rims/tires or spacers. best advice please

[harvyne]

Ok so i have a friend with a trailblazer who is looking to get rid of a set of 18in offset alumininum rims with like new general grabber hts 265/60/18 tires for 600.dollars
i was looking into getting 1.5 wheel spacer from mark with keeping my stock 17in envoy rims and the 2.5 or 3in lift/leveling kit. i wanted to get some more aggresive tires like falken wildpeak 245/70/17 as im looking to do some light offroading and trailing. the tread on the generals is less agressive with a lower profile, but those can be changed out eventually. anyone have a build utilizing 18in. rims for trails or is it better to go with the spacers and keep my 17's and get the tires i want now

let me know your input, thanks

[HARDTRAILZ]

the 18s are cheaper to start out with.

Lift/spacers and tires be 900 or so.

[harvyne]

i would spend roughly 600 on tires, 200 on spacers and 200 on lift give or take with new struts and coils brings my toal to my budget of 12-1300.
getting the rim and tire combo for 600 would eliminate the spacers and new tires for now with keeping the lift ,coils and struts in budget would run me closer to 1100.
i have seen alot of people on this forum use spacers and im convinced that they are safe and i also hear that they put added strain on the wheel hub/bearing assembly. so i guess if givin the oppertunity with budget constraints would one get the better rims and deal with lesser tires for a while or go with the spacers to achieve the desired result quicker, and ofcours does it make a difference on the stress to components using either spacers or offset rims.

[harvyne]

is there any advantage or disadvantage on 17-18 in rims. i notice in all the builds i look at people stay with 16-17in rims.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Tire price and sidewall, but the 1/2 inch diff is not a big deal really. 99% would never know the difference in flex.


I personally dont like any of our stock wheels. I am a big aftermarket wheel guy, so others may have a different opinion.

If your choice was 16-18, maybe you would see a difference but with the nominal tire size you are looking at. Pick the ones you like better.

[navigator]

You have to think about your goal. Where do you want to end up?
Either of those tires will likely fit with no lift or spacers, they are mathematically a 30.5 inch tire which is right at the upper limit.

Will the tires he is selling take you where you want to go?

For most of the guys on this board, that Grabber HTS wouldn't work so I think most of us would walk away.

I like to wheel and deal, the only way I personally would be interested is if I really liked the rims and they have enough backspace to allow me to run a 32-33" tire. If I thought I could sell the tires separately to make up a good bit of the difference, I would entertain it.
If you really like the rims, they allow you to run the tire you want and you can get anything over $350 for the tires then you come out a little ahead vs buying spacers(~$250).

[harvyne]

where i want to go is where it appears most here go with there builds. impo the rims look more like street peformance with long thin spokes and a small center versus the more rugged/heavy duty look that the stock envoy or any steel rim provides. i like a smaller rim with a higher sidewall tire and yes the general grabber hts is not the look i want. also to change those tires im looking at 30-40 dollars extra per tire for what i want compared to an oversized tire for my stock rims of the type aggresive A/T type i like.
The deal is nice if it were for a street performance but thats not where i want to be. So im thinking the spacers, lift and new tires is a better deal in the long run.

[navigator]

yeah, it is important to really understand where you want to end up and try not buy anything that doesn't get you there. Most of us don't know where we want when we start so we end up wasting money.
2-3" lift, 1.5 spacers/adapters and 265/75/16 is a pretty popular setup run by many and can cover a lot of ground. I went with spacers instead of adapters and then ended up wanting different rims so I sold the spacers to get adapters, changes like that can get costly so the more of your vision you can determine up front, the cheaper it is in the long run.

[harvyne]

True. For me its too costly to change out rims right now but my stock rims give alot of options which saves me money.
Thanks gents for the support and direction. Its what i love about this site so early on.
Ill be sure to post my progress

[DustinC1989]

Im running 18's, off road quite often and never had any problems

[harvyne]

Im running 18's, off road quite often and never had any problems

the problem is the tires, not so much the rims where as the rims are a great deal and would prevent me from using spacers the tires are really not what i want and with buying them i wouldnt be able to buy the tires i really want for quite some time

still in big debate over this. ughhhh

[harvyne]

Well I just ordered the spacers and 2.5 lift from markmc (debate over). My question is that when I ordered it said check for availability before ordering. I couldn't find any info on that so has anyone run into delays when ordering from liftmeister.

[darring70]

Well I just ordered the spacers and 2.5 lift from markmc (debate over). My question is that when I ordered it said check for availability before ordering. I couldn't find any info on that so has anyone run into delays when ordering from liftmeister.

I ordered spacers and then adapters, I never had any delays.

[navigator]

PM MarkMC and ask him or search for his email. He answers email fast and is pretty fast on IMs as well.

[harvyne]

Mark sent me an email stating he recieved my order through paypal. So i got spacers and 2.5 lift coming from him and new strut assembly and rear coils from ebay. (cant wait) now i just have to order tires.
My stock tire size is 245/65/17. im thinking of going with 245/70/17 which adds an inch to diameter to be about 30.5 total or 245/75/17 which will top out about 31.5in.diameter. however there is a big price jump going from the 245/70 to the 245/75 tire, not sure why.

[TBYODA]

If you are going to a 245/75 tire, might as well look at 265/70r17 same size 31.5" and more common tire.

[Cable810]

[navigator]

Common sizes seem to help offer a larger selection and keep the price down. I'm running a 265/75/16 (~32X10.50). I wanted to run the wider 285/70/16 but they were limited in selection and really expensive. You can get a 285/75/16 (33X11.20) with a much bigger selection cheaper than the smaller 285/70.

I think the 245/70/17 is a pretty common tire so the price is lower.
For other options look at the 265/70/17 or the 255/75/17. They might give you a bigger tire at a more reasonable price.

[harvyne]

Do the 265/75/17 and 255/75/17 fit on the stock rim or do they become to wiide

[navigator]

235-275 width is fine for stock rims.
285 is technically too wide for stock rims but some folks have run them as well.