Do 17" wheels hurt off road performance?

Mr Nick · **Posted:** Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:09 pm

I have a KK Sport, totally stock. I'd like to add a 2" lift and go up to 17" wheels and tires, but I wonder if they will drastically hurt the off road capability? I highly doubt I'll do any serious trails with this, the KK is my daily driver and I have my 1969 Cutlass as my toy car. However, I do plan on going to Cliffs and Badlands with it a few times.

I'm leaning toward 255/65/17 General Grabber AT2, or 265/65/17, 245/70/17. Depends on pricing and what will fit...

255/65/17 is a 30" tire, and has a touch more sidewall then the stock 225/70/16.

Opinions?

If I end up getting hooked in the Jeep scene and need a 'real' set of offroad tires, I'm not opposed to getting steel 16" with MTR's and switching back and forth.

daspes · **Posted:** Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:25 pm

17" rims are fine for offroading themselves. There is just no where as many choices for A/T or M/T tires in that size rim.

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:34 pm

Ditto the above message. Mine came with 17" rims and I went down to 16" Soft 8's. There is a much better tire selection at 16. You loose 1/2" of height when you go down 1" in rim size but that can be made up in the tire selection.

Terry

KJ Taz · **Posted:** Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:02 pm

I was looking last night and they are starting to get more and more choices for the 17" rims. It won't be too much longer till they catch up with the 16's.

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:07 pm

When offroading (esp. on rocks) you would want the most sidewall you can get. Upping to a 17" would not be a good idea, stick with the 16" you get much more a/t and m/t tire options vs. a 17"

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:54 pm

17" wheels will be the way of the future for many vehicles. Even your new JK Wranglers with the Moabs are 17". As stated above, there are more and more tire options being made for the 17" rims. I bought the 16" Moabs for my KJ strictly for off-roading and kept my factory 17" rims for highway use. The Moabs gave me the backspacing I was looking for. There is more tire to air-down on a 16" vs a 17" in a given height. If a 4" lift for the KK was available, then a larger tire could be used in conjunction with the 17" rim and still allowing plenty of room to air-down and play. But with the current KK lift options, a 16" rim would allow more tire options and a taller sidewall.

VTNomad · **Posted:** Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:36 pm

jeepkj02 wrote:

When offroading (esp. on rocks) you would want the most sidewall you can get. Upping to a 17" would not be a good idea, stick with the 16" you get much more a/t and m/t tire options vs. a 17"

For offroading, you want the tallest tire on the smallest wheel. This gives you as much sidewall cushion as you can have. Just think about rolling over a rock, the tire can absorb some of that rock, but if your rims are too big, you can damage them.

Inc · **Posted:** Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:40 pm

Smaller wheels help with articulation too I believe.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:40 am

incubusmike wrote:

Smaller wheels help with articulation too I believe.

How? That would be overall tire size,wheelwell size,bumpstop size,swaybar,spring rate,total lift,and shock length that effects articulation.

17" rims can hurt and help,depending on the tire size.17" rims with a 31" tire=hurts,17" rims with a 44" tire=helps.

Inc · **Posted:** Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:59 am

Obviously more goes into articulation than wheel size. He never asked about any of the other things you mentioned and this thread isn't about articulation so I left those out and stayed on topic. I only mentioned it because it relates to his question of off road performance and a 17" wheel. Do you think he's going to be running 44s? No, so that is not an issue for this thread.

If he asked should I run 17s on my 44s then I'd say go for it, but for a KK guy to run 17s with a 2" lift and use them off road doesn't make as much sense as a 16" or 15" which would help performance. I would go with the 15s myself if you plan on ever doing any off roading, but a 16 would be a good compromise in looks and performance if you want to go that route. Or get 2 sets, one for off and one for on.

Do 17" wheels hurt off road performance?

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