Do Chrome Rims Weigh Down Cars?

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I was just thinking about this. A nice-looking set of rims must be heavy. Ergo, they add weight and slow a car down.
But rims are part of the wheels, the only part of the car that should make contact with the road. Do wheels have to contend with their own weight (rims included) in addition to the car, or just all the non-wheel stuff on/in a car?
 
My thoughts on this:

If the chrome wheels add 10kg (for example), that's 10 more kg that the engine has to pull around, thus making it slower. Any added weight will make the car slower. Secondly, if the chrome wheels are larger than the wheels you're replacing, then the gearing will be made longer - slowing acceleration.

I don't actually know if chrome wheels add weight though.

Edit: Oh yeah, that was the other thing: if you want chrome wheels on your car, performance probably isn't your primary issue.

Thanks philly cheese for reminding me.
 
I'm sure they add weight. There are a lot of wheels out there designed to be light and cool the brakes and such. Chrome wheels are designed to look good, so weight probably isn't an issue, especially since chrome wheels go to a lot of rappers for their Escalades and Hummers.

They probably use a heavier metal and have more to them which would add wieght. And, as Roo said, wheels are parts that the engine has to move, so the car will be slower.
 
Well, its not just the weight, but also the fact that they usually larger in size has a negative effect on acceleration as well.

But, I don't know all the specifics...
 
Chrome is a plating - just a surface finish.

I have a set of American Racing TTIIs in 17x7, and I was surprised how slim the polished rim was and overall how light the (cast centre) alloys were.

Gernally speaking, any large rim is heavier than a smaller one. The 16" alloys on my FTO are not bad, and both ride and handling were ruined by a much heavier set of 18" rims a friend tried out.

So, like many things, it depends. If you get a set of Enkei forged rims chrome plated/sprayed, they will still be light.
 
It depends on the wheel. Good sized chrome rims look good and are light.


Donk rims, which are 22" and over, are solely for looks and thusly are just not right. They don't belong on a vehicle. They just detract from performance. I've seen cars at my high school with rims so big they lost turning radius and had more ground clearance than my truck. I'd hazard to say that with an agressive enough rubber band around them, that car would be pretty good offroad, but it probably didn't have the engine. It also had body rust on it.


If the rimz are kept within +- 2" of stock diameter, they won't affect performance adversely, and in some cases, increase it. The stock stamped steel rims for my truck, a generic 15X7 that had four tiny slits and was otherwise solid, weighed about 50 pounds. Chrome '17s for that same truck only weighed in at 25 or 30 and were advertised to be able to carry just as much as stock. Hmmm...
 
Again - It all depends...

a set of 15"s and a set of 17"s with the same weight won't have much impact on performance. The 17"s will, due to the lower, and stiffer sidewalls, improve performance, somewhat, but will also ruin th quality of your ride...
And to those who say, 17"s for the win 100% - Look at F1 cars, they use the sidewall as part of the suspension, and the same will happen with the 15"s - of course not as drastic, but I'm sure you get the point..

Now the BIG sin is - heavier wheels. Because wheels are unsprung weight, which you want to reduce as much as possible..

I believe the factor for bikes is, handling wise, losing 1kg of unsprung weight equals loosing 8kgs of sprung weight...

It's all in the balance....

--

All that aside, I doubt chroming adds so much weight you'll notice..
 
To reiterate what Flerb said, Chromed wheels will generally be bigger and heavier than their OEM counterparts. While a small increase wouldn't be too noticeable (say +1"), it still does add unsprung weight to your vehicle. And unsprung weight is your worst enemy for handling. Not only will really-oversized wheels screw up your suspension geometry, but the unsprung weight is harder on the brakes, and is more weight to accelerate.
 
Two things here:

1)Even if each wheel weighs 20 lbs. more, that's like putting a 10 year-old on the back of a horse. Sure, in theory the horse is slower, but adding 80 lbs. to 3000 doesn't exactly tip the scale to the other side. For reference, putting fuel in your car adds 150.

2)My aftermarket wheels weigh a noticeable amount less than the stock alloys (as do many others).

We don't drive F1 cars, people.
 
One thing I haven't seen mentioned here are rotating masses. If you swap your standard wheels for some bigger alloys (or chrome wheels for that matter), you...

- increase the total weight of the car (not a huge problem)
- increase unsprung masses (as said before, bad for balance and comfort)
- enlarge the diameter (which decreases acceleration)
- will most likely use wider tires (more grip, but higher rolling & wind resistance, less comfort)
- increase the rotating masses significantly (which decreases acceleration even more)

I swapped my standard 16" rims for some 8x18" alloys, which isn't really a lot actually. But you can feel the loss of acceleration capabilities, comfort and increased fuel consumption immediately. So, the weight of Chrome wheels isn't a problem, but there are others you might be interested in.

Regards
the Interceptor
 
Kylehnat
Two things here:

1)Even if each wheel weighs 20 lbs. more, that's like putting a 10 year-old on the back of a horse. Sure, in theory the horse is slower, but adding 80 lbs. to 3000 doesn't exactly tip the scale to the other side. For reference, putting fuel in your car adds 150.
Click to expand...

