Switching to lighter wheels?

I realize Jeeps are not race cars, but I'm curious about switching to lighter weight wheels in order to reduce rotating mass. I've looked at some wheel weights, stock JK 17" wheels seem to be around 25-26#. The previous owner of my Jeep switched to Pro Comp wheels that weigh 32#. I looked on Tirerack and Discount Tire and found 15" wheels for 16#, and 17" wheels 17-18#. For my case, even switching to a lighter 17" wheel and just keeping my same tires would reduce the mass by 60#s.

Does anyone else take this approach?

Won't make enough of a difference to matter. If you're concerned about loss of power, re-gear. If you're concerned about mpg, run an all terrain or street tire. Rolling resistance will rob you of more mpg than a slightly heavier wheel can ever hope to. Trust me, I've done the apples to apples test before.

Lighter wheels might help acceleration, but on a JK it’s going to be marginal and perhaps unnoticeable, all else unchanged. Now, on a sports car ....


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I would add that because the wheels mass is relatively close to the center compared to the mass of the tire, changing to lighter wheels will not make enough difference to tell.

Even the mass of the tire is less of an effect than the size of the tire. The farther the contact point is from the center of the axle, the more leverage the tire has therefore the more resistance the engine has to overcome.

Lighter tires and wheels of the same size will accelerate slightly faster, but other than at a dragstrip the change would be hard to measure. On a steady grade, like going uphill on the highway, the tire and wheel is already rolling, not accelerating, so the weight is not going to change the ability to maintain speed.

The tire size will make a big difference, as it takes much more power to push the Jeep with the taller tires.

In short, buy the wheels you want for style, durability, and function, not based on the lightest weight.

When I switched from heavy bias ply super swampers to Mickey Thompson mt’s in the same size, I had more power and slightly better mpg. But that was a much more drastic change in weight then you’re looking at. So in theory yes, but kind of falls into the “every bit helps” column vs worthwhile use of money. Also a lot of the lighter wheels just don’t have the same durability, not sure what kind of off-roading you do, here in Michigan the roads are pure hell and I see at least one guy on the side of the road with a blowout or cracked wheel a day.


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