The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

bennyben · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 12:06 Post subject: Replace 20" alloys with 17" alloys

Hi Fellow Mitsy owners

My Shogun has 20" rims, the ride is quite bumpy and jolting at times.
Been looking into downsizing the rims to 17" or 18" to increase the tyre wall size and hopefully gain a smoother ride.

Currently rocking 265/50R20 wheels

Thinking of downsizing to improve the ride.

265/65R17 or 265/60R18

Has anyone on the forum done or has experience of a similar change?
What are the benefits?
Anything I need to what out for, pitfalls etc?

Many thanks in advance.

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assassin · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 2:36 Post subject:

They introduced the 20" rims to improve handling as the taller wheels reduce the sidewall height and this reduces the flex in the tyre which makes steering and handling more precise.

Do you spend all of your time on road? if yes then I would say leave them alone: do you do a lot of off road work? if yes than switching to a smaller diameter rim with a tyre with a higher sidewall is a common trick off roaders do to get more tyre flex and increase the contact area of the tyre with the ground, particularly over rocky terrain, and the higher sidewall offers expensive rims more protection in difficult terrain.

What you will find with a higher sidewall is that the front end will wash out more and under cornering you will have to put in more steering input, reduce your cornering speed, and make more corrections and get more tyre squeal as it loses grip.

With a larger tyre you will add more tyre weight and reduce rim weight, the downside to this is that the additional weight of most tyres adds up to much more weight than you lose with a smaller rim and this can affect things such as upsprung weight and rebound which will affect your suspension and the way it behaves.

Tyres, like anything on a car are a compromise and if you can live with the compromise then it may be a way forwards for you.

bennyben · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 15:40 Post subject:

Thx assassin

SteveMilner · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 9:01 Post subject:

I use 18" rims for my winter wheels, mainly so that I could re-use some winter tyres from my Disco.

They were decent tyres and I basically couldn't give them away so I bought a cheap set of second hand rims for winter to put the tyres on.

Also, being cheap and with deeper sidewalls they are more pot-hole resistant/I'm less worried about them during the bad weather.

NJV6 · Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:37 Post subject:

On a gen 4 putting 17 in wheels and HT tyres will vastly improve the ride. Gen 3&4 are inherently hard riding and pretty harsh due to suspension design and vehicle construction. This does mean they handle very well for a 2.5 ton beast. If you don’t do off road I strongly suggest a passenger construction tyre as they are quieter running and softer riding.

Miner · Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 16:20 Post subject:

What NJV6 said... they are standard it on Pajeros in other markets, 17" and 18" for 3.5 & 3.8 V6 respectively.

oakleaf · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:51 Post subject: What They Said

Having sold tyres for over 10 Years at Camskill I could not agree more

Yes you can alter the driving but at the detriment to other specifics

What you have been told is correct

Mike

Craig-SM · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 11:23 Post subject:

I have a gen 3 running on 17 inch wheels with 235/65 tyres. It feels a bit vague through the steering but handles surprisingly well for such a big and heavy beast, no doubt helped by the traction control which you see flashing when pushing it around bends but it doesn’t become intrusive.
I had thought about putting on bigger wheels as you see them cheap on eBay but the handling is good enough for the performance of the vehicle, you don’t need to worry about potholes and the tyres are significantly cheaper.

shaunandelly · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 0:06 Post subject:

Just got a set of 18's to replace the 20's on my sg4 lwb. not very friendly on the potholes.

FABS · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:27 Post subject:

I did not like handling of 20" wheels at all, I replace with 18" and am far happier, I guess one might want to select tyres with stiffer sidewalls, but as everyone said there is always a compromise.

Also I had stupid Type Pressure Monitors fail on 20" wheels, I just do not believe they work well with 20" wheels at all, even a moderate bump I believe displaced them, in contrast I have no such issue with 18"

NJV6 · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 1:23 Post subject:

Your probably right - a 20 in tyre has very little ‘give’ in it so minor bumps become jarring leading to unpleasant ride and handling characteristics.