mark Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Changed the brakes on my wife's Denali. I wondered why I was groning lifting the tires back on the truck. (optional 20 inch wheels) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Whew!!! 80 lbs!!! How does that truck stop? My new 1500 with 16's stops great... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark Posted August 2, 2005 Author Share Posted August 2, 2005 New brakes were the eradispeed stuff. Just got it back together with a 2 inch front and 3 inch rear drop. Looks mean, should stop great now. Have to see tommorow. Too tired tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 That's nuts. My old 35x14 15" GroundHawgs on Barts 15x12 steel rims only weighed 90#. And I thought THAT was nuts but it was at least a BIG tire. Maybe my scale was wrong? This must be a conspiracy with the brake pad companies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 and the oil companies, I cant imagine that helps mileage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Don't forget the tire companies. How much are a set of 275/50/20's??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 I just finished doing some welding for an industrial automation firm. They build a bunch of robots that take wheel castings off a converyor and load them into heat treating ovens. The wheels are 20 to 26" in diameter and the weights are from about 80 to about 180 pounds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 This topic is my main disappointment when I went with the DOT 17 X 11 wheels and 315 tires. 60lbs per corner compared to about 25lbs with the racing set-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 28" Rims! Anyone want to guess the weight? Tires are $30,000!!!!!!!!! Nigel '73 240ZT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottie-GNZ Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 I do not think your scale is wrong. I was in the same boat as Terry. Forgot the actual weight of the 17x8.5 & 275/40-17 combo I had on my Z but after seeing the UPS guy struggling to get them out of his truck, I knew it was a mistake. That was an absolute waste of money. BTW, speaking of 28" rims, I just saw a blurb where Randy Moss showed up at training camp with 30" rims/tires on his dump truck, errr, SUV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikelly Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Funny this came up. Two weeks ago I was at a shop where the repair of a Spinner that wasn't spinning was in the process... They had one wheel off and appart and one wheel off the vehicle. These were 24inch wheels and they were HEAVY... I was asked to move one of them and the damned thing had to be rolled, not lifted. They also warned me NOT to be near it when it fell over... Nice... Mike:cool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Just goes to show: Bling Bling does not = performance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark Posted August 2, 2005 Author Share Posted August 2, 2005 Just goes to show: Bling Bling does not = performance But it makes the wife happy and that is priceless !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 But it makes the wife happy and that is priceless !! Amen Brutha!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Heh.. my girl is just happy that the car "looks nice" and isn't in a million pieces. It's kind of like the chicken and the egg thing.. My buddy has an 04' Hemi short box/reg cab truck, with the factory 20's. I looked through them at the brakes one day, and they are HUGE!!! Made me wonder if they put the big wheels on to fit over the big brakes, or HAD to put bigger brakes on to stop the thing with big wheels... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afshin Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Regarding this topic, I have searched in various places and could not get any rough estimation in numbers or feel related to how much performance is gained by going with lighter wheels. For example, my wheels (without tires) are about 21lbs, how noticable would the performance gains be by going with 15-16lbs wheels? I know there is no direct answer and it depends on set up, use ...but I just have no idea if I could tell the difference on the track (smooth surface), street (non smooth surface) in terms of handling,braking... Any experience objective or subjective would be helpful. And no, I'm not willing to put on the 80lbs wheel set up on my Z and experience the difference first hand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Grassroots Motorsports did a test of this very subject a year or two ago. Search their web site for the article. On a race track you spend the most time: 1. Accelerating 2. Cornering 3. Braking So anything that helps acceleration is a good thing. What's funny though is that the best thing you can do to help acceleration is start accelerating from a higher speed. That helps much more then just adding horsepower. So, increasing corner exit speed is the best way to improve acceleration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Regarding this topic' date=' I have searched in various places and could not get any rough estimation in numbers or feel related to how much performance is gained by going with lighter wheels. For example, my wheels (without tires) are about 21lbs, how noticable would the performance gains be by going with 15-16lbs wheels? I know there is no direct answer and it depends on set up, use ...but I just have no idea if I could tell the difference on the track (smooth surface), street (non smooth surface) in terms of handling,braking...Any experience objective or subjective would be helpful. And no, I'm not willing to put on the 80lbs wheel set up on my Z and experience the difference first hand [/quote'] I can't give you a measurement of how much difference it makes, but a couple years back I traded my friend some Shelby 15's that were at least 25 lbs each for some ZX 6 spokes that are 14 lbs each. I told her repeatedly I was getting the better end of the deal, but she really wanted the look of the 15's. She called me the next day complaining that her car felt slow and her brakes weren't working right. She's not a racer although she is a good driver and was actually a test driver for BMW. Point is it makes a difference. Oops let me fix that. Had the thing wrong. Anyway supposedly 10 lbs sprung weight = 4 lbs unsprung weight = 1 lb rotating weight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afshin Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Thanks for the info guys. Jon I really like the weight equivalency estimation/rule of thumb and the subjective part is just as helpful. John are you referring to this article: http://www.grmotorsports.com/archives/results.php?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=wheel+weight&btnG=Google+Search&domains=www.grmotorsports.com&sitesearch=www.grmotorsports.com I get GRM at home and have seen this one, the article describes wheels manufacturing nicely and says as i have seen over and over that lighter wheels are significantly "better", but again give me no feel about what they mean by "better". Significantly better mostly for competition and pro. drivers (e.g. you) or also significantly better for an amateur enthusiast/weekend warrior (e.g. me). Like I said, just trying to get some idea (in other words where on my priority/wish list to put "expensive lighter wheels"). John, do have any personal experience with this that you could share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Unsprung weight is one thing. Rotational inertia also a concern. Go to a museum of science and industry. In the kid's sections they will usually have a demo of two plexiglass "wheels" with metal weights glued to them. Both wheels are the same diameter and weight, but one has all the weight in the center while the other has all the weight out near the rim. Kids are invited to roll both wheels down a track. The one with the weight in the center is over twice as fast as the other. Big rims means more metal farther from the axle. Higher polar moment of interia. This means it takes more energy to get them spinning and more energy to slow them down again. Do nothing else but move the weight farther out on the wheels and the car will be slower to accelerate and be harder to stop. Always makes me wonder why people want 17 inch wheels on a car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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