Wheel/Tire combo that doesn't hurt MPG

[Hez]

2022 Ram 1500 Crew Cab - Black stock 20" rims and stock wheels

I commute about 500 miles weekly to work, and fuel economy is essential. Is there a wheel/tire combo that improves, or at the very least, doesn't impact MPG?

 

[PurpleRT]

Nope probably not worth the additional savings.. if you have the stock 20” set up with 32” tires there’s not much more you can do to get a lighter rotational mass.. maybe check manufacture weight on similar tires in that size or go with a lighter rim but at this point your going to send more money just to squeeze out a non noticeable increase. Maybe 18s with a lighter size tire then the factory ones.

Save your money use that money for fuel. The biggest difference you can make is your foot on the pedal.


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[djevox]

^That

 

[Hez]

So it is fair to say that any rim upgrade will be less fuel efficient

 

[djevox]

That’s not what I was getting at, and not what I interpreted Purplert’s comment as. The point I’m making is that the cost of an ultralight wheel and tire setup could pay for a lot of fuel. Why not just leave what you have and apply the money you would have spent on wheels and tires to fuel?

If that’s not what you’re looking for and you just really want to spend $3-4k on an ultralight setup, then by all means, go for it. I’m just giving my opinion.

Edit:
You’d have to talk to a reseller like Vivid racing or pacific wheels, but here’s an example of an ultralight wheel that may work on the RAM. Btw, the sale price is because of Black Friday.

 

[PurpleRT]

That’s not what I was getting at, and not what I interpreted Purplert’s comment as. The point I’m making is that the cost of an ultralight wheel and tire setup could pay for a lot of fuel. Why not just leave what you have and apply the money you would have spent on wheels and tires to fuel?

If that’s not what you’re looking for and you just really want to spend $3-4k on an ultralight setup, then by all means, go for it. I’m just giving my opinion.

Edit:
You’d have to talk to a reseller like Vivid racing or pacific wheels, but here’s an example of an ultralight wheel that may work on the RAM. Btw, the sale price is because of Black Friday.

View attachment 144736

thanks this is a better way of saying it


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[Hez]

Cool, thanks for the feedback guys.

I really like the truck, but it just seems like it is missing something...and I was considering upgrading the wheels - but don't really want to have much of a negative impact on the fuel mileage.

I have never put wheels on my vehicles, just kept them stock, so again, I appreciate your input.

 

[Richard320]

A thousand bucks for tires and maybe fifteen hundred for wheels can buy a LOT of gasoline. Even if you lived in the land of $6.00/gallon like me, that's a lot of gas.

I'd wait until the stock tires need replacing (Which won't take nearly as long as it should. Trust me.) and then upgrade.

 

[djevox]

Cool, thanks for the feedback guys.

I really like the truck, but it just seems like it is missing something...and I was considering upgrading the wheels - but don't really want to have much of a negative impact on the fuel mileage.

I have never put wheels on my vehicles, just kept them stock, so again, I appreciate your input.

Ok, so it sounds like it’s not as extreme as I thought. You want to also enhance the looks to your liking. I do similar and spend thousands on every vehicle I buy to make it mine. IIRC, stock 20’s and tires are in the neighborhood of 76lbs each. You have a lot of options around that weight in 18’s -22’s, but you finding a perfect fit for you (in terms of weight, looks, tire aggressiveness, etc) means you’ll have to do some digging on your own. Custom Wheel Offsets, Discount Tire, and Tire Rack all give weights with each tire and wheel. Just add them together and keep it less than or equal to stock weight.

 

[theblet]

Putting some 4 ply all terrain tires (assuming you are looking for grips). Mine didn’t really hurt mpg.

 

[CalvinC]

The General Grabber AT/X is a miracle for folks wanting a lightweight 33” tire on an 18” rim (275/70r18, same as Rebel size).

Ford did everyone a solid by forcing Continental to make that tire as a P-metric for the F150 Tremor.

About as light as it gets for an A/T tire, but I’d guess you’ll still take an mpg hit due to more aggressive tread pattern.

 

[Bt10]

Was my 2nd choice just for that reason. Went with "E" Defenders and lost 2 mpg. Next time, will be the first choice...

Edit to update: Really lost about 3mpg. Sucks, will look at ATXs next time.

 

[WXman]

The factory tires are amazingly flimsy with paper thin sidewalls specifically geared toward MPG. ANY tire you retrofit from the aftermarket will cost you some fuel efficiency. Wheels aren't as different if they are the same size, but if you go wider they will also kill some efficiency.

 

[Shots]

...IIRC, stock 20’s and tires are in the neighborhood of 76lbs each. ...

You recall correctly.
My OEM wheels/tires (275/55/20) weighed in at 76.5 lbs before the swap.


My current set (285/75/18) weigh 85.9 lbs so the wheel and tire combo obviously matters. That said, I made a pretty substantial change by decreasing the wheel 2" and increasing the tire 3" yet it only resulted in a 10 pound difference.
Yes 10 lbs is significant, but my point is that a noticable size change didn't yield a very big weight change. So small changes to the wheels or tires may only result in a minute difference (maybe a pound or two tops). That makes me wonder if you'll really get any appreciable difference when sticking with, or close to, stock sizes.
Maybe you'll see a noticeable difference with a set a magnesium wheels and a low profile tire, but at that point you'd have a fortune tied up in them. At which point you might as well just pay for the fuel as the others have already said.

So long story short. No, I don't think there's much you can do to with any real cost effectiveness to save fuel by swapping wheels and/or tires. If the tires are worn out, then by all means try to find a lighter tire. I don't think it would be worth it to swap good tires out though.

 

[theblet]

Looks like my Venom tires weigh about 45.2 lb a piece, compared to OEM which is 34.8 lb (according to custom offsets)

 

[Darksteel165]

Nope probably not worth the additional savings.. if you have the stock 20” set up with 32” tires there’s not much more you can do to get a lighter rotational mass.. maybe check manufacture weight on similar tires in that size or go with a lighter rim but at this point your going to send more money just to squeeze out a non noticeable increase. Maybe 18s with a lighter size tire then the factory ones.

Save your money use that money for fuel. The biggest difference you can make is your foot on the pedal.

Tread matters also. It's not just the price of gas if he throws on AT tires and burns through the tread.

Best advise is 3.21 gears, all season tires with high thread rating. Weight matters, and going down in rim size generally lets you get cheaper tires with longer lasting threads.

IMO just keep your 20s. I think it's unlikely the cost of changing any of it would provide more fuel savings then the up front cost. A single rim is going to cost several full tanks of gas, how could it save you that much?

 

[theblet]

Tread matters also. It's not just the price of gas if he throws on AT tires and burns through the tread.

Best advise is 3.21 gears, all season tires with high thread rating. Weight matters, and going down in rim size generally lets you get cheaper tires with longer lasting threads.

IMO just keep your 20s. I think it's unlikely the cost of changing any of it would provide more fuel savings then the up front cost. A single rim is going to cost several full tanks of gas, how could it save you that much?

The higher the tread life, the harder the tire so that will probably help, but they ride like a$$. I kept my 20's, and lost maybe 1 mpg with the Venoms + level.

 

[Fillet1]

I have had two sets of Continental Terrain contact AT‘s. One on my hemi 2017 Ram and one set on my 22 Ecodiesel. Both with 20” wheels. I have had no drop off in mpg with either set. Plus they are dead quiet on the highway.