[FUZZY]

OK, I spent most of the day Friday looking at various custom aluminum wheels. :eek

I started with the letter A and found manufacturers or wholesalers with every letter of the alphabet all the way to X and even a couple of Z's. Some foreign makers some US makers. (Wish I could insert a characture of one pulling his hair out here. WAIT I DON'T HAVE ANY LEFT TO PULL OUT. NEVERMIND)

Man I gotta tell ya, there are some beautiful wheels out there and a range from $145 each to $1500 each. Some with satin finish. Some with polished finish. some with chrome finish. I even found a great looking set from a foreign company that is applying gold and/or titainium for accents on the wheels. The price on these was way outtta my league :willy: so I'm not gonna post their price (not to mention the didn't fit the SSR offset and bolt patern, but boy were they cool). They would have realy looked great on my SSR though.

Eventually after sifting through all the possibilties and prices, it came down to a set of Boyd Smoothies. Now that I had decided what rim to go with I had to figure out which Wholesaler/Dealer would give me the best price on that wheel :banghead . After a few hours of back tracking to who had the Boyd wheels, and their pricing, it came down to one of two places to order the rims from. One being a company out of Tennessee called Newstalgia wheels, and the other being an insider at Boyds custom wheels. After a phone call to Boyds, there must have been a miscommunication as to what rim I wanted (we were playing phone tag all day, and leaving messages), and his quote was 1/3 more than the company in Tennessee. When I talked to him again we straightened out which rim I wanted and he was going to get a price together for me later (they were in the middle of filming for the American Hot Rod show. I expect to here from him on Monday.

Meanwhile I started loking for tires to put on the new wheels. Another search started with Goodyear, B.F. Goodrich, Michilin, Dunlop, Perrelli, and others. Looked at tread patterns, load ratings, speed ratings, sizing, tire width, tire height, performance characteristics, longevity, warranty, and the all important pricing. (IMAGINE HAIR PULLING CHARACTURE HERE TOO). Hours later and just about running out of ink in the pen (not to mention writers cramp), I had narrowed it down to three tires:

(1) Goodyear Eagle RSA radials,

(2) B.F. Goodrich G-Force T/A KDW2,

(3) Dunlop Sport 9000.

The price range is between $700 per set to just under $900 per set. I'm leaning towards the B.F.G'S . I like the tread pattern, they are the same outer diameter as the stock tires, and have both the 18" for the front and the 20" for the rear. They also have the correct width as the stock tires.

Any experianced input from the forum here, as to these three tires would be appreciated.

Meaning:
wear capabilities
appearance (treads)
other similar comments

I will be watching this thread on and off through out the weekend. Once I here back from my insider at Boyds, I'll be ordering the rims and tires from somewhere.

Thanks for your help, FUZZY

P.S. See attachment photos of tires in post #12

 

[wvssr]

After working in the new car business for 27 years I have never been very impressed with any Goodyear product. For the price I can sell a off brand private label tire for much less and it will wear longer. This is based on ware life, I have seen very few problems in balance and etc. from G/Y's, but don't see many problems out of others either for that matter. I have always seen good milage out of BFG's, Bridgstone, and Mich. To me that is the most important thing to look at, I dont want to spend a $1,000.00 on tires every 10 thousand miles.

Keep us posted on what you find on wheels, I to have been exploring the possibilities of what to put on mine, and have not found that there are alot of choices out there.

 

[Flassh]

Hi, Fuzzy

Glad to see someone else going through the wheel agony. Milled through 250000 square feet of wheels at SEMA, and pretty much drew a blank, except for Colorado Customs. I really liked the Smoothie, but no 19s available, and they couldn't cut a 6 bolt into the 5 spoke design - can't wrap my head around a 6 spoke wheel - it JUST AINT RIGHT!!!

Colorado will do 19s and 20s. I ended up getting a set custom built, but Colorado will make them available to others once the first set is done. It's a 5 spoke design, and they will mill the hub to fit the 6 bolt pattern. I checked yesterday - the cad drawings and computer programming are done, scheduled to be cut this week.

I purchased them through Newstalgia - pricing was excellent. Got the tires from them as well. Pricing was within range of Tire Rack, and by buying the tires and wheels from them, they mount, balance and ship no charge.

Snapshot is of a one-off they had built for SEMA - loved the look, but it's not in their catalog or their website. Went with the soft lip, rather than the standard lip, and getting the full show polish. Hard to picture it with a 6 bolt hub, but hopefully it will look good.

Ray

PS - just finished painting the calipers and installing the drilled/slotter rotors - before and after pics to follow - hopefully tonight.

 

[FUZZY]

Kinda wish they made the smoothie with a covered lug nut area. I hate open lug nuts. It just doesn't look finished. Oh well, these will have to do for now.

