“Rims” – the slangster term for wheels that are disproportionately large for the vehicle – are arguably one of the worst styling and functional affectations of the past 20 years. They add weight and increase rolling resistance, which reduces fuel economy. This goes for hybrids, too – i.e., vehicles specifically designed to deliver the highest-possible gas mileage. Yet even the Prius (reviewed here) that is marketed as being the apotheosis of fuel-efficiency, at least putatively – is much less fuel-efficient than it is capable of being, due to its “rims.” Specifically, it is 5 MPG less efficient when it rides on the 19 inch “rims” that are standard with all trims except the base LE – which rides on 17 inch “rims.”
Imagine how fuel efficient the Prius would be if it rode on 15 inch wheels instead.
Gnomesayin’?
“Rims” also add expense – both up front and down dey road – in the form of more expensive (because larger) tires that cost more to replace when they wear out. That wear out sooner because of the increased weight added to the load the tires must bear, which accelerates wear. Most “rims” are also shod with short-sidewall tires that haven’t got much give and so are more vulnerable to being damaged when the car drives over a bad pothole – or the driver runs the “rim” up against (or over) the curb.
Here’s another contender: “Lifted” trucks.
The term refers to – is a synonym for – a truck that has been jacked up, that rides several inches higher off the ground than it did when it left the factory via the lifting of its suspension. This used to be something that was done to a truck by its owner – or a shop – and was done in order to make the truck more off-road-capable. Clearance being important when you are attempting to drive seriously off-road.
But driving a lifted truck on road that never actually goes off-road is a lot like driving around on “rims” in that it’s for show – and comes at a cost that goes beyond whatever it cost to get the truck “lifted.”
First, it is likely to negatively alter the way the truck handles – especially in the curves, due to the weight of the truck being higher off the ground. New/late-model trucks are more stable during cornering than the trucks of the past – which generally had very basic suspension systems and few, if any, electronic safety nets such as stability control.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t be made less stable – and “lifting can do exactly that. Getting a of air under the truck at high speed helps – and raising the body does just that. 
“Lifted” trucks are often complemented by oversized, knobby-tread off-road tires that are specifically not designed for high-speed handling or even straight-line driving (at high speed) on paved roads. Sudden, unexpected steering/braking inputs – such as swerving to avoid an animal or a kid that ran into the road – can unsettle the balance of the “lifted” truck and that can (and sometimes does) result in loss of control and a wreck that might not have happened if the truck had not been “lifted.”
It’s harder to get in – and out – of a “lifted” truck, too. Not just for passengers, either. It is much harder to get at whatever’s in the bed – without a ladder – which makes it less useful as a truck, the main point of which is to have a way to carry things to and from in the bed. But when it is difficult to load and unload the bed without a forklift, the bed becomes effectively useless as a bed.
And the hitch – used to pull a trailer – is probably too high to line up with the trailer, so the “lifted” truck can’t pull anything, either. Even if it is rated to pull 10,000 lbs.
It is also harder to see what’s ahead of you when you’re sitting so high up that the car in front of you is hidden from your view.
So what’s the point? Other than the look?
Not – as Seinfeld used to say – that there’s anything wrong with that.
Not everything needs to be practical and there is much to be said for the whimsical; for creative expression.
But it’s not especially creative when its become a cliche. When it’s become something that (so it seems) everyone is doing in order to look like they’re creative – as in different from everyone else. But when every dude (so it seems) has a barbed wire tattoo on his arm and a Van Dyke beard on his face, it’s no longer different from what everyone else is doing.
Wearing “rims” is of a piece – and so is driving around in a “lifted” truck. Both have become the vehicular equivalent of barbed wire arm tattoos and Van Dyke beards.
Which is fine, if it makes you happy.
There was a time when everyone (so it seemed) was walking around wearing wide-collared shirts, gold medallions and bell-bottom cords.
And they seemed happy, too.
. . .
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I tried to out-think GM engineers by messing with the suspension (traction bars) on my new ’68 Camaro. Didn’t work out; it was so stiff that after a while, bumps/holes in the road ended up breaking the weld on the plate/bracket that held the leaf to the axle housing.
Then I tried to out-think Honda engineers by messing with the rear suspension on my new 1970 Honda 750. That didn’t work out either, although nothing broke.
