I bought a 2011 sport with the 16" steel wheels. I know many people update their tire and wheel package which leaves a ton of factory 17" and 18" wheels on craigslist. Some of these deals are hard to pass up.

I am curious, is there any advantage to the 17s or 18s over the stock steel 16s beside how it looks?

My Jeep is a 3rd car which gets used for hunting and going to the beach, so is it worth upgrading?

 

16's cheaper prices, bigger variety, more rubber.

17's Decent prices, good variety, decent amount of rubber.

18's expensive prices, fair variety, fair amount of rubber.

It really comes down to personal pref. Most guys are running 15-17" rims for offroading.. There are quite a few who run 18's as well. I'm running 17's and like it but will drop down to 15-16 in the future because my wallet won't be as light....

 

One disadvantage of 17 & 18s is that tires are more expensive. I, personally, wouldn't buy a set of rims bigger than a 16. The larger rims are suppose to offer more stability but I'll let someone more informed than me explain it. I just can't see enough difference to justify the difference in tire costs.

 

IV got 18" rims on mine and wish they were 17" after replacing one tire that suffered trail flex damage.
Replacement ran 200+ just for one.

 

Thanks for the info. My concern was the tire price. I have two other cars with OEM 19" wheels and just had to replace a set. I thought I needed a loan to pay for it......

 

I changed out my stock 17"rubi wheels for 16"pro-comp rock crawlers,more sidewall action for off-road,also feels better on pavement(bumps,expansion joints etc,feel much smoother with more tire,less wheel,also tires were cheaper.
My 2 cents is there is no advantage to 17,18 or 19 on a jeep other than being trendy and looking "cool"+ maybe slight increase in fuel milage

,save the 20" wheels for bling bling hummers that "mall crawl"and never go off road
if you want to run big wheels with road sport tires trade your jeep in on a vette or a tuner car

 

I use to race sports cars. We used low profile tires since the sidewall was stronger. That is counter intuitive to the Jeep's purpose. Since I am new to this world, I wanted to get an idea of what you guys thought.

 

17 inch appears minimum diameter to fit beefier Tie Rods, brakes, etc to fit; if you go that route in future.