Wanna make your truck A lot faster? (Get rid of your 20" rims!!)
 

Well, I think I found someone to buy my Silverado SS rims that I had on my truck so yesterday I took the rims off and put my stockers back on. (P255-70-16) After putting them on, I couldn't resist the urge to go and take the truck for a spin around the block to see what he'd do. I got the truck up to operating temp and I got out to where the road was nice and clean. I poured the coals to it in 1st and the ass end just spun and when the g-80 locked up it just drifted sideways, I hit 2nd gear and it swung over to he left and continued to burn. It was like someone gave me 30-40 HP. I was just amazed at how much performance putting those 20's on there took away from my takeoff and lowend. Although 20's look beautiful on a RCSB black truck, it takes away too much performance to justify putting them on IMHO. To each their own but I'm going to stay with stock from now on, if not lighter weight 16's ;) Now to get rid of those SS rims that are taking up so much space in my garage :jest:

And the moral of the story is, if you wanna go fast and not care about anything else, go with the smallest diameter and lightest weight wheel you can fit on your vehicle.



Joe

:cool: i hear ya man, i got some 20's that have been sittin in the box since jan. i love my stock rims. when i get back home i'm putting some 255/70's on them. when i want to cut up i'll ride stockers, when i want to ball i'll ride 20's

:cool: i hear ya man, i got some 20's that have been sittin in the box since jan. i love my stock rims. when i get back home i'm putting some 255/70's on them. when i want to cut up i'll ride stockers, when i want to ball i'll ride 20's

wrong button, please delete

These SS rims aren't worth the $1300 I paid for them just to "look pretty". I was expecting a nice handling increase with them which I got, but the handling increase wasn't worth the performance loss. These trucks handle amazingly well with stock tires on them as it is.

ya im running VHO 20's and had a flat last week and hadta put my 16's back on and i couldnt keep traction with them such a huge difrence im keeping the 20's for looks but will be gettin light wirght 16's with dot slicks or somin for the track

Exactly what I'm doing. Hopefully my drag radials will come in by tomorrow, so I can have them for the track tomorrow night. I expect to see a huge difference (3-4 tenths) in times between the 31" tall 20" VHOs and the 26" tall drag radials on 16" wheels.

Just curious...are you sure that it's the wheel weight that is making the difference? I would think that the softer compound and wider tire you have with the SS wheels might make the truck hook better?

My 20" Boyds weigh just a tiny bit less than the stock steel wheels.

I'm sure it's the unsprung weight addition. These SS rims are 85 lbs on my bathroom scale. The stocker steels with micheline LTX's weigh in at only 58 LBS. Huge difference. Here's what I've learned so far, let's say you have 2 different tire/wheel combo's that have an overall diameter of 30 inches and they both weigh 70 lbs. If wheel "A" has a 20 inch rim, and wheel combo "B" has only a 14 inch rim. On a given slope or rolling down hill, wheel B will always accelerate faster because it keeps its mass and weight towards the center of the wheel. This affects accelleration quite a bit.

Joe

good theory but no. now apply the difference between a 16" wheel and a 20" and you will find the difference is marginal at best. especially on a 4000+ # vehicle. now what happens in the case mentioned where your overall diameter decreases and your wheel diameter increases and the overall unsprung weight goes down? anyone?

I think the reason your truck spun like hell has more to do with the pathetic tires GM puts on these trucks from the factory. you did say they were stockers right? that means at best you had those sorry ass General's that lasted me about 20k miles. I could burn them into second gear when I drove the truck off the lot. Now when I put on some toyos things changed DRASTICALY. It is important not to confuse lack of traction for added power. Bottom line you may get .1-.2 of a second in the 1320 buy switching from heavy 20's to factory 16's.

How about taking your truck to the track and not using the SOTP meter. the SOTP meter can be quite deceiving!