When I was a toolmaker apprentice at Bausch & Lomb, I worked with an older guy who was showing me the ropes. This would have been around 1970-71. The big thing back then was chrome reversed rims (I never had any).
He explained to me why they were not so great. A normal factory rim has the center of the weight (as viewed from the front or rear of the vehicle) directly in line with the wheel bearing. If you reverse it so it sticks out farther, the weight is off center, leveraging it, wearing the bearing out faster. It made sense.
But kids are doing it again. I guess if you don’t mind changing your wheel bearings sooner it doesn’t matter.
I learned the hard way, at least as far as suspensions, to not try to out-smart factory engineers. Everything is a compromise between performance, safety, reliability, keeping it as simple as possible yet functional, and cost — whether we’re talking about car suspensions, boat hulls, or airplane wings. You may be able to improve something, but you’re probably diminishing one of the other design factors.
Traction bars are the worst suspension invention ever conceived, because like “modern medicine”, a traction bar treats the symptom and not the cause. While they have their place on trucks that tow heavy loads (once again, there could be some argument here), on cars, all they do is act as a band-aid for the fact the rear axle / suspension isn’t properly located and has a tendency to wind up under torque. Ladder bars are far superior for most applications until you get into independent rear suspension, or talking about even BETTER upgrades like a coil-over suspension.
I Love, Love, Love this: “I tried to out-think GM engineers by messing with…”
“Then I tried to out-think Honda engineers by messing with…”
You write, “I learned the hard way, at least as far as suspensions, to not try to out-smart factory engineers.”
Imho, maybe, don’t accept that line of thought? I worked, briefly, with a Yota master. When the stealer-ship shops had issues they couldn’t solve by following the manuals written by the engineers, they called that guy.
Seems like, the approach to take is, to not try to out-smart the laws of physics (maybe?) rather than the, line-strike I don’t know how to do through, ‘factory engineers’?
RE: “You may be able to improve something, but you’re probably diminishing one of the other design factors.”
OR, maybe, you’re making a whole new better thing?
…Did you watch the, ‘Ford vs. Ferrari’ film?> It’s kind-of inspirational.
Factory engineers are not infalliable, they make mistakes too. Not to mention engineering and manufacturing decisions are driven by marketing and often second guessed by accounting. So there’s usually lots of room for improvement.
Having spent my 53-year career as a tool/moldmaker, working in job shops and two factories for various industries, some big some small, that mass-produced products that we use every day, I met and worked with a lot of engineers. They are like any other group of people: Some clueless, some decent, some brilliant.
Anything mass-marketed by a major manufacturer — especially something as complex as a vehicle — was not designed by fools. The young or mediocre designers/engineers had jobs to do but the final mass-produced items were not approved by them. As I previously stated, everything is a compromise. The tooling, from a layman’s POV, is crazy expensive.
I wasted four years of my life working at Rochester Products under mold (die cast) repair. All the engineers I met there were clueless blueprint-shufflers. However, I never heard anyone on the street or strip say that Rochester carbs were garbage as a mass-produced item for vehicles (there were arguably better carbs for racing).
SOMEBODY at RPD had some brains, but in four years I never met them, nor did anyone else in the shop.
And for the record, a lot of “factory engineering” is downright HARDCORE FAIL. Ever try to remove the bolt holding the upper control arm to the chassis on a 2021 Toyota Tundra?
I’m guessing not. From the factory, epic design fail.
I’ll ALWAYS improve where I can.
I can’t stand the trend of lowering and putting taller wheels and tires with no sidewall on older muscle cars.
To me, nothing beats an old muscle car on 60 or 70 series tires at stock ride height. When I rebuilt the suspension on my 79 Firebird, I had the option for a dropped spindle front and lowered leaf springs on the back, but I’ve seen these cars with the dropped stance, and it just doesn’t look good to me.
1968 stock ride height
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Firebird#/media/File:1968_Pontiac_Firebird_400_HO_Convertible_Black_R_t_Rr_Qtr.jpg
Not sure young men have ever been known for rational, sensible decision-making. Perhaps this can be seen as a giant middle finger to the feminazi police safety state slowly but surely drowning the western world.
I like the idea behind this bit: “Perhaps this can be seen as a giant middle finger to the feminazi police safety state slowly but surely drowning the western world.”
