Hello everyone!
This is my first ever post in the subaruforester.org community and it's about my first ever modification to my SJ5!
But first, let me put everything in perspective...
I leased the car In Sept 2018 and the contract is for 5 years. After the 5 year period I can keep the car (+some fee) or I can return it back in "default mode" (with all OEM products fitted).
I really love my car. i love the size of it. I love the looks of it. I love its off road capabilities (for a crossover). To be honest, I love it more than I could imagine before owning it.
The only I don't like much about my car is its engine's power. EUDM Forester come with the FB20B... same like XVs. But, I knew about it and at least I'm lucky enough to own one with the 6sp MT which is a bit faster.
So, this is my daily and except going my kids to school and my self to work I'd like to do some off roading and exploring in my country.
First thing I need to change are the OEM tires... the just OK Yoko G91s.
The car will mostly (80%) be driven on tarmac. The rest (20%) will be dirt and gravel roads in slow overlanding speeds.
That is why my tire of choise is the Yoko G015.
Now, about sizing I concluded that I have 2 choices.
1st choice is pretty straight forward... I keep the OEM wheels and change to 225/65R17 G015s. Then I can use the extra money (from not buying wheels) for other mods.
This will give apprx +11 mm sidewall
but also +3% of overall diameter
.
2nd choice is more complicated.
In order to have much more A/T tire options but also stay as close as possible to OEM overall dimensions of wheels+tires I was thinking to downsize the wheels to 7Jx16" fitted with 215/70R16 tires.
This way I gain less than 1% in overall diameter and apprx +16 mm sidewall.
Also, due to the 215 tire width I believe that I'll have a min impact on the fuel consumption (min as possible for an A/T tire) and also the car's engine will not struggle like it would if I was going to 235 A/Ts.
If I follow the 2nd choice I will have to buy a new set of wheels, obviously!
I have already discussed with some dealers and manufacturers here in Europe and most of them suggest some very heavy pure off road sets of wheels which I think as an option would be an overkill for a Forester.
I have seen many instagram users driving off road with their Foresters fitted with lots of different wheels from so many manufacturers and I don't see that many pure off road "monster" wheels.
Some of them even use the OEM wheels!
* My favorite wheels for the looks, race-proven quality were the Work Wheels MCO but they are discontinued...
*
So, to sum up, I'm in an "crossroad" here and I would like to listen to some other owner's opinions as well.
I apologize in advance if my English is not spelled correctly
