Truck Wheel Size

I agree the 17" would be better off-road . The 20" should build up less heat in the sidewalls at interstate highway speed.

17 inch tires and rims generally have the lowest load rating. Go with an 18 if you are concerned about airing down while still having a safe load rating.

More tire choices with 18 inch wheels

You will have more tire size and load range choices with 17" including AS/AT and MT type tires. The wifes 2016 1500 chevy with 17" wheels has any size and tread type available.
I see 1/2 ton owners with the 20" options can't find a good LT replacement other than a high price LT E.

Now if you have a 3/4 or one ton truck the 17" tire sizes don't have the capacity for a 7000 lb rear axle unlike 18" and 20" tire sizes.
There are more 18" tire sizes/load ranges than 20" tires.

Check out 17"/18"/20" tire prices on tirerack.com

20 inch replacements are much more expensive if you can find what you want in the first place. I don't know if there are more 17 or 18 tire types but there are plenty of 18 inch tires by lots of manufacturers and you get better load ratings. I don't even recall if 17 was an option with a HD truck. With a pickup it's a different story.

well, my truck came with 20". Upside is the shorter stiffer sidewall seems to give better stability than the 16's on my older truck. Downside it number of available tires. not much to choose from. And NO true winter studdless snowflake LRE tires available. To do that I had to go down to 17" on another set of wheels.

Upside of 17 or 18 is more tire choices.

Price wise, 17 or 20's of similar tires seems to be pretty close. but the price RANGE of tires in the 17 and 18 has lots more low end tires.

for my 3/4 ton 17, 18, 20 are all factory option tire sizes with very close to the same load rating and same overall diameter. aspect ratio just changes with tire size.

if you are talking 250/2500/350/3500 SRW then 17" are not good, as they all have low weight ratings now. 20" are still very expensive. So 18" are the best.

20 inch wheels are for show. They are stupid for trucks that really do any real work.

Flashman wrote:
20 inch wheels are for show. They are stupid for trucks that really do any real work.

Agree - my 2012 Silverado was factory built with 20" tires and although they do IMO improve the look of the truck I'd be far better off with 17" or 18" for towing as the engine would rev just a bit quicker and therefore a bit closer to it's optimum torque range.



At highway speeds I tow in 5th but even the slightest upgrade and/or headwind will cause the truck to downshift to 4th but if I were running 17" tires the truck would be less likely to downshift under these conditions. If the truck was equipped with a 3.73 axle ratio instead of the 3.42 it does have then the 20s would be less of an issue but as it is they're a poor match for towing with a 3.42 axle ratio.

I wonder if 20's are used on some trucks to provide brake clearance..?
That's the reason they went to 17's back in the day.