Gen 4 16” rims

I've been on 16's for years 
Ran with 225 75 16. 195 80 16 
Now on 7.50 16 
Just fitted these wheels made a big difference from the steel's 

 

 

DrRobin wrote: Hi and welcome to the forum.

215/75 BFG are available in 15" rims as well and are a popular fitment.

Are you looking for steel or alloy wheels? I am guessing steel, are they going to be a second set to your original fitment?

15" steel wheels are available from Jimnybits.co.uk and Raptor4x4.net to name two suppliers, there are others. You also need to get the correct offset when buying wheels, find out what your is already and use the tyre size as a guide to the best offset, it might be the same as you already have.

16" will most likely change your gearing, so your speedo will under-read and you might find top gear is a bit higher to pull. I am not sure if 16" fits your Jimny without a lift, someone else will be able to advise.

I run 215/75 on 15" rims on my Gen 3, that is the biggest I can run without a lift/bumber cutting, but the Gen 4 might have more space.

Hope that helps.

Robin

16 inch rims have no impact on gearing. The overall tyre circumference and size may impact gearing

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Bigger rims will almost always be heavier than smaller ones, and alloys aren't necessarily lighter than steel, so you need to do a bit more research to determine what effect they will have. The only practical reason for fitting bigger rims is to allow clearance for larger brakes. They are generally detrimental to performance in every other respect.

wrote:

Well I was thinking alloy wheels for the custom look and they would be lighter than steel. (I’ve seen some on Jimny style site)

So the tyre would be 215/75r16 I believe that would fit the SZ5 with stock suspension.
My other idea was to get the stock alloys stripped and re-coated in black and fit 215/75r15 but I think fancy more of a different look.

I’m curious as to if a 16” rim improves road handling at all?

Very unlikely to 'improve' in either case. But probably won't make it significantly worse either IMO.

A 215/75R15 is taller and wider than a stock size tyre, and thus heavier. In 16" trim it is taller again. Overall gearing will be impacted more. But only you will be able to tell if this will bother you or not (and maybe not until you have driven it!). Expect it to feel less punchy and peppy on road. If you tow 1st gear pulling away might not be so good and off road your low speed crawl will be faster.

Not massive amounts mind.

195/80R15 = 27.3" tall
215/75R15 = 27.7"
215/75R16 = 28.7"

If you are going from the factory tyre to an AT or MT expect it to blunt performance a bit in terms of acceleration. I think this is more a weight/rotating mass thing than size. I have 215/75R15 AT's on mine and it was quite noticeable as a direct back to back drive.

MPG will drop too.

The 16" is quite a big jump in size from stock. So I'd expect it to be quite noticeable.

Handling wise I suspect tread will play more of a part in it. As the sidewall size will be the same on either of the 215/75 tyres. Although technically total vehicle height will have increased from the ground with the 16" version.

Both my Jimnys run 215/75/R15 BFG KM3 mud tires. One has a 50mm lift and the other is stock. No problems with the tires fitted to a stock suspension. I would agree with others that the tires themselves don’t  really add anything to improve handling although maybe goes through potholes better by having chunky tread. I think my lifted jimny has better handling than the stock suspension riding over bumps better but does lean more. Performance wise I think there’s a slight drop although our commercial feels faster than the SZ5 which could be due to having less weight. 

My alloys are 6kg lighter than the steel's 
And this weight loss is so noticeable 
In acceleration steering feels lighter braking better 
Also my intermittent slight wobble has gone 
But take into account my tyres stand 32" tall 
And are wheel/tyre 27kg each