However; if ya mean that spending big Bucks on lifted trucks with seriously stoopid & impracticable rims is stickin’ it to, ‘The Man’, then I’d say that’s a big Fat fail.
Hmm, this other bit, RE: “Not sure young men have ever been known for rational, sensible decision-making.”
Used to be, a male was considered to be a man at the age of 12.
Lotsa, rational, sensible decision-making was made when that was so.
…More-so, than these days, I reckon. Lots more, & happy children, around then, too. The literacy rate was higher, as well.
Idk.
…The World is a Vampire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-r-V0uK4u0
“Used to be, a male was considered to be a man at the age of 12.”
Have you ever wondered why that is no longer considered true?
Hi Cobblestones,
Maybe. And I realize times change. When I was young, my gearhead friends and I spent what money we had on headers and cams and so on. I just don’t get thus driving around in a “lifted” or “squatting” truck…
Yeah, agree. But try putting headers and a cam on an EV or whatever state-sanctioned automotive atrocity is currently permitted by the safety Karens. Young men are mostly checking out. And when the men check out, civilization dies.
There’s still some motorheads out there. They might talk VTEC instead of big block but that’s just a result of the times. It’s not the kids’ fault that they draw their options from cheap Civics and Kias instead of Oldsmobiles and Fords with V8s. It’s about taking what you can afford to make it yours, hopefully irritating people in the process. At least here there’s still amateur nights at the drag strip. It’s not IHRA but hearing them makes me happy. The cops even show up sometimes with one of their Explorers to give the kids a shot there instead of on the street cruising.
I grew out my Van Dyke whiskers long enough ago that everyone made fun of me for it. In public, I would get ridiculed for it. I didn’t see anyone else with it for years. Now, like you say, it’s everywhere. Everyone copied me.
I didn’t quite catch what Eric meant when he wrote, “But when every dude [has a] Van Dyke beard on his face” until you mentioned, “Now, like you say, it’s everywhere. Everyone copied me.”
I had to look that up. I, for one, can say, I Never copied you.
I always thought a look like that was the result of an interrupted shaving, like in the scene of the floor being blown away in the flick, ‘The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly’ at 6:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyTW_E1st-w
…Imagine shaving, at 6:38. I sometimes think of that while shaving. You’d look pretty silly walking away from that, if you did one-half of the face 1st.
…I’d never openly ridicule someone for having the Van Dyke look, it just seems like a job, half-done. ‘Er, sumthin’.
I always found the look a bit untrustworthy, for some reason, too. No offense meant.
UdoU. …Live & let Live. [Haven’t seen your nic in awhile, your icon & name always seems, … calm & cool & a bit more I can’t express well.]
The main reason I went the goatee route is that I can’t grow a decent crop of whiskers on my cheeks. So I did what I could.
I’m always around. Still writing my blog and newspaper column and getting banned on X.
A couple of points.
Larger wheels (rims) can be for more than style. My truck came with 16″ wheels stock and that was done to fit larger rotors and calipers. A 15″ rim won’t fit on the hub even if I wanted. This brake upgrade isn’t without merit since the older generations of trucks with brakes a 15″ would clear didn’t brake as well.
Now you can debate the need for a midsize pickup to need better braking but the truck rated payload and towing increased likely due to this brake improvement.
I wish I could use 15″ but even if I could the market has moved on so there’s not many choices in AT and MT tires in larger 15″ sizes. Especially if you want something odd, such as taller and skinny. I ran 33×10.50×15 for years on my old 1980s pickup but that size is impossible to find and when you do it’s one or two options. If you go to 16″ the 235/85, 255/85, 275/75 and 265/75 are options slightly smaller or larger than 33×10.50 and you have a dozen brands/models. But going to a 17″ opens up even more options, so that’s really the sweet spot now. Going bigger to 18″ or more is limiting to “show” tires not seriously intended for hard work.
As far as lifting. I have a small lift on my truck but I use the crap out of it on difficult roads. Not just hard but intentionally difficult jeep routes. But it’s only about 2″ over stock ride height and for that I gained about 1″ of additional suspension travel. That translates into about 2″ of wheel travel and the lift is primarily to center the static height in the middle of the travel window. Most cosmetic lifts you see gain all their lift at the expense of travel balance. They’ll ride 2″ higher but push the wheel down so that have almost no additional downtravel. It’s can be a jarring ride and if used off road means they lift their tire off the ground easily.
