kalantar

I have seen too many cases where 19's and 20's get easily tweaked going over bumps or potholes... Has anyone found the ulitmate rim/tire size that is effective and durable?

Cylinder Head

iTrader: (1)

All wheels bend man. Stock tire sizes are less likely to get all out of shape because of their generally thicker tire profile. When you start to +1 and +2 your tires the game gets really dangerous. You have to be careful with potholes and road imperfections at all times, period. It doesn't matter what your wheels are made out of.

That being said, most quality 3-piece aftermarket wheels can be repaired quite easily. HRE, I-Forged, and Kinesis make top quality wheels, but they'll all bend if you hit the wrong bump in the road.

kalantar

I would think with some meat on the tires, it wont bend as easily as a 20 inch rim running on rubberbands. There has to be a good setup..

Do 18s look good on the SL?

trumpet1

I'm dealing with a bent rim issue right now. I hit a major pothole on the interstate several months ago and it caused the sidewall of the tire to balloon out. I got a new tire put on it (courtesy of my dealership) without repairing the wheel and so far everything seems fine. It amazes me how much that tire would have had to collapse in order for the pressure of the hit to transfer to the metal of the wheel!!!!
The wheels are 19" AMG wheels.

kalantar

damm, I thought the AMG wheels were solid wheels...

platinumsc

I agree all wheels can be damaged with the right (or wrong) conditions.
The best defense is the tire. Very low profile tires are your wheels worst enemy. So stick with 20 or less and use a wide tire. Lot's of guys are stretching tires these days. That's too risky to me.

SLK55R

CF rims won't bend ... they will shatter/crack

CY

I love the 3 piece stuff, but due to the fact that they are valuable and more fragile compared to smaller stock wheels with thicker tires...I always keep them at least at 40 psi and watch for serious potholes...they all bend bro...just be careful.

mjr24

Wrong....quality 3-piece rims are among the hardest to fix. Many cannot be fixed correctly. Not only do you have to fix the bends....but the toughest part is resealing them correctly. I bent one of my Lowenharts and basically noone even wants to touch them (even high-end professional places) to try to fix them because they say it's so hard to fix those correctly.

Raudi-S4

Volks

damian155

I agree. I had 19 Lowenharts LDR's on a clk and I fixed those rims every other week. One thing about rims is that once you start getting them repaired the ride is never the same and youll notice the differnce. Be extra careful with them.

mjr24

Damian, who fixed them for you? I have 2 sets of LDR's sitting in storage right now because a rim or two is bent here or there.

damian155

Theres a tire and rim shop about 30 min away from me in Newark, NJ . dont have the number off hand but can get it for you if you are interested.