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Towing with 20" wheel compared to 18's?

59K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  mijdirtyjeep  
#1 ·
I read somewhere on the forum that towing with 20" wheels is not as good as towing with 18's. Does anybody know about this. I want to get some 20" wheels and I tow a 16000# toyhauler. Tires would be E- rated of course, airbags and properly equipped??
 
#4 ·
I noticed zero difference from my 17's with e rated bfgs at 80psi to my XL rated 20" nitro terra graps @ 50psi. I couldn't tell any difference at all. Same trailer and made the same drive several times with each. 20's sure looked better tho! :D

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#6 ·
I think the bigger the wheel the better! Bigger wheel means smaller sidewall and less sway :cool:



 
#7 ·
Less sway yes but an over loaded tire is avoidable. All the 22 inch tires I saw were rated under 2,800 pounds. That's over 1,000 pounds less per axle than the factory tires are raited for. My weights on a load that only weight 10,000 pounds on my trailer puts 6,680 pounds of weight on my drive axle and 4,820 on my steer axle. My gross weight is 22,700 pounds. There is no 22 inch tire combi with a high enough load index to haul that much weight. These trucks are raited to haul more than that. If you really want 22's load it down to whatever weight you normally haul and go to a truck stop scale. Pay the $9.50 and see how much weight is on your tires.


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#9 ·
220 pounds isn't bad but both numbers are still low. It's easy to over load a single wheel truck. My 10,000 pound load will have you overloaded. I tow real heavy so it's important to me. I'm sure most people on here will be fine. I run the nitto's also in a 275/65/20 and they are 10.82 inches wide and 34 inches tall and hold 3740 per tire. So 7480 total. Your looking at 6172. 1308 difference.


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#10 ·
also if you are looking at buying rims look at what the rim is ratted at not just the tire. different rims have different ratting just like tires.
 
#13 ·
I guess for most people, 3000lbs per tire is adequate. If you need the extra capacity then hopefully that person will be smart enough to consider that. But like someone else mentioned, both of those tires I mentioned are higher rated than the factory 245's are. So in theory a person shouldn't have any problem. If you have the tires for it the next limiting factor is the axle weight rating which I believe is 8200lbs. That's probably reserved for duallys with airbags though.

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#18 ·
Lots of bad information here. My 2500 HD Duramax High Country with 20" wheels (E rated) only has a payload of 1,994 lbs! This is too low for almost any 5th wheel trailers which typically have at least a 20% pin weight. It is also way too low for a large conventional trailer, if you carry any passengers inside and luggage in the bed. My trailer pin weight was 1,574 lbs. My fifth wheel hitch weighs 150 lbs. My bed cover weighs 75 lbs. This leaves only 195 lbs. for driver and passengers. I bought this truck thinking it had a 2,513 lb. payload like all other 2500 crew cab Duramaxes. None of Chevy's literature or towing manuals warn about the fact that the 20" wheel compromise the payload so badly. I had to spend several thousand to replace these with 18" wheels and tires in order to tow my fifth wheel. The fact that some of you can "feel" no difference with the 20" wheels is irrelevant. The temperature of the tire and the stresses will cause blowouts which in a towing or heavy payload situation can be fatal. If you don't believe Chevy's payload ratings then go to a scale and check, Your 20" and 22" tires will be seriously overloaded for any significant payload.
 
#19 ·
Lots of bad information here
Did you ever weight your truck before buying the new tires to see what weight was actually on each axle empty before buying new tires?


Also, whey not just get a set of 275/65r20 load E’s that are rated for 3750lbs each? What is the specs for the factory 20” rims max weight?

Lots of the guys you mentioned above are running larger tires and aftermarket rims.