After running stock 20″ Sport wheels with 25mm spacers for a few years, I decided to step up my weight reduction game while also putting some new shoes on the rig.
It looked good, but I felt I could improve on performance. Trying to maintain the outside diameter of the wheel was important for me so that minimal changes, if any, would be needed in the tune for speedometer correction.
I also wanted to increase width of the wheel for traction as well as add some “stance” to her. I spent a lot of time on this Wheel-Size Calculator comparing various wheel and tire combinations along with various offsets to try and maximize what I can fit within the confines of the wheel well.
I was focused on the lightest wheels out there and currently those are, generally, the Volk Racing or Advan Racing wheels, so that is where I put my focus.
OEM Ford Explorer Sport wheel and tire specifications:
- Wheel size: 20″ x 9″ with 44mm offset (with 25mm spacer – effective offset of 19mm)
- Color: Contrast cut black with silver
- Centerbore size: 63.4mm
- Tire size: Hankook Optimo H426 255/50-R20
- Wheel and tire combination weight: ~72lbs
I ended up picking some Volk Racing TE-37 Ultra wheels as they are some of the lightest 20″ wheels on the market. And instead of using spacers, I decided to put some additional offset to make up for the wider stance I was looking for.
Volk Racing TE-37 Ultra wheel and tire specifications:
- Wheel size: 20″ x 10″ with 30mm offset (with 6mm spacer – effective offset of 24mm)
- Color: Dark bronze
- Hub bore size: 73mm
- Tire size: Hankook Ventus ST RH06 275/45-R20
- Wheel and tire combination weight: ~58lbs
I picked everything up from Vivid Racing. It would take a few weeks to get as the wheels had to come directly from Japan. I also ordered some TPMS sensors from them so that I could mount the new stuff and be rolling, and leave the OEM wheels as is, in case I wanted to throw them on for something.
It’s very important when getting aftermarket wheels that you don’t forget the hub centering. In this case, Vivid provided the centering rings free of charge. But if you need to get yourself some, they aren’t usually very expensive. You just need to find out your OEM centerbore and aftermarket hub sizes.
Lot’s of OEM information is here: Wheel-Size. Just do a search on your make and model and it will show lots of information for the OEM wheels that came with your vehicle.
When I finally got the wheels mounted, in all honesty, I was still a bit dissatisfied with the offset. Loved the wheels, just didn’t get the “stance” I was after. So I ended up having some 6mm spacers custom made by Motorsport Tech. I had them have those spacers include the hub centering ring machined as part of the body of the spacer. That made the installation of the hub centering rings unnecessary. I took them to a local anodizer and they hard-anodized them black so that they wouldn’t be easily seen.
A few months later, I ended up putting some Tire Stickers on as I was liking how they looked on other cars. I was apprehensive at first, but it ended up growing on me.
Weight Reduction Running Tally: ~104.0 lbs