If you had a given tire, 275/40R-20 with 9.9"ish tread width, for all 4 corners, and a choice of 9" wide wheel or 10" wide wheel, and either would fit without issues and were the same money within a few dollars, and your priority was handling over straight line drag-type stuff, which wheel would you choose?
That tire width, not tread width is 10.8" so a 10" wheel.
Tread width is surprisingly hard to find in tire specs these days. I guess they figure all they need to tell you is the section width and recommended wheel sizes. Tread width is what they use for determining wheel width, section width is kinda irrelevant to that.
If you want your sidewalls to look like a balloon then pick 9" I prefer a flatter more perpendicular looking sidewall.
Hell, the TBSS guys are all stuffing bigger tires than this onto the stock 8" wheels and say 'they work perfect'. I... am not a member of their tribe.
OK, complications...
Different tire size, 275/45-20. 'Ideal' rim width is 9.5". Have the choice of 9" or 10". If nothing else mattered, would one be better than the other?
I used to consult with the vehicle dynamics engineering leader a lot at my old job for my "government" projects (roadracing car) and his assessment and my butt feel of that same question (aside from the look of the sidewall) was mostly to do with the feel of the tire in lateral loading. Technically, the wider wheel may provide a very slight improvement in the tires ability to produce maximum grip, but it mostly came down to the wider wheel will give a more taught sharp response to steering input and the narrower wheel will let the car move around just a bit more - feels like you can rotate or squirm the car around more without actually sliding the tires. So can kind of tune it to your preference
When I bought the truck the P/O had put 265/60s on the stock 18x8 wheels and it felt like trying to balance on top of a giant water balloon.
On road I would take the 10. Off road if I didn't have a bead lock I would go with 9
Haha that sounds about right. Well even with the 9" wheel and 275/45 you'd be a big step in the right direction!Originally Posted by blindsquirrel
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