Saving weight vs looks

1984 Rabbit GTI DSP 1995-1999

 

Depends on what you're doing. If you're just light forest service roads and dont really need the tire size increase go with option 2. You should always try to reduce the unsprung mass if possible and those enkies are a great wheel at 18lbs.

With option 1 your wheels are so light that I doubt you'll need to regear and would still be a good daily. I daily drove my truck with heavy 285/70/17 nittos and it was fine since my truck was relatively light weight (5050lbs with me in it).

I chose my tires (goodyear MTRs) specifically because they were one of the only C-range 35s that were "light" for their size at 64lbs. A lot of 35s are 70+ lbs.

 

I thought the weight made a huge difference. I have 285/75/17 BFG AT KO2. It is a HEAVY combo and made a big difference. Regear was required in my opinion. I do live where there are lots of hills and mountains though. If it was flat and easy maybe it would be fine. The addition of this much unsprung weight is significant in the suspension too. Addition of heavier duty shocks helps. That said, I would never go smaller and plan to go a bit bigger next time. Full 35s. My truck gets used for DD and frequent camping exploring trips. It does some pretty hard trails too.

 

I’ve gone back and forth on this for weeks now. My brain says go for the lighter setup, cause daily driven, 10% off road most likely. But my heart says go bigger the truck isn’t fast anyway. I got the better gearing with the manual so the shifting issues aren’t a worry.

 

If you're ok with the look of the lightest setup and it's a street driven vehicle, get that. We all know rotating weight is the most important area to save lbs. Doesn't matter if it's a sports car or a bicycle. It changes the acceleration, handling, etc. If someone says you won't know the difference or doesn't care, I'd argue they've either never experienced the difference of a truly lightweight setup or their butt dyno is seriously miscalculated. Among others, I've swapped wheel setups on a previous M3 and it was mindblowing.

My current rim is 19.4 lbs. I've thought about going to either Works or F5s, but they're 24 and 21 lbs respectively. If I go up in tire size to 17", I also add in 2 more lbs per corner. So at a minimum I'm looking at a 16 lb difference overall.

I'm pretty content w/ the current looks of my setup, so when I think about that difference, I navigate away from those wheel and tire sites

 

They're expensive but I'm pretty sure Bridgestone makes a Dueler Revo3 285 that is 53 lbs and still E-load. I ran several sets of Duelers and really liked them. Now I'm on 255/80/17 Toyos and they're about the same weight but a little taller and skinnier.

Honestly the 255s are the best performing snow tire I've ever driven on

 

100%
My 16" Beadlocks are lighter than the 17" Rock Warriors and it is a massive difference.

 

Unless you're carrying a bunch of weight, the 4.3 gears in the manual are fine for 33s. Go for bigger since your setup is so light anyways (compared to heavier 33s and heavier wheels). I still got an average of 18mpg and 20+ on the freeway when I had 33s and mine were not as light as yours. Now regeared with 35s I'm getting about 16mpg city/hwy but we are on winter blend gas now, so I suspect it'll go up a little bit in the spring.

 

I’m in kind of the same boat as you. I want new tires, I have 265-70-17 right now. Truck does ok. I only got stuck once in some snow. Didn’t want to air down. Everywhere else I have been fine.

the 285-70-17 will for sure give me better off road Capability and I will try to push the truck a little further but….what we use our truck for, we don’t need those huge tires.

the downsides are pretty noticeable to me, at least. I had the 265 and then 285 on my 4th gen 4Runner.

It got worse mpg, it was slower to accelerate, rubbing was an issue. Airing up takes longer. And the truck just felt dull. Like it did not feel as lively as it did before.
But yes they did look cool.

 

So it would require new wheels but 285/70/17 is significantly lighter than 285/75/16 because they have more in SL and C rated, whereas 285/75/16 is almost exclusively E Rated thus the weight.

 

Funny you're doing this because I am a weight nazi, coming from the Japanese RWD sports car/autox/SCCA world. The best solution I can find is to just have two set of wheels for different purposes and swap them in the garage. Easier said if your budget isn't limited and you have the appropriate tools to swap in 10-15min as needed in the garage. Hmmm, I found the OEM GY tires on the O/R to weigh 35lbs, am I mistaken? I hope I am because that convinces me even further.

I'm also glad you mentioned the weight of the Enkies. I am this close to shelling out for 16x8 TE37s in bronze for this very reason, other than they look badass on a green truck IMO, but 18lbs is awesome for the price.

I was going to wrap the new lightweight wheels in Kumho HT51s, which are listed at 33lbs each for my daily granny style driving. They'll do dirt and well-traveled muddy roads fine in the areas I'm in. Those with your Enkies would be about 51lbs on the truck, which would definitely be more efficient than the stock wheels and likely improve every performance metric. Then I was going to wrap the stocks or a dedicated off road wheel with some larger Patagonia M/Ts for "SHTF" and change them when the season comes or when I intend to hit trails.

I don't know if this is as helpful as what you wrote, but I guess my idea is that they're tools for different purposes and I've found that multipurpose tools tend to not do anything exceptionally well. If you're limited to one choice, and if the vast majority of the time you're on pavement, the lightweight set makes the most sense to me.

PS: Stick shift bros unite!

 

All depends on if you have use rhay would want the bigger tires. if you stick with C rated instead of E rated 285’s shouldn’t see much of a difference.

 

Check out the Maxxis Razr AT's. They're 38lbs and look amazing. I have them in 17 and love em.
RAZR AT - MAXXIS US

 

*laughs in e rated 285/70R17 w/ Heavy black rhino stadiums.

Tbh, if you are on the fence, it's best to keep it close to stock and save yourself the heartache. If you are gonna jump in, go head first or not at all. If I was you, I'd stick with the 265s and lighter rims. You've done a lot of good research. Go with your gut. You know what the smart move is, and this is coming from someone who doesn't care about the weight. 265s look great and they are more than enough. The heavier you go, the more you are going to feel it. Gears and tuning is already an issue at stock. Keep that in mind.

 

Thanks everyone for all the advice and insight. I think I have pretty much decided I’m going with the 265/75/16 UT. The lighter weight for everyday plus I’ll save right around $600 due to not having to buy a spare cause it’s close to stock size. Maybe the next tires I get will be 285s.
Ordered the wheels last night, and the truck is getting built next week.

I’ll post pictures after it’s all complete!