18" vs 20" Wheels Ride Quality

[Reece]

I have a 2021 JLU Sahara Altitude. It came stock with 18s. I’m about to buy some new 20” wheels and 35s but I am constantly being told my ride quality will be horrible. I mean it’s a Jeep Wrangler, is the ride quality really gonna be that much worse? I will say this is my first wrangler. I had grand Cherokee on 20s before this and the ride quality was fine.

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[Bmeister]

The JLU Sport my wife ran around in on weekends went from stock 17" Sport wheels to a stock 20" Sahara take-off set (she liked the look) and got a much rougher ride. Then she got a set of 17" Rubicon take-offs to prepare for winter made the ride much more comfortable and never went back to the 20" set. I cannot speak for the 18" on the Wrangler, however with 18" or 20" you'll get decent on-road handling at the expense of smooth ride and sidewall buffer for off road use, IMHO.

The 33" stock on my 4xe Rubi are downright luxurious and seems to handle well, too. I'd go 35" on the 17" wheels no problem but would agree with others that 35" on 20" wheels would not be the best ride/handling choice for the Wrangler.

 

[RZ.]

I only know these 20's & 35's - haven't driven a JL with anything other.

I ride around at 80+ mph fairly regular. Handling is fine for a solid-front-axle, lifted 4x4.

It's the little bumps - crossing a concrete gutter from one street to another, speed bumps, etc. where I get a harder hit than I imagine I would with more sidewall. I'm running Icon shocks, which should be decent quailty, but I have no idea how their valving compares to others. That stiffer ride could be as much shocks as wheels/tires, but I'm fairly confident the low-profile tires have an effect.

*edit: was headed across town, thinking about this post & could really pick out the feel of the shocks vs. the feel of tires soaking up bumps. Shocks are great - tires are stiff.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

If you ever off-road you will want to air down. Typically if you are running anything less than 40s you won’t want to air down with 20" wheels. If you don't plan to off-road it, 20s look great driving around town.

 

[Old Dogger]

Not apples for apples, but still a comparison. We bought a new Cadillac Escalade. It came with 17's. I had a set of 22's put on it with if I remember right, 305 Nitto's. Now for the plus and negative. The plus: They looked just awesome! We did a lot of high speed driving in our Mountains here in Arizona. It cornered just great. Because there was very little side roll in the tires. Similar theory to a Corvette. The negative: The ride was never the same, one could feel every bump. So the bottom line was, it's a give and take... But getting back to the Wranglers, if you plan on using it some off highway, then I would not go to 20's....your call.

 

[Reece]

90% of the time this is gonna be a daily driver. I would like to take it off road some, but nothing crazy. Trial ride/mudding mostly. Mostly going for look not so much operability.

 

[1Evil55]

I have 20's on 35's and is my DD. Mostly highway driven. I also have the mopar lift. I don't notice a difference from when it was all original.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

Another thing to consider (which you probably have) is the price of the tires.
35x12.5x17 BFG = $393/tire
35x12.5x18 BFG = $423/tire
35x12.5x20 BFG = $488/tire
That's a difference of about $500 for the set of 5 tires between the 17" and 20" wheel.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

90% of the time this is gonna be a daily driver. I would like to take it off road some, but nothing crazy. Trial ride/mudding mostly. Mostly going for look not so much operability.

There is a big difference when trail riding and mudding at 12 psi vs 35 psi....and I wouldn't recommend riding a 35" tire on 20s at 12 psi. That said, at the end of the day, if you like the looks of the 20s and don't mind the other disadvantages, go for it. That's what's cool about Wranglers is that each is custom to its owner's preference.

 

[Reece]

I have 20's on 35's and is my DD. Mostly highway driven. I also have the mopar lift. I don't notice a difference from when it was all original.

Night and day difference. Very nice. My Mopar kit arrives today. Will be riding the same set up.

 

[Pinky Tuscadero]

I've got 17's and 18's but have seen trail posts about nightmare breakage on 20's and obviously the more rubber you have the cushier the ride to boot !
Save the fancy 20's for the ghetto cruisers and run 17's on your Jeep if you are getting new wheels
Just my 2 cents (possibly worth less)

 

[1Evil55]

I've got 17's and 18's but have seen trail posts about nightmare breakage on 20's and obviously the more rubber you have the cushier the ride to boot !
Save the fancy 20's for the ghetto cruisers and run 17's on your Jeep if you are getting new wheels
Just my 2 cents (possibly worth less)

Curious, what constitutes as a "ghetto cruiser?"

 

[Reece]

I've got 17's and 18's but have seen trail posts about nightmare breakage on 20's and obviously the more rubber you have the cushier the ride to boot !
Save the fancy 20's for the ghetto cruisers and run 17's on your Jeep if you are getting new wheels
Just my 2 cents (possibly worth less)

this is what I was planning….
https://m.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel...ilterOffset=All&filterAvail=All&sort=Featured

on 35x12.5 MT baja boss AT

a little worried about rub with a 0 offset and 5” backspacing.

 

[Reinen]

Curious, what constitutes as a "ghetto cruiser?"

Something like this. No further explanation needed.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

@Reinen you beat me to it. I was going to say this:

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