And my next move is to flip the suspension in back to a spring under axle (stock is spring over axle) to get more rear travel without any more lift. This is a major change in geometry but all you have to do is look at Baja Trophy trucks. They have TONS of travel but aren’t sky high. You want center of mass low as you can get.
Interesting, this phrase, “the market has moved on”.
It’s besides your point. I know.
It’s just, as Eric often mentions, “Fascinating”.
Good stuff, Ivan –
I don’t disagree with any of your points. As far as brakes – on cars – any car made since the ’90s has brakes that have stopping power more than adequate for normal street driving. If you track-day your car then massive rotors and calipers are certainly helpful and even essential. But brakes such as that are now common on cars that are driven as if they were 86 Arie K-cars. It’s as silly as walking around wearing a codpiece..
Hey,
A good codpiece would actually improve some of our congresscritters……in the words of the Austin Lounge Lizzards
“All her friends became non-conformists
So she became a non-conformist too…..”
Amen, Guiseppe!
Also: Thanks for the recent mail! I apologize for being so tardy replying. I wish I could teach the cats how to type!
Eric says: “Imagine how fuel efficient the Prius would be if it rode on 15 inch wheels instead.”
——————
Imagine how efficient the Prius would be if it had 13″ rims with 80 aspect ratio tires (like a 1996 Geo Metro or a 1983 Honda Civic).
I am really into fuel economy, I like to drive and drive and drive and pay the least amount, so to get max driving range for my adventure lifestyle. So I owned many Civics and Metros (Suzuki Swift knockoff). I owned 9 Geo Metros, two of which got 63 mpg. The way to do that is have the lightest car, with the skinniest tires which you air up to the highest psi and not blow them. I did not care about looks, I could care less what the rest of the world thinks, I want to be able to drive to the coast, take a hike in the redwoods, and not have to pay an arm and leg to do so.
The idea is to cut rolling resistance. For mpg nerds, like Darrin over at metrompg website, you try different tires and roll the car down a hill with engine off and measure the distance. The next best thing to do is cut vehicle speed, keep the rpm the lowest possible to keep the car rolling:
https://www.metrompg.com/posts/hypermiling-tips-better-gas-mileage.htm
If you look at the mph vs mpg chart, the Geo Metro mpg goes way the hell up if you drive slow, by simply slowing you can up the mpg to over 70 mpg, and I tested this many times, and it works great.
——————–
So what gives with modern cars and their fat ass tires? If we are all so concerned with Mother Earth and saving the planet, why in the hell did we abandon skinny tires like the old VW bug for big assed fat stupid looking tires?
My own pet peeve is my 8th gen Civic I am driving now, the stock tire will not fit in the wheel well compartment, and the donut tire is a joke, especially since I have a motorcycle hitch rack. This forces me to take an extra tire in the trunk.
How to stick it to the man: hypermiling in the Prius C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAocwToZWVQ
I gotta get one of those Prius C’s and test it out. 99 mpg plus sounds good to me.
When the phrase “fossil fuel” is a propaganda term designed to psychologically manipulate people into thinking oil is scarce, thus artificially inflating the cost for an unlimited resource, I would rather use whatever means necessary to get rid of the Zionist and elitist parasites out of our government so we could go back to the days of 50 cents a gallon gas, rather than driving cars I wouldn’t wipe my ass with.
Fuck efficiency. Rather, FREEDOM.
“I am really into fuel economy”
Hi there, I am Bizzarro Yukon Jack, your complete opposite.
My daily driver gets 15 MPG tops. Gasoline expenditure comes out of my entertainment budget. I take the long way to work and back, and try to find new twisty backroad routes sometimes to spice things up. 450 old school horseypowers and a 4 speed manual is my daily therapy.
I’ll admit that when we are in the wife’s SUV, I use the real time MPG calculator built into the dash to try to maximize efficiency just for funsies. “Why are you driving so slow?” – Wifey
When I was in high school (and a couple of years afterward), I drove a ‘75 F250 4×4, (which were ridiculously high stock).
