What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

How badly do Hummvee beadlock wheels affect MPG?

P

Pookster

1/2 ton status
Joined
Nov 21, 2000
Posts
3,197
Reaction score
6
Location
NYC, NY, USA
assuming similiar outer diameters, how badly do you think running Hummvee wheels would be vs say, aluminum wheels?

If its for a tow rig/DD, would it be worth while?
 
Why put beadlocks on a tow rig/DD??? /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif
 
Well, I kinda like it for several reasons-

1. Darn cool
2. Like not having to pay someone to mount/dismount tires
3. Like having the extra safety margin.

That said, just wondering if it was worth it to switch now that I am needing new tires- It wouldnt be significantly more to do a hummer rim/tire combo than it is to just switch to new tires in 16" sizing.

right now I have american racing 16" alum wheels with 265's on there. I wanted to move up to a bigger tire size anyways (285 seem the most commonly avaliable). I mean, I know the wheels are significantly heavier than aluminum wheels (like 20 lbs more each)- so I guess I should be asking is an extra 80 lbs of rotational mass important...
 
What kind of tow rig are you talking? If you are talking about putting the split rim Hummer wheels on (assuming you are) then they are not going to work on a SRW vehicle unless you have them recentered. That said, I don't think it is going to make that big of a difference w/ the weight. I mean, that is like hauling a couple sacks of dog food in the back... no biggie.
 
the balancing aspect will be important with a row rig or daily driver. Though some equal sure will help inside the tires.
 
well this is for an IFS 6.2 k2500- So I dont think I need recentering on the front, probably a spacer in the back would be the ticket.

I thought rotational weight was like the same as X weight being carried- Something like that. We used to skimp and save weight on our racing bike rims. I know it made a difference in our climbing ability- of course, over there we're only talking maybe 6-12 oz of difference, but I dont think I even push out one HP.

In terms of balance- Yeah, i was planning on just using the balancing beads.

The other option of course, is to use the rickson wheels- but they sure want a pretty penny, and they arent really that much ligher. I hear they also ride like bricks- but are virtually indistructable.
 
[ QUOTE ]
What kind of tow rig are you talking? If you are talking about putting the split rim Hummer wheels on (assuming you are) then they are not going to work on a SRW vehicle unless you have them recentered. That said, I don't think it is going to make that big of a difference w/ the weight. I mean, that is like hauling a couple sacks of dog food in the back... no biggie.

[/ QUOTE ]

Rotational mass has a much bigger impact on performance than just throwing some weight in the bed of a truck. That's why even if you regear the axles to get the engine back in the same rpm range with biggers tires as it was with stock tires you still will lose some performance.
 
They will make a negligible difference. The width of the tire affects the mileage way more than the weight of the rim. Consider that yes, a heavier wheel/tire takes mnore energy to get moving, but once it's moving it wants to stay in motion due to the increased kinetic energy. Wind resistance from the width is much more of an issue. If you run the same size tire on a Hummer wheel vs an aluminum wheel, I'd bet that mileage would be virutally the same.

This is kind of apples and oranges, but I see similar issues to this on a VW TDI forum. Guys like to put on 17" wheels with wide tires and it knocks about 2-3 MPG off their averages. But these tires are much wider than stock, and the cars get 50+ MPG, so the percentage of mileage loss is about 5% or so. Considering that you probably get 15MPG or so, that means that even if you lost the same percentage as they do, you'd lose .75 MPG. You could get that back by mounting some tires with a halfway efficient tread pattern.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What kind of tow rig are you talking? If you are talking about putting the split rim Hummer wheels on (assuming you are) then they are not going to work on a SRW vehicle unless you have them recentered. That said, I don't think it is going to make that big of a difference w/ the weight. I mean, that is like hauling a couple sacks of dog food in the back... no biggie.

[/ QUOTE ]

Rotational mass has a much bigger impact on performance than just throwing some weight in the bed of a truck. That's why even if you regear the axles to get the engine back in the same rpm range with biggers tires as it was with stock tires you still will lose some performance.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that if you regear and step up in tire size that you will lose performance, but I don't think it is because of rim weight. It is probably because of rolling resistance because of the wider tire, probably a more aggressive tread pattern, more wind resistance, etc...
 
All of those factors listed will have an effect on performance and fuel economy, and the rim weight does to.

A couple years ago one of the 4x4 magazines did an article on this. They took a stock Grand Cherokee (I believe) and did acceleration and braking tests with the vehicle equipped with both alloy and steel rims. They used the same tires for each test with the only variable being switching from the alloy rims to the heavier steel rims of the same size. There was a consistent and noticable degradation in performance (acceleration and braking) when equipped with the heavier rims. They even put weight into the cargo area of the alloy rim equipped vehicle equal to (or maybe even greater to) the extra weight of the steel rims. This "static" weight did not come anywhere close to affectng the performance as much as the dynamic weight of the heavier rims. I can't remember if they actually measuered fuel economy but common sense says that if the acceleration is noticably affected than the fuel mileage will also be negatively affected.

I'm not saying that rim weight has more, less, or equal affect as other factors such as the rolling resistance of more aggressive or wider tires, but it does definitely impact the overall performance of a vehicle.
 
I really just wanted taller tires, not thicker- I was gonna consider rickson wheels, but they arent exactly light weight wheels either-. I guess I'll just stick with my alloy 16" wheels and just go up a taller size.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I really just wanted taller tires, not thicker- I was gonna consider rickson wheels, but they arent exactly light weight wheels either-. I guess I'll just stick with my alloy 16" wheels and just go up a taller size.

[/ QUOTE ]

go with the hummer beadlocks.
I think it would look kinda mad max on a tow rig /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom