Don't Buy Wheels And Tires BEFORE Watching This

There was a time that I knew absolutely nothing about aftermarket wheels, other than the fact that I knew I wanted 17s for my Mitsubishi Eclipse. And that maybe if I went with like a 17 by seven, that the wheels would stick out a little more and stuff like that. Or the time after buying those said wheels off of someone from Craigslist, and then I wanted to get more of a sporty tire and didn't like the big balloon tires that came with these $250 wheels, that I decided to go with a 185 35 that would look good on a car that's only on lowering springs, and that still had wheels that were sunken more than the Titanic. And if I could go back and just slap myself upside the head, I absolutely would. But that's not something that is possible right now. So the next best thing would be to take this opportunity to go over some things that you should know before picking up your first set of aftermarket wheels and tires. I'm Gels from Fitment Industries, and before we go ahead and get into it, don't forget to subscribe. And after you watch this and know all the do's and don'ts about picking out aftermarket wheels and tires, don't forget to hit up fitmentindustries.com, where we have wheels, tires, suspensions, whole lot of other good stuff for you to check out. Anyway, one of the first things you should know going into looking at a new set of wheels and tires for your car is that there are a few types of wheels out there. And it's good to know that so you aren't surprised when you're browsing around for wheels and you see some wheels that are like $800 for a set of four, and then you go to the next page and there's wheels that are like $800 per wheel. Today there are about three or four, I guess, main categories that you can classify wheels depending on the process of manufacturing that they go through. Typically cast wheels are going to be the most common that you will find as the cost of manufacturing them is significantly less than the other manufacturing processes used to make wheels. These wheels are made by pouring molten aluminum into a mold and depending on the wheel brand, they are either gravity cast or low pressure casted. For years, cast wheels have practically owned the aftermarket world of car wheels. However, in the last three or four years, rotary forged wheels or flow formed wheels or flow forged or whatever term that each company has branded itself as has really started to take over. Flow formed or rotary forged wheels still use a similar casting process. However, unlike regular cast wheels, the entire wheel isn't formed by just the one pour alone. After the cast is complete, it is then taken to a big steel mandrel where rollers apply a ton of pressure and heat is applied throughout to then draw out and form the barrel of the wheel, which in a sense, forges the rest of the wheel. So this offers these wheels a better strength to weight ratio than the other traditional cast wheels and now that manufacturing facilities are able to offer this process more, more wheel companies have began to offer designs that are made with this technology, which is why we've started to see them pop up more and more. And then the third type, which is typically the most expensive out of the options would be forged wheels. And the reason why I said there are about three or four different types is because these types of wheels can be broken down even more into another category, which would be multi-piece wheels. But forged wheels can be available in either monoblock or multi-piece option and typically start with a piece of aluminum that is then stamped, I guess you could say, into its shape with a lot of heat, a lot of pressure gets formed into its shape. Or it starts off as a forged blank and then as a CNC machine into the design of the face of the wheel. Now, each of these types of wheels have their own pros and cons, ranging from weight to price to availability. Typically someone's first set of wheels are going to be either a cast or rotary forged wheel as they are the most affordable options. With forged wheels or multi-piece wheels usually coming in later down the road for most enthusiasts. The next and probably biggest thing to keep in mind is that you're going to need to understand what width and offset is and how it's going to affect how the wheels fit on your car. Like I mentioned earlier, I thought it was going to be as simple as just going up in width a little bit, make the wheels a little bit wider, get a little bit more of a flush fitment. Didn't even know what offset was at the time, never even heard of it. So if you're wondering what in the hell I'm talking about right now, you are definitely going to want to pay attention. Width is the easy one, right? As you can imagine, it is how wide the wheel is. And that is measured from the inside of where the tire bead sits on both sides of the wheel. And while yes, going with a wider wheel will help with getting a tighter fitment and it's typically what we see people do, it's not really the deciding factor here as offset is going to play the big role in how your wheels are going to fit. Offset is a general term for the offset distance from the center line of the wheel where the mounting surface sits. So with a zero offset being right on that center line of the wheel. Positive offset means that the mounting service moves towards the outside of the car or the curb side, as some would call it, meaning that the overall position of the wheel will move inwards to the car. So this means having a higher offset, such as like a plus 40 or a plus 50, as most stock wheels tend to come, have a flatter face design because the face is pushed out a little bit and it usually sits inside the fenders, depending on the width of the wheel and the vehicle, of course. As you go lower in offset and even getting into the negative offsets and mounting surface is going to move inward, in turn pushing the wheel out towards the side of the car, giving it a more aggressive fitment. At the same time, width is still playing a factor here as an 18 by nine plus 22 is not going to fit the same as an 18 by nine and a half plus 22. So how am I going to know what size I need, you might ask? Well, if you haven't checked out the gallery over at fitmentindustries.com yet, I would highly recommend it. There are, as of right now, over 25,000 different cars in there with all the wheel specs, all the tire specs listed. You can see firsthand what certain sizes and setups look like on your exact car. So it's an extremely useful tool that I would recommend checking out because the last thing that you want to have happen is to order a new set of wheels and tires, be really excited for them, they show up and they don't fit. Along the same lines is that keeping the tire size in mind is also very important, especially if you're buying wheels and tires at the same time, which we offer by the way, you know, free mounting, free balancing, free shipping. Anyway, the tire width and aspect ratio are also something that confuse a lot of first time buyers of aftermarket wheels and tires. A lot of people tend to think that the aspect ratio is the measurement of the height of the tires sidewall and it will stay the same across different tire widths. However, that's not the case. As the name tells you, it's a ratio, aspect ratio. It's a percentage of the tire width, meaning that a 215 45 tire would have a sidewall that is 45% the height of the width of a 215 millimeters. Meaning that a 215 45 will have a different overall height than a 255 45. The type of fitment that you're planning on running will also determine which size you're going to want to go with with your new setup. Can you run a more aggressive tire with what you wanna do? Or do you have to run a little bit of a stretch? Again, this is all something that you can check out in the gallery and see pictures of right now to know what you're going to need if a certain setup you have in mind is going to work for you or not. Picking out your first set of wheels and tires can be a little bit intimidating at first. It's a lot of numbers, you know, it's a lot of options to go through. But when it's all said and done, and when it's done correctly, it can be one of the best things that you can do to your car. Just take the time to do some research, watch some Fitment Industries videos. You know, we got like, I think like 800 of them or something now, I don't know. But seriously, like it's a thing that we do. All right, you can find everything. We cover a whole bunch of stuff, go check it out. But most importantly, if you have questions on anything, just like anything else, please, please ask. Don't end up like me when I was 18, some bunk ass fitment because at this point, you know, we just can't allow that anymore. It's not allowed. That's gonna wrap it up for today. Feel free to drop a comment and like the video. And of course, don't forget to subscribe. And then check out fitmentindustries.com where we have just about every wheel, tire, or suspension option imaginable. We'll see you later.