What is the best wheel size to choose for a car?

Car owners are well aware that the stability of the car, handling and cross-country ability of the car directly depends on the size of the wheels and tires. That is why it is important to choose the right size of the car's wheels, which will fully correspond to a specific model.

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Difficulties in choosing

Theoretically, even on subcompact cars, you can install huge 17-inch wheels with low-profile tires, and on sedans or station wagons, use high-profile tires, which are more designed for SUVs. Despite such wide opportunities for choosing and installing tires on your car, it is still necessary to choose the right size of wheels and tire parameters. If the wrong choice is made, the comfort on board suffers significantly, the stability of the car and its handling at high speeds deteriorates.

What does the rubber profile affect?

Various characteristics of the car, including driving qualities, directly depend on the rubber profile. You can determine the height of the profile by marking the tire, this parameter is specified after the slash before the English letter R. It is customary to divide tires with a standard profile, an enlarged and a low profile of wheels. Low-profile tires are designed more for sports cars and use with wheels of increased diameter.

Low-profile tires have a positive effect on the handling of the car, the car holds the road better, does not slip and perfectly enters turns. However, you need to understand that low-profile tires have one significant drawback, namely a significant deterioration in ride comfort. The fact is that such tires have a small profile height, respectively, even small potholes are transferred to the wheels, and then to the suspension and body.

A certain golden mean is the standard wheels in their profile, which have height indicators of about 55%. Such tires hold the road equally well, the car is stable on them, good comfort is provided, and the body does not shudder from every, even the slightest impact.

High-profile tires are usually used with SUVs and crossovers. The undoubted advantage of using such tires with an increased profile is the excellent smoothness of the car even on broken roads. These tires, due to the height of the profile, perfectly absorb all the potholes on the road. The disadvantages of such tires include lower braking efficiency, as well as significant rolls in turns.

Recommendations for choosing

At least once in his/her life, every car owner has faced the need to choose tires for his/her car. First of all, you should study the documentation for the car, where the optimal and maximum permissible dimensions of the wheels and tire parameters will be clearly indicated. Many of us, to the detriment of controllability and smoothness, choose large wheels and low-profile tires. Indeed, a car with such wheels looks impressive and individual, but you need to understand that comfort at the wheel is significantly improved, and we simply will not feel the improvement in handling on many cars.

If you are planning to purchase and install low-profile tires and wheels increased in diameter on your car, remember that in such a case, the load on the suspension increases significantly, respectively, you will need to visit the repair more often, which significantly increases the costs of the car owner.

Experts recommend sticking to the golden mean when choosing wheels. If it is allowed to use wheels with a radius of 14-16 inches for a particular car, then 15-inch wheels will be the best choice in this case. The same applies to the width and height of the profile, which will ensure the necessary handling and comfort on board. Following such simple rules, you can prevent suspension malfunctions, significantly simplifying the operation of the car.