Rollin Dubs....straight into a ditch

[Damn True]

Spent the weekend in the Sierras and stumbled onto something interesting.

I'm sure most of you have witnessed the trend of people buying large SUVs and putting 20's, 22's, or even 24's on them in place of the OE rolling stock. Well, it appears that the practice poses more problems than an increase in pinch flats on rough city streets.

a) There is a fairly limited offering in terms of tires available in those sizes and even fewer of them that offer any sort of traction on ice and snow. Nitto 555s look killer and work nice on dry pavement but on the frozen stuff.....yikes.

b) You think the tire sizes are limited.....how about chains? Many of the "Dubbed" SUVs are two wheel drive which means they are required to chain up on CA mountain roads.

The result; lot's and I mean LOT'S of SUV's with really pretty rims stuffing it in the ditch, and LOT'S of happy tow truck drivers.

[ViperBlue68]

Funny you post this I went up to Tahoe a few weeks ago in my Escalade on 24s with Nittos and it handled just fine and I wasnt required to chain up thank god for AWD! went right by some trucks with m/t tires....

[killer69]

If you are trying to drive Your Escalade with 25,000.00 worth of chromed out 26" wheels in the snow then you deserve to go in the ditch ......... DUH these guys need to swallow................ their pride for the ride to the slopes or where ever and put the stock rims back on.
We sell a fair number of wheel packages and here in Vancouver they use lots of salt on the roads and i get guys comming back to say how come my rims are all pitted and the chrome is flaking ???????? cuz you don't wash them!!!! see ya

[Steve1968LS2]

How about the stress all the extra rolling mass puts on suspension parts. I am just waiting for components to start failing and the lawsuits to start flying.

Also, when you buy your Surburban from the dealer complete with dealer installed 24" rims and you cream the back of some car who is to blame that your stopping distance was increased by 30%??

I shoulda been a lawyer :)

[Damn True]

Viper,

Just going on the info of a couple of CHP guys and a tow driver I was talking to while sitting and waiting for another dubbed Tahoe to be extracted from the ditch along hwy 50. The CHP guys also said that the increase in rolling diameter buggers up the antilock braking systems and TCS on many of the vehicles.

[protour_chevelle]

Its amazing how opinions change when all of a sudden someone that is in the group that is being talked down about chimes in.

Ever watch those videos of the Escalades with turbos and 22's? Darting back and forth on the drag strip trying to find traction. I doubt that component failure will happen within the lifetime of the vehicle seeing how it will probably get stolen or crashed lol.

-Matt

[Damn True]

Its amazing how opinions change when all of a sudden someone that is in the group that is being talked down about chimes in.


-Matt

Huh?

[David Pozzi]

True,
A lot of SUV's come with M/S rated tires, but they are not nearly as agressive as they used to be. This is probably because of noise complaints of the earlier tires.
My 04 Yukon is not approved by the factory for use of tire chains! I bought a set of the cable type chains for it.