Tire Wheel Opinion

[Riff Raff]

Soliciting opinions, both functional and aesthetic, for the following tire/wheel combo. I don't want to trim any cladding if I can help it and from looking at other posts I think I may be okay. Am I right?

My goal is to fill out the wheel well and lean towards focusing on the VX's sport handling and not off-road ability. Improved ride quality would be nice but I understand that's mutually exclusive with handling to a degree. I'm thinking about:

20" Chrome Ultra Marauder Wheels

20" General Grabber UHP


The calculator at 1010tire.com says this should result in an OD of 31.9". So...what do you think?

Holy cow, what an awesome price on those wheels at 73% off!!! Excellent choice of tire-- the Grabber UHP is a perfect tire for the "street". However, your chosen tire size of 275/55R20 (31.9" O.D./40 lbs) is be a bit too tall in O.D. when mounted on those aftermarket rims and will rub like crazy.

The OEM tire of the VX is 29.5" O.D., so come down in O.D. to about 30.5" O.D. and you'll be fine with those wider rims.

I recommend the Grabber UHP in either of the two(2) tire sizes below:

A. 265/50R20 (30.4" O.D./37 lbs)
These will mount a lot better, and will likely not rub and may/may not require cladding trim (you won't know until they're actually on the VX). If you are totally skittish about any cladding trim, then this would be my recommendation.

B. 295/45R20 (30.5" O.D./39 lbs)
These are very wide at 295 series width, and will likely rub which will require a tad bit of cladding trim. However, they will look totally bad-@ss once fitted on the VX and give the VX a much wider, meaner stance. If you are willing to trim a little bit of the inner cladding, then this would be my recommendation.

[vt_maverick]

B. 295/45R20 (30.5" O.D./39 lbs)
These are very wide at 295 series width, and will likely rub which will require a tad bit of cladding trim. However, they will look totally bad-@ss once fitted on the VX and give the VX a much wider, meaner stance. If you are willing to trim a little bit of the inner cladding, then this would be my recommendation.

I would strongly recommend against a 295 width on that particular rim. The offset is "0" which means the inside of your wheel will sit 38mm out farther than stock. Add onto that an additional 50mm of section width over OEM tires, and you're going to have a MUCH larger swing arc, therefore requiring signficant trimming. I'm only running 265 width tires but because my offset is 40mm wider than stock, I've had to do at least as much trimming as those running 285's on stock rims. If you're trying to lean more towards sport than offroad, chopping up your cladding to fit tires that will likely stick out several inches from the body would (IMHO) look more ricey than sporty.

Riff's Option A is almost certainly a better choice.

[etlsport]

Before you get too excited give tire rack a call. Last time I tried to order ultra marauder wheels from them in a six lug application for a customer, they only has 2 wheels left.

If they are available, the smaller your tire the better with that zero offset the better. These wheels are much wider than factory probably. The 38mm difference in offset is assuming the same width. In reality it's higher than that by half of the width difference of the wheels from factory. So an 8" wide wheel is roughly 36 mm wider to begin with. So half of that, 16mm plus the 38mm offset difference.

[JHarris1385]

I recommend the Grabber UHP in either of the two(2) tire sizes below:

A. 265/50R20 (30.4" O.D./37 lbs)
These will mount a lot better, and will likely not rub and may/may not require cladding trim (you won't know until they're actually on the VX). If you are totally skittish about any cladding trim, then this would be my recommendation.

B. 295/45R20 (30.5" O.D./39 lbs)
These are very wide at 295 series width, and will likely rub which will require a tad bit of cladding trim. However, they will look totally bad-@ss once fitted on the VX and give the VX a much wider, meaner stance. If you are willing to trim a little bit of the inner cladding, then this would be my recommendation.

Slightly skewed a little. The ODs are 30.43 and 30.45 respectively. I understand rounding but it would be much easier said only 2 tenths difference. However with the 295, that is going to be quite a bit of overhang lip over the tire and is not needed to such an extent at 11.61 inches of width and a 9' rim.

[Riff Raff]

Slightly skewed a little. The ODs are 30.43 and 30.45 respectively. I understand rounding but it would be much easier said only 2 tenths difference.

LOL. Hmmm; sorry but no skewing involved here and no rounding-off was done, as my spec quotations were taken directly from the TireRack website and then re-confirmed with the manufacturer website of General Tire. Not sure where you got your sizing data, and BTW your math difference is 2 HUNDRETHS, not 2 tenths (got cha').

After a quick re-visit to both TireRack & General Tire websites, I discovered the 265/50R20 (30.4" O.D./37 lbs) is "discontinued" in the Grabber UHP. However, there are numerous comparable tires by other brands at www.Tires-Easy.com in that same specific size available.

I agree the wheels are the culprit in creating the massive rubbing issues, as is too often the case with many aftermarket wheels placed on the VX. Perhaps that's why the wheels are marked 73% off on sale, as nobody else wanted to buy the weird off-set. Go figure.

If the Grabber UHP still has to be the "chosen" tire, then perhaps an alternate size of 275/45R20 (29.7" O.D./33.6 lbs) might work-out. At 29.7" O.D., it is almost dead-on with the OEM tire. Further, the size of 275/45R20 should be thrown into the mix of overall consideration as well.

[BeeVenom]

I've got 20" wheels so similar to the ones you want to buy. I'm wondering if they're made by the same manufacturer with different names depending on vendor. Anyway, the tires I have are Yokohama Parada's Spec-X 265/50-20 and they just fit with no clearance problems. Only had to tweak the torsion bars a few turns for clearance. NO cladding interferance at all.
I noticed you were looking at 55-series tires. With the 275 width and the tallness of the 55's I believe you WILL run into problems with cladding for sure! Hope that helps in your decision. By the way, I love the Parada's. Scott