My girlfriend at the time was about 4’9”, she carried a little plastic step stool on a rope for getting in and out of the truck. It provided much small town entertainment watching her go through the process….all the old guys hanging out at Walmart loved it.
‘The Second Worst Trend of the Past 20 Years’ — eric
Okay, the suspense is killing me. What is the WORST trend of the past 20 years?
Or is that tomorrow’s essay …
EVs, Jim, EVs.
This article reminds me of an interaction I had with one of these lifted trucks years ago. I was driving my Lotus Elise with the top off in a very wealthy city here in Silicon Valley, which is generally full of fruits and nuts driving Priuses. This giant lifted pickup pulls up next to me at a light, and looks straight down at me, and yells, “Dude, is your car gay?”. I told him I have no idea what it does when I’m not driving it, so maybe it is? Who knows. His truck was lifted at least a couple of feet. I could have parked under it.
When I was in high school, the dad of a kid down the street owned a powder-blue Triumph TR3 which looked like this:
https://tinyurl.com/dbt6b2d9
Its doors were about the size of a pizza box, and maybe 2 inches thick. Seated on the passenger side, I could reach over the low-cut door and touch the driveway with my hand.
Nobody thought a tiny 1,700-lb car unusual in those days. America had what is today known as ‘diversity,’ with everything from midget cars and VW bugs to Chrysler and Buick land yachts with their billowing yards of sheet metal.
Now the average new vehicle weight is about 4,400 lbs. Almost nothing is under 3,000 lbs. It’s starting to endanger the structural design of older parking garages. Automotive obesity kills. And the idiot fedgov did this to us.
There is a plus to this, Jim….jacked up pick up trucks don’t fit into parking garages. 🙂
Somebody should have told this guy:
https://tinyurl.com/332kaw33
Oh wait, they did! ‘“He reported that he was using a GPS app on his phone, which directed him into the lot,” police said in a tweet.’
Stupid algorithm!
This is the exact reason I don’t use GPS.
I saw the humorous after effect of a lifted super duty pickup truck last year. A man had just purchased a nice gas grill at Lowe’s, and his teenage son was there to help him get it in the truck. Their first attempt to lift the grill into the bed fell short by probably 5-6 inches. Ironically, that was just about the amount the truck was lifted. People don’t think about these things when they put lifts on their trucks.
My truck is stock, and it will stay that way.
Great article. The other thing not often considered when lifting the truck to get the larger reuuums on is the offset. A larger offset (rim centerline moved outboard) has an impact on spring tate. Higher offset means lower effective spring rate, since the “lever” of the wheel is longer to the control arm pivot point.
These trucks are more likely to hit their bump stops with the added offset combined with added unsprung weight.
I didn’t know that about lifted trucks. Like ordering or getting cash but I did know about getting into one because I saw a woman trying to get in one and it was obviously her boyfriend’s truck and she was very embarrassed and annoyed, obviously, to watch her get in it.
I have an older 95 F-250 Diesel and I’m amazed how the new trucks sit a foot or two higher then mine.
Actually, it was “neru” collars with medallions, before the wide collars. Don’t ask me how I know.
Trucks today have become nothing more than Luxury cars with a bed. They are useless as work trucks. So much of your rebuke is moot in those regards. Personally I like a bench seat two door pick up truck. not extended, just a bench seat with less than 6 inches behind the seat and back cab wall. Truth be told I would prefer that truck be at least 25 years or older. New fancy trucks suck period.
Amen, Ted –
I love my ’02 Frontier because it’s practical and useful as a truck six foot bed – longer than the five foot bed most new half tons come with – and it’s easy to toss stuff into the bed and grab it out of there when it’s time to get it out of there. No need for a step ladder!
Trucks have forever and always been tools for me. I’m not in the habit of making my tools harder to use, or buying one that is harder to use, regardless of how “cool” it may look.
Speaking of radical cars. Shame Ian Roussel never opened a car company that turned out custom insanity in volume! Talk about making some bank!
Big rims thin profile tires popular on cars here in Central WA with our vibrant imports from south of the border.
I found out how they afford these setups – I was at a Les Schwab tire store waiting on a wheel balance, Pedro comes in and makes his weekly payment for his “setup”.
