17" Wheel/Tires & Mud Flaps Installed

[austingreen]

Brian, thanks for the information,

Let us know how the brace works out. I wouldn't call a bumpier ride with more solid footing worse, I don't like road noise though. I know on my last car, the tire made a huge difference on road noise. That rim doesn't look very aero either, so I wonder if it contributes to the noise.

I'm torn on the wheel/tire upgrade on 16 versus 17. It looks like you can put 16x205R55s or 16x225R50s on the car, I wonder whether one of these might be a better choice when it comes to noise. What do you think? I do like the look of the 17s though. I assume I'll end up adding different springs, or braces to help with the body role.

I now have a Prius II on order thinking that the handling can be tamed. I did the II rather than the III since it seems like I'll need to change speakers anyway. Are you happy with your speaker choice. I may have the shop add some sound deadening material in the doors when the change the speakers. F8L are you happy with the sound mods that you have done?

[F8L]

Originally Posted by austingreen

F8L are you happy with the sound mods that you have done?

I am very pleased with my set up but I would not recommend these exact components to anyone unless they were rich. You could easily duplicate my system with less expensive components and have a great sounding system. The two 12" subwoofers and 1500w amp may a bit overkill for a lot of people on here so a single quality 10" sub and 300-500w would be more than enough for great sound and a bit of kick when you want it.

I'm setting up something similar for Hyo Silver if he ever gets around to buying the stuff.

[venom700]

I'd stick with the lightest (good) tires you can find between the sizes. I assume the 205/55's will have less width to them and would probably be more quiet. Plus not all tires will be available in both sizes and the pricing might be quite different.

My set-up is really geared towards the JBL amp. I do like the Bazooka being something I can easily move around, but otherwise you should get a 4 or 5 channel amp and replace the door speakers.

[deltron3030]

Venom, do you feel like the mudflaps make the car look any " cheaper" so to speak? Icve had mine on my black prius and there's something odd about them being the only rubber/ matte finish looking part on the car. Kinda reminds me of the types of things many cars had in the 90's. Oh well it should start raining soon so maybe function will trump form enough for me to keep wth it. Otherwise I'll be selling em here in private sales and looking into a subtle lip kit

[venom700]

I don't even realize that they are on there anymore. It really just blends in to the car and they do cut down on road spray as well as brake dust it seems. Well worth it in my book.

[cunnink2]

We can assme the the greatest majority of Prius owners are frugal and I am no exception. But..... man I like the 17" wheels & tires. I think Brian (Venom) got a very reasonable deal. After reading everything I could on this website, I issued myself a challenge. How little money can I spend and upgrade to 17"? It needs to look good and be light weight. This is what I found:
Discount Tire Direct - MB Wheels 17X7 5-100 42SM (19.4 lbs) $330.00 with the online savings and free shipping.
Local Tire Dealer - can balance, install, etc. Goodyear RS-A Eagle P215/45R17 (OD 24.7, RPM 848) for $496.48. With a $40 Goodyear rebate, I can upgrade for $786.48. Let me know what I am overlooking before I pull the trigger.

[donkitchen]

You can probably factor in some money you'd get if you sold your stock wheels and tires. Seems like on eBay the stock 15" rims go for ~ $300. I haven't checked in a while but that seems like what they were last time I did.

Originally Posted by cunnink2

We can assme the the greatest majority of Prius owners are frugal and I am no exception. But..... man I like the 17" wheels & tires. I think Brian (Venom) got a very reasonable deal. After reading everything I could on this website, I issued myself a challenge. How little money can I spend and upgrade to 17"? It needs to look good and be light weight. This is what I found:
Discount Tire Direct - MB Wheels 17X7 5-100 42SM (19.4 lbs) $330.00 with the online savings and free shipping.
Local Tire Dealer - can balance, install, etc. Goodyear RS-A Eagle P215/45R17 (OD 24.7, RPM 848) for $496.48. With a $40 Goodyear rebate, I can upgrade for $786.48. Let me know what I am overlooking before I pull the trigger.

[venom700]

Originally Posted by cunnink2

We can assme the the greatest majority of Prius owners are frugal and I am no exception. But..... man I like the 17" wheels & tires. I think Brian (Venom) got a very reasonable deal. After reading everything I could on this website, I issued myself a challenge. How little money can I spend and upgrade to 17"? It needs to look good and be light weight. This is what I found:
Discount Tire Direct - MB Wheels 17X7 5-100 42SM (19.4 lbs) $330.00 with the online savings and free shipping.
Local Tire Dealer - can balance, install, etc. Goodyear RS-A Eagle P215/45R17 (OD 24.7, RPM 848) for $496.48. With a $40 Goodyear rebate, I can upgrade for $786.48. Let me know what I am overlooking before I pull the trigger.

Check out this link regarding the tires:

Goodyear Eagle RS-A

They get HORRIBLE reviews. It's worth much more paying for a good tire. Plus just simply looking at the weight of the rims you chose, you will lose more MPG. Sometimes paying a little more for a lighter rims evens out with the MPG comparison.

Plus the real kicker is the treadwear rating on those Goodyear's...it's only 260!!!!!! That is worse than most ultra high performance summer tires!