Ride Quality with 22" or 20" Wheels

[E55 KEV]

rogue, everything you posted - AMEN to that!

I did not upgrade to 19's on my E55 because living with them is a bit unacceptable, especially in urban areas.

[300CULATER]

Originally Posted by rogue

I feel it important to reiterate the fact that ride quality and road vibration on 22" is not better than stock rims. I am posting this because over the past 3 weeks I have gained quite a bit of experience with my 22" wheels and have some observations. I have no intention of arguing with anyone, I just want the truth in MY situation to be stated. I see a lot of people claiming the ride is better than stock and I don't want anyone to be mislead.

While some of you may believe that your ride quality has improved, I think its a case of denial. I've driven many cars with upgraded rims and tires, and never once, has going to a larger wheel improved ride quality. Lower profile tires ride harsher, its reality. The suspension on my Audi A4 was trashed after 70k miles on 18x8.5" wheels.

Handling improved? yes indeed. More rubber on the road...

Lets do a few tests:

1. Drive with your pinky finger only on the stock tires. Then do so with your 22"s and post your results. You will see a noticeable difference in movement in the steering wheel. These cars tend to have quite a bit of bumpsteer with the stock wheels and tires. This is dampened by the higher profile and cushion of the stock 18" tires. I have had SCARY bumpsteer experiences with the 22"s. Had I not been gripping my wheel tightly and corrected the steering, I would have easily hopped over into the other lane or onto a curb. The bumpsteer is drastically magnified with 22" wheels and 265/30/22 tires. Please be careful where you try this. If you hit a pothole or imperfection in the road, your steering wheel WILL jerk and your pinky isn't going to be enough to handle the bumpsteer.

2. Throw your car into a turn way too fast. TRY and toss that rear end out a bit. With the stock wheels and tires, this will be controlled by ESP and be quite a smooth turn. The ESP system gives a lot of confidence to most drivers. That confidence is tossed out the window. Now try that with your 22" Wheels. Hop Hop hop. Scary isn't it? If you aren't experiencing this, you havent pushed the limits of you vehicle on the 22" wheels. (not that I endorse this) Find a large parking lot like I did and you'll see what I mean. The suspension and ESP was not designed with the 22" wheels in mind. It no longer feels 'right'.

All that said and done, its important to recognize a few facts.

Wheels don't get any lighter than a forged 3 piece design. Generally, 3 piece are racing wheels and I had assumed this would provide a slight performance increase over heavy cast wheels. I was dead wrong. The wheel and tire package is about 10 pounds heavier per wheel than the stock tires. I can't imagine heavier wheels would handle or ride better than a forged setup.

22" tires are expensive. I doubt any of you will be lighting them up too often or entering any drifting competitions any time soon I still like to know what the limits of my vehicle are, and there is no better place than an airport or large parking lot to explore those limits. Consider an autocross event if you dont want to have a meeting with a police officer. The limits of my car are downgraded with 22" wheels and tires.

Don't upgrade your wheels to 22" unless you want to adjust your driving style. Regardless of what anyone says, they HAVE adjusted their driving style to 22" wheels and their ride quality has changed.

I love the way my car looks, Love the extra rubber on the ground, and love the looks people give.

I hate the bumpsteer, hate the road vibration through the steering wheel, hate having to constantly avoid bumps, grates, and potholes, and I hate parallel parking next to curbs.

Stick with 20" if you drive a lot. 22" is fine on a daily driver, but prepare to make some sacrifices. I still have no intention of swapping mine out for 20"s but my opinions have changed since driving for 3 weeks. I'm willing to make the sacrifice to give the car "the look" but some of you may not.

Hope this helps some of you.

Wow...Rogue your posts are always top notch...thanks for your honest comments on the ride of your 22"(s) this is very refreshing. I went with 20"(s) and the decision was not an easy one...but after reading this post I feel better about it. Thanks for all your posts!

[FAME2002]

Well I have to say that I believe as do the passengers I have in my 300c that the ride has at least stayed the same if not improved in mine since geting the 22"s. I have absolutley no sterring wheel shake at all even at 100mph, Im sure this is de to the fact that we had custom billet spacers made for the car, as regular spacers make the wheel shake badly so this may be why I have such a better ride than alot of you with 22"s. But the only thing I notice with my 22"s is when I hit a reflector or somethng like that I feel it maybe slightly more but thats it (other than improved handling) I have no reason to lie or try to "mislead" anyone here. Im stating my experience with my vehicle, people can make their own decisions.

[rogue]

Originally Posted by FAME2002

I have absolutley no sterring wheel shake at all even at 100mph, Im sure this is de to the fact that we had custom billet spacers made for the car, as regular spacers make the wheel shake badly so this may be why I have such a better ride than alot of you with 22"s. But the only thing I notice with my 22"s is when I hit a reflector or somethng like that I feel it maybe slightly more but thats it.

Fame I had no intention in making you feel as if you were misleading people. I was only relaying my own experience after reading all the positive feedback from 22" Wheel ride quality posts. Again this is my own opinion, I DO feel much difference.

If your wheel shop or custom shop mounted spacers on your wheels/tires, I would avoid them completely. A proper wheel and tire combo needs no 'finesse' to work. They should fit the car without spacers and without modifying the suspension in my opinion. If you were to take a poll of the users with 22" Wheels here you would find not many are using spacers except those whom purchased the wrong offset or extreme widths such as GSHUG's 10" width. Wheels and tires should be chosen with the proper offset.

It surprises me after all the negative experiences you had with your 300c, you would allow such a shop to modify your vehicle. A shop that needs to use custom spacers to fit wheels and tires on a vehicle is either hiding the fact that they ordered the wrong offset, or simply are unaware of what they are doing. Gshug's car is running a 10" wide wheel and requires such an offset/spacer. Your wheels and tires don't have such an extreme width and should not require spacers to correct offset. If this is the same shop that insists they have no problems mounting up a 23" or 24" wheel to the 300c without A-Arm modification I would be VERY cautious.

The feeling you are describing when hitting something as SMALL as a reflector is exactly what I am trying to convey to people whom have not ridden in a 300c with 22"s. A reflector is not supposed to jerk your wheel so violently.

Either way your car looks great and I have NOT rode in it. I guess readers of this thread will be able to decide for themselves. I will gladly provide video footage of steering kick on my wheels. If anyone is interested I will have a friend grab some footage of the kick on a bump Im familiar with.

[fatchance]

rogue is correct. I don't understand how some of you are mounting 22's on your "C". I've been doing extensive research on this. There truely are just a hand full of rims that fit this car. If it's not made for a good fitment don't use it. You are asking for problems. Call me a perfectionists, but if it's not right I'm not doing it. I'm not going to take a risk with my vehicle or my safety. I'm to the point now that I will wait longer to get my rims. This way I can get what fits and something different.
The "C"'s I've seen look great. I started the 300c's on 22's to get idea's. But, if some of your are not aware a lot of the rims are modified to fit. I'm sure all is well with those vehicles, that's just not for me. The reality of it is that we are making a dramatic change from stock, yuor going to notice a difference.

[FAME2002]

The rims on my c are 9.5, but the offset is very high so thats the reason we had to use spacers. The rims I chose were a higher offset, but they said they would fit with very little mods, but they were the rims I wanted. When I hit reflectors my wheel does not jerk in any way, I have purposly hit reflectors to see how the car reacted and have had no issues with this. Just like you said noone on this board has ridden in my car, and I havent ridden in anyone elses vehicle so I can only speak for myself. IMO I dont see any problems with using a spacer especially one as small as they are on my c, but hey thats my opnion and I dont think its any more unsafe than anyone elses.

[Ansari]

I just bought a 300c hemi and I changed my wheels to a 22 in. helo wheel with 265 35 22 perelli tires. ( with 1/8 in spacers) I also lowered my car with the iebock (spelling?) pro kit. since these mods, I have been experiencing a slight vibration in the sterring wheel from 60 mph and up. I thought it might have been the balancing of the tires but its not. does anyone have any suggestions or any info on how to fix this vibration.

[joey]

Originally Posted by Ansari

I just bought a 300c hemi and I changed my wheels to a 22 in. helo wheel with 265 35 22 perelli tires. ( with 1/8 in spacers) I also lowered my car with the iebock (spelling?) pro kit. since these mods, I have been experiencing a slight vibration in the sterring wheel from 60 mph and up. I thought it might have been the balancing of the tires but its not. does anyone have any suggestions or any info on how to fix this vibration.

I have read that balancing bigger wheels can be difficult and only some shops know how to do it correctly. You may want to check around for a shop that specializes in bigger wheels.

[Northern Rider]

Originally Posted by Ansari

I just bought a 300c hemi and I changed my wheels to a 22 in. helo wheel with 265 35 22 perelli tires. ( with 1/8 in spacers) I also lowered my car with the iebock (spelling?) pro kit. since these mods, I have been experiencing a slight vibration in the sterring wheel from 60 mph and up. I thought it might have been the balancing of the tires but its not. does anyone have any suggestions or any info on how to fix this vibration.

You have oversized the factory specs by 4". This is a large increase in wheel and tire mass. All this unsprung weight is tricky to balance correctly. Using spacers is a big no-no from a balance and safety point of view, IMO.

Do you know the combined weight of the wheel/tire combination? You may require a brake rotor and caliper aftermarket upgrade to handle all the extra stress.

I know my opinions on wheel size, tires and brakes are not popular with the folks that like to make a fashion statement with their cars. Frankly, if you want to spend over 40K on your package and you intend to only flatbed it to auto shows, then that's entirely your own business.

However, if you intend to drive your car on the roads with the rest of us, then please ensure that you know precisely what the effects are going to be when you decide to place overspec'd rims and tires on your car. No matter how nice it looks to you, please take care to keep your car from becoming a hazard to others.

[Ansari]

Northern Rider,

I'm not a wheel or tire specialist. I asked a tire company if I can put 22 in wheels on my car and they said yes. the way they installed them was with the spacer. After extensive research I found out the shop had ordered the wrong offset wheels and their solution was to install spacers. I wasn't trying to make a fashion statement at the expence of a compromised ride quality, but three thousand dollars later here I am. I was just curious if any one else was experiancin any mild vibration with there set up, and if it was normal due to the ovrsized wheels and tires.