(Les Schwab a northwest chain store for tires and service, Oregon guy started in 1952. Nice folks, prompt service, waayy overpriced non premium label tires.)
All good points, and all wasted on the target audience, who thinks all that stuff is “cool”.
As you say, “It’s fine, if it makes them happy”. It also makes them look like tasteless morons.
I own a ’15 F-150 that’s factory-stock, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Ford put a lot of engineering into it so that all the moving parts would play nice with each other, and screwing with that’s not in my plans.
Amen, No Spam –
I suppose I could “lift” my Nissan Frontier… but then it’d be of little to no use to me as a truck.
Life is tough…
It’s tougher if you’re stupid…
I lifted my diesel truck years ago when I was in my 30’s. The 6” lift helped me navigate through rough terrain on job sites where the bulldozer upended clay soils. However, that didn’t happen often enough to compensate for the inconvenience of the lift. Climbing in and out got to be laborious so I sold it. I’ll never do that again. My current truck is leveled (slightly lowered) and I’ve had it for 13 years. Rides and handles more like a car and is a pleasure to drive daily.
I grew up on a ranch in a remote area of the western US. In addition to working cattle where there were no roads (often involved pulling trailers into off-road areas), we would contract with the US Forest Service to build fences in extremely rugged areas where there were no roads. In 99.9% of real-world off-road use cases (i.e. when you’re doing real work instead of leisure off-roading), if a non-lifted 4×4 truck with a good off-road driver couldn’t go there, neither could one with a lift. Additionally, there are a TON of side-slope cases where the lifted truck will roll or slide off when a non-lifted truck won’t. We had no heavy equipment or crawlers to get in and out of the areas we drove. We just drove it, and if we couldn’t get there in a truck, we could get within a few miles and then we had dirt bikes and/or horses for back up (depending on how rugged it was). Nowadays, what we did wouldn’t work well. The USFS now pitches a fit any time they find you driving anywhere on forest service land where there isn’t an “official” road.
Thoughts on lowering a car slightly and lighter than stock forged wheels?
If you’re gonna customize, improve things
Lowering is often just a dumb.
Typically increases bump steer and can create squirrelly steering over bumps or when cornering hard.
Decreases suspension travel in compression.
Results in hitting the jounce bumpers more often. At its worst this is wrecks handling as suspension loads spike when hitting jounce bumpers.
Often creates camber problems that increase tire wear.
There are ways to engineer around these issues but the usual aftermarket solutions don’t do they just offer cheap, easy solutions and leave you to deal with the problems lowering creates.
Agreed to a point, but minimal drop is my preference, like oem+ like say an a4 to s4 height for example.
I overbuilt my old mustang, I learned first hand going too low, scraped my flexpipe. Still, done right its solid
Seems we’re in agreement with lighter, stronger wheels though
I love the GIF Eric embedded in this article of the woman jumping up to get into the Ford “monster truck”. She has to grab the interior handle at the same time she lands her right foot on the tire to hoist herself inside.
My only question is… what happens if she misses??
With luck, she’ll land on her bumper without thudding her head on the pavement.
Might as well have a stirrup to place your foot so you can hoist yourself into the saddle like when you mount a horse.
It is cold outside, the temp is 48 degrees. In 2001 a record temp was set at 92 degrees.
This Solar Cycle 25 is not as warm as the last two, it is a cold these days.
In 1910, it was 90 degrees one day and 91 the next.
Hi Drump,
It’s freakin’ freezin’ here (channeling Dr. Evil). I am wearing a heavy sweatshirt and wool cap inside the house – because it’s prolly high 30s outside the house!
Hi drumphish,
I am impressed with her arm strength and flexibility. Most girls couldn’t do that.
We had one over a decade ago. For some reason the sound of the Super Swampers would lull our youngest to sleep.
Hi RG, no doubt she has Amazon woman physical capabilities.
She knows how to carry herself, lift her whole body with ease.
Watched a woman truck driver gently nudge a truck trailer into a building at the door opening. Very skillful driving ability, demonstrated technique.
2000 Amish men and women are in North Carolina helping the hurricane/flood victims lift the barge and tote the bale, the rebuild is happening there.
Makes America Great!
