jw1977

I got new Falken tires earlier this year, I was inspecting them this weekend and I couldn't believe how much wear on the inside edge the tires had. They only have 5000 miles on them and the inside edge completely drops off compared to other tread. This is on all 4 tires. I've been told by the dealer they can't align this big of wheels and other alignment places say they can't do it because of the air suspension. That any change they made the air supsension would just override. Have other people with 22's had similiar problems? Are you experiencing horrible tire wear?

lkchris

Not only can't they do it, the vehicle wasn't designed for this size tire. This has meaning.

jw1977

I bought this car used and it came with the rims. I know other people on here are running that big of rims.

jandmtv

Wow, I had a whole post writen up, when I hit submit, I lost connection.

Here is the short version. Well its kinda short.

I have a GL450 with 22's and I went to 3 shops with regular alignment machines and they all said my gl was really out of wack, so I knew their machine was wrong.

3 shops later I found Rons tire and wheel's in Cali, they use the $75,000 Hunter HawkEye alignment machine see here in the link, http://www.hunter.com/pub/product/al...908T/index.htm

It uses high definition digital imagine to do the alignment, instead of those big sensors most other models use.

Anyway, when I showed the guy the printout from the 3 other shops showing how out of wack my alignment was, he said their machine is wrong, and they are all showing the wrong stats for your car.

His machine just shows my camber needed adjustment, and everything els was within spec.

So again, long story short, start calling alignment shops and see who uses a Hunter HawkEye machine, and take your car to them.

One more thing, the other machines have no option of choosing the car by VIN number, they choose it by make and model. The Hunter HawkEye has a barcode scanner he uses to read the barcode under the VIN on the dash, so it brings up the proper specs for that vihecle.

Hope this helps.

jw1977

Thanks, I call and see if anyone has that machine. Since you live in Cali you probably don't have snow tires. I put the 18 inchers on for the snow, I assume this will just ruin the alignment once i put the other tires on, correct?

lkchris

MB sells lots of "custom" wheels specifically designed for their various models and I've NEVER seen them state realignment is required when changing wheel sizes. This may be a clue as to what happens when MB's design requirements are heeded versus ignored.

jandmtv

Anytime you change wheels, its good to have the alignment checked.

stickygreen

Should not be an issue at all if overall tire diameter is retained.

Found some beautiful forged 22's for sale at a fair price on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/22-Fo...Q5fAccessories, but there were no 22" run-flat tires available in any of the right sizes, so had to pass. Was lucky enough to find a set of equally-nice forged 20's to replace the stock wheels on our '09 bluetec.