luxury1

Will 18" Rims Bend Easier than 17"s? If so, is this something that is a huge risk or an outside chance?

Green E-300 DT

It isn't the diameter of the rim that makes one size easier than the other to be bent.

What makes one size rim be able to be bent easier than
the other is the profile of the tire mounted on that rim.

As an example, a "30" series tire will allow a rim to be bent
easier than a "35" or "40" series tire on that same rim.
In other words, it's the height of the sidewall or
lack thereof that cause the rim to be easily bent.

Clear as mud? :p

HTHs

SL BRABUS

You say it all........

jameson75

Don't worry about the size of the rim, its the size of the potholes that you hit as well. I hate these L.A. potholes.

The larger the rim size the smaller series of tire you wrap around that rim. The less rubber on the rim, the less protection it has against warping.

Kerr

if you drive with a little bit of sence you will be ok... I ran 19" wheels on my clk... heck even mb thinks the wheels are fine. some of there models have 19's...

i mean yea if you slame a pot hole at 80 mph with a 25 series tire its going to cause a problem with the tire or the wheel. Just a chance you have to take to look good.

DXC

1st time hearing that, quite entertaining. I don't think it's related

lig

Good answers so far. One more thing to consider. Forged rims will generally be more resistant to bending or outright cracking than cheap cast ones.

topspin4hand

I've wondered whether that's the difference b/w genuine and replica rims.

D-5

it is sad to know that many of the genuine wheels are cast, not forged....

zam2000

To answer your question, the answer is: YES, for any given car !!!.

Take the W211 for example, it has 16" rims with 55 tire.
To keep the diameter of the wheels the same, the biger rims you use, the lower profile the tire must be, otherwise, you speedometer will be useless. Notice that the middle number of the tire serie doesn't mean actualy tire wall heigh, rather, it's a ratio of tire width (i.e 225-50 would have same tire wall heigh as 245-45)

So with 17", you have to use 45 tire.
With 18", you have to use 40 tire.
With 19", tire is the fragile 35 serie ....

And so on.

As you see, with larger rims, to keep speedometer correct, tire profile have to be smaller. With smaller tire, you have more chance (much more) of benting the rim.

But at the end, whether the rim is easily bent depend on quality of rim, and tire. Reputable makers like AMG, Lorenser, or Brabus produce rim that's lighter and more rigid than those crappy "italian" replica rim that pop up on eBay left and right. Those italian rim is as soft as you could imagine.

The brand/type of tire you use is also VERY IMPORTANT, provided that you have proper pressure in them. Some tire maker make tirewall much better than other, and therefore, protect the rim. A 45 serie Micheline or Goodyear tire is much less likely to have bubble or blow up (==> rim bent) than cheapo like Kumo or some General.

I'm suprised that 8 posts, and no one address the issue properly.

DXC

let's make it easy:

Genuine wheels will use 1 mold to produce a limited amount of wheels, then throw away the used mold and use a new one & each passes various inspections.

Replica wheels, I heard 1 mold can be used to produce at least 50,000 pieces wheels, with that #, how serious inspection can be performed