Hey guys! I have been reading and a lot of people say that with 215/35/18 wheels there is a big chance of bending the rims if you hit a pothole or ruining the tire. My question is how hard do you actually have to hit a pothole for something like this to happen? I am pretty much set on the wheels and tires i wanna get but if I am going to ruin them with any pothole I hit then thats not worth it.

 

I've seen MINI's on 15" holeys bend rims. The wheel size isn't the issue, it's what the driver hits [voluntarily or not]

That said, I've driven over some pretty severe stuff with both sets of my 18's and haven't tweaked one yet. I have bent a 17" hitting a chunk of loose pavement pretending to be a snow-chunk in wintertime, lol.

Bottom line: don't hit stuff and you can run 28's!

 

why only 215/35/18's? i would have thought u could bend/ruin rims/tires hitting any decent sized pothole at any decent speed.

 

I have taken some damage with 215/45/17s. As the infrastructure in the U.S. continues to decay, the super-rice look is going to have to give way to more practical wheel-tire selections. Keep in mind that in general, your roads are going to deteriorate, not get better. Consider 16s if you're worried about potholes.

 

I had 18s for 2 years, and now have 19s (4 months). I have hit many potholes in both and almost peed myself in fright, but no damage yet. People do get a little mad though when I slow down to 10 or so coming up to a known bump in the road, but that doesnt matter to me too much. If you live around horrible roads and are worried, maybe 18s would stress you out too much though.

 

I bent two Rotas with 205/45R16's on a bad onramp... also mushroomed the passenger front strut tower, which I fixed. Anything's possible, given a bad enough jolt...

 

Here in Boston I am running 225/50/R15's because of the massive potholes and road hazards! Someday I'll upgrade to some BIG rally coilovers to deal with the rest...

18's simply aren't an option around here (I see Honda's with 3-18's and a 'donut' EVERYDAY!).

my 2 $0.02

Rm2k5

 

When I had my tires changed, the installer noticed a very slight bend in one of my S-Lites so even stockers are suceptible.

 

Our Mini has about 8000 miles on it. The stock s-lite (front right) was bent in the first 2000 miles (nothing severe, it still held air). I replaced the wheels with other 17x7 wheels and and the front right was bent in another 3000 miles. I know exactly when it bent, and it was by no means a big pothole, but the stiff suspension of the car really made it a hard hit (at 30 mph also!!).

My other car has 18x8's with 245-40's and i've hit the same potholes with no problems at all...and those wheels weighed 24 lbs each, so they aren't much heavier than the s-lites....

 

18's are the biggest rim normally able to fit a mini without rubbing or additional mods.

18's also introduce the 'smallest' profile size for the tire, meaning less tire, meaning stiffer sidewalls due to size or lack there-of, meaning less shock is absorbed by the lack of 'flex' of low profile/small sidewalled tires.

Tires should bend and flex, rims should not.

Less tire, less flex. Analogy: Jumping onto a big pillow on the floor versus a small pillow.

Bigger rims = more surface area = weaker than less surface area, generally speaking. Analogy: 10" pencil, easy to snap in half or bend. 5" pencil, a lot harder to bend or break.

These are loose analogies meant to illustrate a point... Not be taken literally.