Not sure if this a dumb question or not but i wanted to know what differences you experience when you put rims on your Montes. I have a '05 LT with stock tires and rims. I want to change to 18" rims but i like to go fast. Will the Low Profile Tires and rims make a drastic change to the performance; steering and speed?

 

Well im not much of an expert, form what i've been told the larger the rims, the bumpier the ride becomes, and with low profiles even small speed bumps become a hassle. Then again i have very limited experience, I only had my monte for about 3 months before i changed out my stock rims for 16" Koenig F1's with all weather Michelin tires, and seeing as i hadnt had the car for too long before them i never really had time to really test em out.

Really it all depends on how you want your car to handle, 20"s for ballas, 16"s for speeding, and somewhere in between is... well somewhere in between

 

Thanks. Do you know if i will have to make suspension mods? My stock size is 16". I only want 18".

 

Go on tirerack.com, check out 18" rims with the recommended Tire Size, and that should be what you need.

 

Exactly.

 

Drastic change- not really, but it depends on the wheel/tire combo too. One of the big things to look for is total weight of the wheel/tire package- the more you up the weight of that, the more inertia the system has, so the more it will slow the car in acceleration and the less well the brakes will work. However, obviously you can get larger wheels/tires that weight less also (look at some of the supercar and racing wheels)- just depends on the design.

Also, less sidewall means less cushion and flex between the wheel and the road- that means the car will be more responsive, but the ride will be more harsh.

By upsizing the rim, and downsizing the sidewall- keeping the same tread width- you can get an 18" wheel/tire combo that is almost exactly the same outer dimensions aas your 16" wheel/tire combo. That's the nice thing about having so much variety in tire size selection nowadays. If you keep the same overall height by proper 'plus sizing', you will have no fitment issues at all.

 

make sure you dont go to wide because there is a lip inside the finder. I have a friend who put 18s on his 5th gen mc and he had went with a wider tire. He had to cut the fender lips out so they wouldnt rub. Other then that it wasnt a bad ride, just make sure u dont go 2 low or 2 wide.

suspension wise u could keep the stock height or lower it, if u plan on showing it just remember wheel gap is bad.

 

i have 235 55 17..i wouldnt go that big on an 18, like jonny said, it will rub, mine is less than an inch from this lip that hes talking about

the lip is actually the bottom of the strut plate so it wont move if it doesnt touch to begin with, so i just check last night, my tires havent rubbed at all in about 400 miles

 

If you're worried about rubbing at all- follow the normal wheel plus sizing rules for decreasing aspect ratio with rim size- and keep the same width tire- and you'll never have a fitment issue.

 

I have 18's on mine and the only difference I noticed was it lowered it 1.5 inches do tp the size of the tires I put on..... Other then that.... no difference really in handling! I recomend it!