more responsive now. Plus the wheels fill in the wheel well perfectly.