Hi guys

about a year or so ago I upgraded my wheels from the 18" standard rims to a set of 20" black wheels with 255/45/r20 tyres fitted (picture below)

The consequence of doing this is I have lost the ability to drive on soft sand, when I lower the tyre pressure to 15psi the length of the contact with the ground (which is what matters when sand driving) is roughly half/two thirds of what I get with the original 18" wheels which were fitted with 235/60/r18 tyres due to the extra profile tyres.

I also noticed when I put the two wheels side by side that despite being two inches bigger in diameter the overall height of the 20" wheels/tyres was slightly smaller than the 18" wheels/tyres, this means without realising it I lost ground clearance on top of the ability of 'tyre bagging' (but gained a small amount of width).

I want to be able to drive on soft sand again and so the way I see it I have two options, either change my wheels back to a smaller size (which I would rather not do for styling/cost reasons) or try to increase my tyres on the existing 20" wheels.

Using an online tyre calculator it looks like I can achieve a very similar tyre wall size as what my 18" wheels had if I get the following tyre 255/55/R20 but the question is, does anyone know if this will fit the car or will it rub?





 2011 black FL2

Last edited by Lukeis on 22nd Mar 2015 6:29 am. Edited 2 times in total

also if it was recommended I step back down in wheel size, what would I have to step down too in order to get a nice tyre bagging?

The 18" factory wheel/tyre combo was fine for sand, probably the bare minimum I would want though and certainly those tyres were useless in the mud, I want it to be practical but definitely not a fan of the nice car with super beefy wheels or tyre noise for that matter.. has anyone fitted bigger tyres to the standard 18" rims?

I like the look of the diamond turned 19" wheels, would they handle a bigger tyre as a last resort?

maybe I'm caring about looks too much but its still 90% a city car.. 2011 black FL2

You need sidewall height. The problem with the 18's has been no AT tyres in the size but you don't need AT's for sand. There's this thread on 20's http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic21933.html . You will always be up against a lack of rubber and too much rim making the wheels ordinary for off road work. For your 18's, I'd try and find 245/60/18 tyres not necessarily AT's if sand is your preference. Vesko crossed 1100 sand dunes in the Simpson on standard 18's with street tyres.