Back slidin’ barrel ridin’ Rita Ballou
Ain’t a cowboy in Texas would not ride a bull for you – Guy Clark, Rita Ballou
There may be a reason for the move to taller wheels. Not anything crazy like 18s and above, but you can drive down engine rpms with a larger wheel. It also allows you to put a larger anchors (brakes) to bring your speed down to prevent a collision.
Regardless, a long set of highway legs is something that I need as I am on the freeway 80 percent of the time. At my normal cruise speed of 80 mph, I like to keep the rpms around 2500 or so, maybe lower.
As someone who has never owned a truck, I view these codpieces as an affectation. I don’t like having to look around them as they block everything.
To each his or her own, however, Have fun. Just stay out of the damned left lanes if you are going under 70.
Hi Swamp!
Yes, but overdrive gearing accomplishes that without dey “rims.” As an extreme example: My ’76 Trans-Am has 3.90 rear axle gears and 15×7 wheels. Yet cruise RPM at 65-70 is about 2,200 because I installed an OD transmission with a really deep (.067) OD gear. No need for dey “rims,” man!
A Trans-Am looks stupid with 18 inch rims. Pontiac got it right.
Amen, Zane –
It never fails to depress me when I see a second-gen Firebird with “rims” that are aesthetically all wrong for the car. The 15×7 Rally II, Honeycomb and Snowflake wheels (the latter available in 15×8) looked right on the car. These aftermarket “rims” look wrong – and so do the LED lights and digital gauges some people put into these cars, too.
There’s 2 things NOBODY from outside Texas expects to ever be said with a Texas accent:
(1) CHECKMATE!
(2) “Ya know Buba…I think the tires on that truck are just too danged big!”
There is new trend around here where a lifted truck has it’s rear slammed to the ground and front end aiming at the sky. Talk about looking ridiculous. And dangerous as you can’t even see the road when driving it.
I have seen three of these modded trucks parked together at our local Walmart. I think they belong to employees.
At least it’s kind of original in a super non-practical way.
that is known as a ‘squatted truck’ whistlindiesel did a video wrecking one of those
Hi Anchar,
Those “squatted” trucks look like they are taking a dump.
The first time I saw one I didnt know about them. I thought it had a super heavy load so I went to check out the bed which was empty. I then thought it was just broken.
No, wait, guys. That’s a ramp! If it goes low enough, it’s good for loading lawnmowers & other equipment into. Or, as a livestock chute/ramp?
…But, that’s probably not at all the intended purpose of the things, & having never seen one, they prolly look cockamamie as all-get-out [like, ‘jumping the shark’?] & I may just hope I never see one, not even a photo of one [don’t you dare post one, Eric. Bad enough about those Speedo .jpg’s RG appreciates] & may posterity never know of them? Idk. You guys are freakin’me out on this one. It’s like the beginnings of a bad dream.
I thought that trend was called the Carolina Squat.
It is and it’s now illegal in Virginia
They require a tailwheel endorsement. (Aircraft)
NC GovCo passed a law (surprise, surprise, surprise (Gomer Pyle voice)) limiting the squat to something like 4″. Just another criminal justice system full employment bill.
RE: “NC GovCo passed a law (surprise, surprise, surprise (Gomer Pyle voice)) limiting the squat to something like 4″.”
Seriously?
…Like, those butt-sniffin politicians got nothing better to do in this day & age than to spend time writing up, ‘these are your overlord’s decrees of … squat’?
Da Fak?
Nothing’s really changed since the time when they all wore white wigs with curls on the ends. …People just ‘think’ they live in an enlightened time.
‘Scorpions – Crazy world (álbum completo)’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfgEr128HMA
…And, a buncha MAGA conservative types are saying, “We’re winning!”…Psft.
‘”Rims” and a “lifted” truck … have become the vehicular equivalent of barbed wire arm tattoos and Van Dyke beards.’ — eric
Lifted trucks on ‘rims’ are the automotive equivalent of foot-binding in ancient China, which left women with the aesthetically preferred small feet, but unable to walk.
No doubt the late author Paul Fussell would have included lifted Clown Trucks in his book BAD: Or, the Dumbing of America (1991) if they’d been around at the time.
