Upgrade to 17" Wheels

It is a fallacy that larger wheels increase stability. What is adding stability is the lower profile tires. If you kept the same profile on larger wheels the stability would stay pretty much the same. The lower profile means the tire sidewall is smaller, which means less flex, hence increased stability.

There are programs you can download where you can enter your vehicle's dimensions and weight (and weight bias if you know it), and tire size, which allows you to play with those numbers and see what increases stability, lap times, skid pad acceleration, slalom times, etc. I suggest you get the freeware CarTest (version 4.5) from CarTest Software and use it to test different tire sizes. Go to that page and scroll down to DOS programs and download the program, which is freeware. The newer CarTest 2000 at the top of the page is neater and more modern looking but it's payware.

 

Why not try the 16" combo?
I am thinking to go with the 16" with Bridgestone RE tires.
Any thoughts?

 

Yes, that's what I did to mine, I was also thinking to get the Scion tc wheels at first, but my friend who runs a auto performance shop told me not to because of the heavy weight of the tc wheels. He then recommended me to get the 16" light weight Rota Wheels, and I got the 205/55/16 Continental Conti Pro Contact from America's Tire. I immediately notice the improve handling after the upgrade, and I love the look of it too.

I am sure it's gonna hurt the gas mileage even with the light weight wheels because of the wider tires with rolling resistant, but I think it's worth a few mpg for the handling and look. (Since I drove only 150 miles after the upgrade, I don't have the accurate MPG yet.)

 

here's the wheels You need to save weight:


that's in kilograms...so a hair over six pounds per wheel, and they're 18's

 

Very nice wheels! Are they on your prius? Mind to share your pics?

 

Those are the Weds Sport carbon racing rims on show at the Tokyo Auto Salon. They cost about half as much as a Prius.

More info:
Weds Sport Full Carbon Fiber Wheel : Carbon Fiber Gear

 

With those rims, Prius will probably do 0-60 in 8 seconds. Plugin Prius will extend it's range, etc... But $10-12k, dang!

 

I'd like upgrade my 2012 Prius to 17" wheels for the sole purpose of getting a road clearance higher than the current 5".
Did your upgrade get you a higher clearance? If yes, by how much?
Thanks for your help.

 

Your asking a 2008 poster, in a second gen forum.

With gen 3, the cars either come with 195/65R17 or 215/45R17. Both have roughly the same outside diameter, the 17" being slightly smaller OD.

Going to a larger OD tire will (obviously) raise the car a bit, but will throw off the odometer, "gearing" and so on. If you're ok with that, I'd stick with the 15" rims you (presumably) have, look for a tire with slightly greater OD.

The stock tire OD's are roughly 25", fwiw. To see your options, try various tire itterations here:

Tire Size Calculator

Note, some tire shops won't put on anything but the stock tire options. Costco for one.

 

Something I noticed about my setup that might be useful for others:

Heavy 17" wheels (~21lbs per wheel) w/ 215/45R17 all seasons = 35-42mpg
Lift kit with above wheels+tires = no change in mpg

OEM 15s (14.5lbs or so per wheel) w/ 195/65R15 very old and hard tires = 40-48mpg
Same wheels with 205/70R15 winter tires = 35-42mpg

^the above is measured at the MFD only, meaning that even with the oversized tires my real world mileage is probably better than reported. I didn't weigh the new setup but the 15+winters were noticeably lighter to mount than the 17+close to stock diameter tire.

Also worth mentioning, the 17s made my steering feel awful. The larger rotating mass with more weight at the outside of the wheel is probably to blame. Even noticeable at low speeds but the difference at medium to freeway speeds was massive. It made the front end darty and required a lot of steering corrections at freeway speeds.

Wheel weigh+Wheel diameter matter A LOT. I haven't tested 16s but I plan to in the future.

 

^^^ Regarding the mfd reported mpg... It's been my experience that the mfd reported mpg is about 5 mpg optimistic.

You should use an app like Fuelly to track your mpg. It's easy, just enter odometer reading, gals filled, price, time, date at each fill-up and you will know what your ACTUAL mpg is.

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