Well, I've reviewed and reviewed and re-reviewed a wealth of information/input/advice on aftermarket wheels and tires. Unfortunately, I am still puzzled, and now I'm a bit learly to pull the trigger on installing new 19x8.5 custom wheels. I woud love the looks, but I hate to compromize the ride. I think I understand that potentially my Ridgeline will "handle" better, but that the compromise may be the small bump/shudder capability. I am not an offroad guy, nor am I a performance guy. I simply want my truck to look as good as it drives. :confused:

Anybody with advice on a 19" wheel application please, please, please drop me a line.

Adios,

mtbker
Palmetto, FL

Well, I've reviewed and reviewed and re-reviewed a wealth of information/input/advice on aftermarket wheels and tires. Unfortunately, I am still puzzled, and now I'm a bit learly to pull the trigger on installing new 19x8.5 custom wheels. I woud love the looks, but I hate to compromize the ride. I think I understand that potentially my Ridgeline will "handle" better, but that the compromise may be the small bump/shudder capability. I am not an offroad guy, nor am I a performance guy. I simply want my truck to look as good as it drives. :confused:

Anybody with advice on a 19" wheel application please, please, please drop me a line.

Adios,

mtbker
Palmetto, FL

No advice on 19" rims, but consider this...your tires are what give you a smooth ride. Lets consider an extreme example: A 15" rim with tires that have a 8" cross section and 30" rims with 1/2" solid rubber around them. They both have about the same outside diameter but which one will ride better??? Of course the tires with the 8" air filled cross section. Which one will corner better? The solid rubber ones. (no sidewall flex) Of course there are trade offs. As a rule of thumb though the less the sidewall height the worse the ride but the better the truck will corner. Just a rule of thumb. I like th think that the Honda engineers thought about this some and determined that a 17" wheel was a good compromise for handling and ride comfort. Whichever way you deviate be prepared to suffer a little for looks.

Less rubber, less air, less flex, more prone to damage, stiffer ride, etc. It's a tough call. I haven't pulled the trigger yet, because what I want isn't available yet (black chrome in 5 x 120 mm). When I do get it, it will be worth the wait.

I guess plus size aftermarket rims for any car is like silicone breast implants. Looks good, but may cause problems in the long run. With the right setup, it should be fine. What salespeople don't tell you is the increased possibility of damage caused by pot holes when you go plus size rims. If you live in an area where the roads are well maintained, it should be OK.

Just the other night, I was driving my son's friends home. Long and winding road in the middle of nowhere. Come to a railroad crossing. It was controlled so I kept going at a moderate rate. When I got to it, the headlights revealed a huge drop. I slowed down as much as I could without slamming on the brakes. If I had 20 inch rims on the RL, they would have been destroyed. Then again, if I had 20 inch rims, I would have driven slowly and slammed on the brakes.

Don't forget to calculate what happens to your Speedometer and/or Navi when you change tire/rim sizes.

Go here to calculate:http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Input your, now, stock tire size (245/65/17) on the left side of the equation and your new size on the right side.

Read under picture of the tire for % and mph differences.

I did a quick calc. and you would need a 225/60/19 tire size to get a 0.3% too slow ratio.

That wouldn't be too bad on a 19" wheel. Play around to get other or better results.

Joe.


[Edit, I tried a 235/55/19 and not too bad = 1.2% too fast].... When your Speedo reads 60mph you would be actually going 59.3 mph.

And, the possible loss in performance. I bought snow tires for my wife's Mazda MPV this past winter. I put them on smaller aftermarket rims we had left over from our previous mini van. Downsized from the nice 17 inch alloy wheels to 15 inch el cheapo BBS knock offs. The performance difference was unbelievable. The mini van screammed. If pulled hard all the way to red line. I let one of the salespeople at Mazda drive it and he was shocked by the improvement.

Same thing on my old nitroused Civic. I put on 17 inch bling wheels. The wheels slowed it down by a significant amount. Prior to selling the Civic, I went with 15 inch ultra-lite Konig Heliums and the performance was night and day.

I would like to hear from others how aftermarket wheels have affected the performance of their Ridgelines. Ridgelines are so slow, it may not make much of a difference.

19" rims would be the compromise between the stock ones and the 22s that member's are putting on. It probably will give a little firmer ride, but I don't think it should be harsh. There still will be a lot of sidewall to absorb the ride if you keep the same diameter. I don't think the RL suspension is all that firm to begin with. The type of tire you choose and the air pressure can also make a difference. A SUV/truck tire designed more for comfort will be softer and most times quieter. If you go more for the performance ones they will have stiffer sidewalls so the ride will be firmer, but handle noticeably better. I used to run my Tacoma's stock BF Goodrich tires at max pressure just to get a stiffer ride. Good luck.

Another thing to watch out for when going to a large wheel diameter is tire load capacity. The number following the size, for the stock Ridgeline, 105 is a load capacity index. It is very important top make sure any tire you use is at least this load index so you are not overloading the tires when using it as truck! As the aspect ratio gets smaller with larger wheel diameters, the air chamber in the tire gets smaller so laod capacity drops. Normally you'd need a wider tire to keep the load capacity adequate.

Honda also uses wheels which pilot center very well on the hubs. Any replacement wheels should have the same pilot bore as the original wheels to make sure they center well. As you move to larger wheels it becomes increasingly important to have the tire/wheel properly centered to avoid vibration problems. Also watch out for offset. I've noticed some places trying to sell aftermarket wheels intended for BMWs which have a much lower offset than normal Honda wheels.

Cheers,

Ken P.
06 RT about to be fitted with RTS take-off alloys