I have decided to replace the stock 18" wheels on my 2015 XT Touring and go with more sturdy tires, probably the 225/65r17 BF Goodrich KO2. My driving is mainly city and freeway, with frequent trips to remote trailheads to hike in the mountains in California, Nevada and Oregon. After two previous flat tires in the back country I want the stronger sidewalls from the 17" rim tires.
Aside from "the look" what should I consider in selecting wheels?
Some posters here have chosen 17x8 Niche Targa, 17x8 Method 502 Rally, 17x8 Drag DR-31, 17x7 Touren TR9, 17x7.5 Enkei M52 and other wheels.
There's obviously different weight rims, but is lighter better? and 35 or 40 offset or other? what about the actual wheel construction, durability and reliability? And lastly price. I'd rather not pay $1500 for 5 rims if I don't have to.
On a 17x8 wheel, you will be way too close to the strut with those offsets. I am running a 17x8 +40 and my oversized tires (similar in size to what OP will run) almost hit the spring perch.
I would not run anything above +40 or the odds are that your tires will hit the perch.
Sounds like you are busy traveling to some great hiking spots. My daughter and her boyfriend just left AZ yesterday in a moving truck on their way to OR. Looks cold there right now...
There are some on this site that have gone the route that you are thinking about as well. Weight is a consideration to a point but looks is probably the first consideration as if you do not like the way a wheel looks more than likely you won't purchase them.
All of our wheels have a lifetime warranty against manufacturers defects and one year on the finish.
We have an excellent selection of wheels with the proper offset to fit your Forester including Drag and Method wheels. Here is a link to them:
Actually Josh I was considering the KO2 225/65 r17 which are the same width (225) as the r18 Geolandars I already have.
The 7" wheels are 178mm wide and the 8" wheels are 203mm wide so in both cases the 225mm wide tire extends out beyond the wheel rim on each side. Mounting them both with 48mm offset would place them in the same position in the wheel well with respect to the axle.
However the Geolandars are 225 x 0.55 = 124mm high; add 9" (229mm) for the wheel and you get 353mm radius.
The KO2's are 225 x 0.65 = 146mm high; add 8.5" (216mm) for the wheel and you get 362mm radius.
So the KO2's mounted on the 17's are about 9mm taller and extend more into the upper part of the wheel well.
It sounds like that's where the tire would rub agains the suspension and why a smaller offset would help to move the top of the tire out and away from the suspension.
Is there some other issue on clearance with the wheel and the brake calipers?
It sounds like that's where the tire would rub agains the suspension and why a smaller offset would help to move the top of the tire out and away from the suspension.
Is there some other issue on clearance with the wheel and the brake calipers?
The trouble is as you said, the taller tires get you closer to the spring perch on the strut, which is the widest point. Due to that, you can't run as high of an offset without rubbing the tire on the spring perch.
A 17" wheel is the smallest you can run on an XT model without hitting the brake calipers. You can run a 16" on the non-turbo models, which have smaller brakes.
Here you can see how tight the clearance is on my wheels:
I am not familiar enough with SJ, but SG fit 245/45/18s on 8" 48 offset wheels. You may hit spring perch before strut body -- then get shorter/narrower tire, or use spacers. If goal is to fit specific tire -- ok, but if you are specificly picking wheels, I'd prefer offset closer to stock.
I guess I'm just trying to make a case for STi BBSs being a nice option for owning wheels (which IMO is an investment). Weight alone is a big selling point. You could always use spacers to push them out if needed.
Looks pretty good. Those should be stock 17x7 wheels. 17x7.5 53+ BBSs would have 11mm less clearance to strut, and 17x8 40+ wheels would have 5mm less clearance to strut. 225s fit nicely on 7.5", while 235s look better on 8" (at least from what I ran).
I'd rather run spacers then roll fenders if it comes down to making things fit.
I'm eventually going to be moving down to 17" wheels on my XT as well, since I have prefer to have more tire than wheels for this vehicle and I have a similar driving style as the OP. I'll probably stick to the OEM size tire range though (225/60/17) since I don't want a huge hit in MPG nor my speedometer to be thrown off.
On my 2015 XT I was running 17x8 Drag DR31 +35mm wheels with 235/60R17 and the speedo was now dead on with the speed I'm traveling, also my MPG didn't get hit or anything and still the same MPG
I'm going to switch over to a 17" set up with the KO2's soon too. One big consideration for my rim choice is weight.
With the stock rim weighing about 25 pounds you can find a lot of lighter options within a reasonable budget. Lighter doesn't necessarily mean weaker. Unless your doing some gnarly rock crawling a light allow wheel will do just fine in durability. Highly unlikely you would encounter anything that would hurt the integrity of the wheel.
My choice of rim ATM is about 18lbs. With that plus the weight of the KO2's, the total rolling weight of wheel + tire is 7lbs more than the stock XT rims and tires. With trying to keep everything near the original weight limits I personally am trying to stick to a reasonably low weight in the rim because the new BFG all terrains are very heavy. Most in the AT class I'm sure.
My two cents. I have been researching/considering this as I have been wearing through my stock tires for the past 6 months.
It will always be safer to get a slightly lower offset than you think you might need. To ensure clearance, I recommend a +40 to +30 offset on a 17x8 wheel.
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