‘Bad things have always been around — cheap, false, deceitful; but when, as in our deluded age of hype, these things are not just swallowed whole but are declared to be better than any other sort, then bad is raised to BAD, otherwise understood as the culture-wide manipulation of fools by knaves that makes up the reality of our everyday experience in a nation that’s insecure, subadult, and intellectually deprived.’
https://tinyurl.com/yrhezcjp
After a third of a century of headlong prole drift (another favorite Fussell term), BAD needs an update. In this post, Eric already has published the first chapter.
Now, just you wait till he starts in on EeeVees, hammer and tongs! Meanwhile, I’d be glad to contribute a chapter on the Orange Oracle of Oafishness, the mad, BAD caudillo of the bankrupt US clowngov.
The squat thing is popular with young people here. Ass end is squatted & the front end is up in the air. You’d think that would be a roll-over hazard.
Lifted trucks is nothing new. In the early 90’s I witnessed a highly jacked up truck slam on his brakes. He locked the fronts (pre-ABS) and those massive rubbers dug in the asphalt. The truck proceeded to roll over…end over end.
And the cost of doing what is shown at the top can approach six figures. A fool and his money…
Yep, lets not forget lowering your vehicle also so much so that it bottoms on speed bumps and potholes also. Funny how the stock ride height allows for the best all around use.
Betcha the owner of the truck at the top was in line at the food bank during the plaque….
The bigger the truck the smaller the weenie.
Morning, Local!
There may well be something to that. I love trucks. I own (and have owned) trucks. I have zero interest in a “lifted” truck – or even one of the stock-height monstrosities they sell now. Because I use my truck to haul stuff and it annoys me to have to use a ladder to get at what’s in the bed. And – at 6ft 3 – I am taller than most guys. A guy who is say 5 ft 10 probably can’t even see what’s in the bed without using a ladder.
Not true. That is as ridiculous as the comparisons to a guy who buys a sports car and the lip smackers declare his cock must be inverted because why would anyone want an Italian sports car.
People like what they like. For thirty years everything has been parked in my driveway from jacked up pick up trucks, super charged muscle cars, and imported speed racers. Why? Because some people love cars and testing the limits of that vehicle’s capabilities.
I anticipate poo pooing from the Left, because they don’t like anything, but I am starting to believe “live and let live” is no longer an acceptable lifestyle choice.
Certainly increasingly less so (decreasingly so?) over the course of my lifetime so far.
Does it work for you? Do you like it? OK then, party on.
I think it is okay to criticize a particular trend without trying to outlaw it. Those are two different things.
Hi swamp,
The jacked up pick up has been ongoing for 30 years. It is usually a style that caters to younger men, usually blue collar boys, who end up taking an interest in all things automotive. Very few sixty old men (or women) are going to be able to hop in and out of these vehicles so it isn’t tailored to us.
Most of the comments on this site are posted by us 40 to 80 somethings, but there are lots of young men in the background that do read them that have an interest in automobiles and libertarian view points. I just don’t want to lose these guys to video games and apathy because we are thinking like our age and are unable to be a little more broad minded.
Very few people take risks when they are constantly met with, “Why are you doing that? That’s stupid.”
Yup. I hope no one read my article as a “call” for laws or anything along those lines. Free people have the right to do dumb things, so long as they’re not hurting anyone else by doing them. But that doesn’t mean what they’re doing isn’t dumb.
Amen, RG!
I hope you don’t think I’m suggesting either dey “rims” or “lifted” trucks be banned or anything like that. I just think they’re absurd and aesthetically unappealing. Of course, I am aware some might say the same about my TA!
Exceptions of course. It just so happens that a guy everyone calls Mouse is the local monster truck club head bro. Sometimes stereotypes do fit. Old Corvette guys in Hawaii shirts sitting in fold up chairs at the cars and coffee. Subi bros vaping dank clouds. BMW drivers not using turn signals. Altima drivers having bad credit. I could keep going. Sorry about your family member’s misfortunes in life.
Do you perform a dick check on every guy that has ever owned a lifted truck? I am curious do you carry around a ruler to measure? Do the other guys go along with it when you ask them to drop their pants? I can imagine most guys weenies would stay small if they see another guy checking out their length and girth.
RG, my VW Rabbit pickup agrees with your insightful perspective. For off road I’ll stick with a dirt bike, or these days a quad.
Does this mean if I buy a Hot Wheels pickup truck I won’t need a magnifying glass and tweezers anymore?