One of these days maybe I'll sit down at my laptop and design a wheel of my own (using Auto Cad 2000) and have someone mill them out for me.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Flassh]

Interesting how different our taste in wheels can be - that's what really makes the truck your own. I would not have thought that Dayton wires would look good on an SSR, but the one posted here recently was looking pretty good.

When Colorado was doing the computer work, they said it would be easier if we went with covered lugs - but I couldn't go that way - don't like the looks of covered hubs - opposite of what you like.

Ray

 

[mikepowell]

ohboy...

I went through this myself before I even purchased my black beauty. I decided on a combo many times, stock,22-24,20-22,22-22,20-20.shesh! boy you can spend alot on tires and or rims. I'm going with boydcoddington smoothies also, 20s front and rear. I didn't want the big-n-little look that 18s-20s give, just my personal preferance. I'm saving my stocks for winter so I went with a summer tread, Goodyear Eagle HP Ultraplus. I found a size for the front that still had the same outside diameter. they are priced about the same as the stock RSAs.
anyway sorry if I bored you :yawn
I like your choice Flash, I'd like to see pics wen you get'm :thumbs
Fuzzy:I think you could get some small 'pop in covers' machined to fill over the lugs on your smoothies
I didn't vote because I don't really know much about how these tires compare :flag

 

[RickSSR]

Just a Wish...........

My 1st Choice would be "Run Flat" tires, if and when anybody makes them for are stock wheels or aftermarket wheels.:flag

RickSSR :cool

 

[mikepowell]

Rick, have you checked on tirerack?

I never specifically looked for runflat options, so who knows whats out there :confused
I'd be surprised if not, but they are probably expensive :flag

 

[Flassh]

Checked several places, got most of the tire manufacturer brochures at SEMA - very little available. The only workable option would have been to go with 18 fronts and 19 rears, or 17 fronts 18 rears, using the extended range tires available for the Vette.

Ray

 

[mikepowell]

dang
that would probably look a little strange when your used to the larger ones :flag

 

[FUZZY]

Comparisons

Found a site where I could see a graph comparison chart on a few tires. They had a multitude of tests they went through, and the G-force KDW2 (not to be confused with the KDW which has differant tread, traction, and wear charateristics) came out on top of most all catagories, and placed a close second in a few. From what I can tell these should be a 50k mile tire, which should last me for ten years (these will only be summer use).

Still interested in your opinions though.

 

[FUZZY]

downloaded some tire pics

Here is a pic of each of the tires in the pole.

The first is the G-force KDW2

The second is the Eagle RS-A

The third is the Dunlop sport 9000

 

[rick418cars]

Hey Fuzzy,
I have the KDW's on my Malibu Maxx, the SP 9000's on
a new GTO , Saturn VUE & ION, and on my SSR I have
Goodyear Eagle F-1's, I like the SP 9000's the best.
They have really good ride quality for a low profile tire.
See ya on the Power Tour !

 

[wildcat66]

I have a question, If I don't vote, will I be able to see the results? I can't vote because I don't have first hand info only my opinion that I haven't really heard great things about Goodrich. But I am interested in the poll results. Has anyone voted?

 

[mikepowell]

take 1 off the RSAs

I have a question, If I don't vote, will I be able to see the results? I can't vote because I don't have first hand info only my opinion that I haven't really heard great things about Goodrich. But I am interested in the poll results. Has anyone voted?

I voted so I could see the results, RSAs leading then G-Force then 9000. I really don't know either.
I picked by price and specks :flag

 

[wildcat66]

well if others are doing that how will we know the true results. Can you ad an I don't know voting button?

 

[FUZZY]

voting

I have a question, If I don't vote, will I be able to see the results? I can't vote because I don't have first hand info only my opinion that I haven't really heard great things about Goodrich. But I am interested in the poll results. Has anyone voted?

If you want more information on each tire, you can go to your address bar and type in keyword BF.Goodrich, or Goodyear, or Dunlop and then navigate each site to find the tire. They will have pictures of the tread patterns and a specs tab to view details and demensions of each tire.

You can vote for which ever tire you like. Be it by design, longevity, noise, etc.

So far there have been 36 votes cast. I would tell you who's ahead, but that would spoil the final results in three more days.

Happy hunting on the web, and I appreciate any input you may give.

 

[wildcat66]

Ok I did a "little" research, and voted. This is the site I used.http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=UHP

Oh and I think the BF is prettiest :lol :lol

 

[mikepowell]

this is what my new ones look like :flag

 

[WOW_FCTR]

Poll results

I have a question, If I don't vote, will I be able to see the results? I can't vote because I don't have first hand info only my opinion that I haven't really heard great things about Goodrich. But I am interested in the poll results. Has anyone voted?

There is a link at the bottom right that says 'View Poll Results'. I was suprised that this poll is showing each person and what they voted for. Is that new or is that an option the poll creator selected?