what are the advantages of larger wheels?

[Serg911]

DII with 18" wheels and 255/55/18 tires (in need or replacement)

what are the advantages -if any- of having the 18s over the 16 inch wheels?
I would think that fuel consumption would be less with the 16 inch rather than the 18 inch, certainly more tire options, and less expensive.
what about "the three amigos"? I wonder if tire size is a factor. perhaps this is a good poll question:
How frequently do the three amigos show up on trucks with 18 inch wheels compared to 16 inch wheeled trucks?

 

[michaels]

the only advantage comes to street and high speed driving. you'll have better on road handling, as there is less sidewall to flex through turns.

off road, a 16" wheel provides more sidewall to protect the bead and the rim.

i prefer 16s over 18s.

 

[landrovered]

Larger wheel = increased sexual prowess or at least that is the logic as it appears from the plethora of 22" wheels seen in donkville.

I would recommend 16s as well. Softer ride, better offroad, cheaper tires, more selections available.

As for the tres amigos I would bet that there is no statistical difference between 16 & 18 as there would be none between zambezi silver and arles blue land rovers.

 

[Serg911]

high speed disco IIs? never head of it.
I can understand large weels/small profile tires on a sports car, but really on such as slow vehicles as these disco IIs are is the need for 'speed' tires really necessary?
I have a hard time bringing the truck up to freeway traffic speed to begin with, let alone going over 75mph. I keep my truck well maintained and I love it, but it takes a good amount of effort to make them go.

 

[Blue]

You might find that you can buy 15" or 16" rims AND new tires for the same cost as new 18" tires only. Might be worth it to sell those 18" rims on ebay and buy some 16". Check out the classifieds section on dweb. There are some sweet deals on stock 16" rims.

 

[Serg911]

I think those huge wheels 20 and up look ridiculos; completely unnecessary. I've even seen an early 90's oldsmobile with 24inch chrome wheels..I had to laugh at the kid who was driving it, it is amusing how some peopel invest huge amounts of money on the looks of a car and not in its functionality.

 

[michaels]

for what it's worth, yo recibí los tres amigos when i had 18 inchers. i love not having ABS, but no TC is a bummer. all in all, i don't think the 3 amigos is a bad thing. i'm fond of the five lights on my dash by now.

 

[DiscoDino]

1. more cooling for the brakes
2. more space to put larger brakes
3. on larger tires, less tire profile so more stability off camber
4. strength (in general)

 

[Blaewen Draca]

Everybody says ditch the 18's, but I have the hurricanes, and I love them. I won't be ditching them any time soon. If anything, I might buy a set of steelies for offroading, but that would suck to have to plan that far ahead to change all four wheels before going off road. As it stands now, I still have the Michelin 4x4 Diamaris tires that came on the truck when I bought it, and I haven't really had a chance to get it into anything nasty to see if they're worth a damn. The have a really street tread, but they do have teeth on the sidewall away from the normal asphalt contact patch.

 

[Urban Panzer]

I use my 18" mondials for on and offroad with General Grabber AT2's in the standard size. So far all is good except in very deep mud.

Have always wondered whether the smaller side wall with less flex is, more or less suceptable to damage from rocks etc when offroad than the larger sidewall on the 16"s.

biggest advantage of 16"s imo is tyre choice / cost