Sorry but that's not a good analogy at all, as Flerbizky has already clearly (and quite correctly said) any increase in weight at the wheels (be it tyre or rim) is unsprung and a lot more damageing to performance than the same increase in sprung weight.

Look at it this way, a 20lbs increase in weight on a horses back will not hamper it much (increase in sprung weight), but an a 5lb lead weight to each horse shoe (increase in unsprung weight) will have a much, much more significant effect.

A car suffers in a similar manner, increase unsprung weight and the suspension will have a harder job keeping the tyres in contact with the road (heavier loads are slower to start moving and stop moving so less able to react to the road surface), steering weight will be increased and initial turn in will suffer.

You can compare an increase in unsprung weight to the same increase in sprung weight, for the same weight, unsprung increases will be far more detrimental to the car.

Generally its also a mistake to assume that aftermarket alloys always weigh less than OEM ones (or even in some cases OEM steels). Good aftermarket ones may well weigh less, but at the cheap end of the scale (boy racer market) its not always the case.


Now in regard to the original posters question, yes, in comparison to a 'plain' version of a chromed wheel the chromed one will weight more. Will it make a noticeable difference, well that depends on the wheel you are coming from and the overall change. Keep in mind that a good chrome finish is not a 'thin' coating by any means, descent chroming is a nice thick layer (thick for a coating) and in a large wheel size will be potentially quite a bit heavier than a plain version.


Regards

Scaff
 
If you're going bigger, go lighter, too. and If you can't go lighter, go wider.

the ridiculous-looking 20+ wheels aren't just hugely heavy and garish-looking, they're also often poorly engineered. They were made by a guy with an art degree (if that) and a CAD program. Looking for DOT approval on wheels is very important. Otherwise, when you're on the side of the road with the centers cracked out of your wheels, you'll feel sorry you didnt' check before blowing $20,000 on your new 28"s.

I think that 17" or 18" is about the max for most cars. My car couldn't reasonably fit anything bigger than 15"s. your goal should be to find a wheel/tire combo that keeps the same overall diameter, reduces weight and increases strength (this means going into the Forged wheel section of the tire store, avoid the DUBs like the plauge.) and making your focus width, not overall wheel size.

Of course, make sure your wheel of choice will fit beneath the car without hampering drivability, either. You don't want those sticky new Yokohamas to rub, now, do you?
 
At the end of the day, any performance variant of a model of car will probably have the optimum wheel/tyre size combo fitted as standard. Any deviation from this will more than likely effect the car in a negative way to some extent - no matter what benefits in grip or looks they bring to it.

If you are not running a performance version of your make of car, then bigger wheels are only really going to reduce your ride quality.
 
Chrome itself doesnt weigh a car down. Its the material of the rims that makes the difference. Chrome can be placed onto alloy (alluminum) and onto steel wheels. A steel wheel of the same diameter will definetly weigh more than an aluminum wheel.

Now for the performance and handling issue. I have run 14", 15" 16", 17" and 18" wheels all on road tracks. The best results on a road course for me has been from the 18" wheels I am currently running on my car.

I recently took Brad (YSSMAN) for a ride in my 69 Camaro with 18" wheels on a road track and I am pretty sure even he can confirm how well my car did on the track. So well actually that I was able to keep up with and run faster times than brand new C6 Corvettes. 👍

The only sacrifice I made was the ride quality which is not that noticable. It wasnt enough to say the ride is uncomfortable at all. Its just not quite as comfortable as it used to be. I can still ride for more than 9 hours straight with these wheels on my car and stay comfortable.
 
Some of the information is misleading on this thread, so I'll try and hit on the more important parts for discussion.

1. Wheels, tires, (and even some lower suspension components, given the right suspension configuration) are all considered to be "Unsprung Weight". Adding "Unsprung Weight" to a car drastically effects performance, when compared to "Sprung Weight". What this term refers to, is the amount of weight that the suspension of the car is holding up. The Wheels/Tires are not being held up by the suspension at all, they're on the opposite side of the equation. Adding just a single pound of unsprung weight, will be noticed in the cars acceleration, top speed, and handling characteristics.

2. There is an equilibrium where size and unsprung weight become balanced. Depending on the size, drivetrain, and overall mass of the car you will have to judge what size and weight the wheel/tire combination will be. Personally, I've had the best luck with 16" wheels on my car. More specifically, 16x7.5" semi-solid forged aluminum wheels. No chrome on them (but that's not really the issue, as CAMAROBOY69 explained), nor anything truly flashy. The wheels weigh in at a scant 11.7 lbs before the tires are mounted. Jumping back to my daily driven wheel/tire combination, there was a very noticeable performance loss.


So, my suggestion is this: Find a wheel size that is practically wise to run on the vehicle, because larger is definitely not always better. And, if you can afford it, shoot for the lightest forged wheels you can get. Volk still makes Forged Magnesium TE37's, but they're quite expensive. They're also quite light.
 

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