Finding weight of stock wheel
- Thread starter LDB
- Start date
How accurate? I'm guessing 25 pounds +or- 5 pounds. You have a bathroom scale?
weigh it, then look up the weight of the tire you have installed on tirerack
The purpose of getting down to the ounce accuracy?
Best for what? Saving 10 pounds on a 3500 pound vehicle won't improve any performance attributes noticeably. And those narrow 17" wheels don't weigh all that much to begin with. Can't imagine aftermarket wheels will weigh any less unless you find some exotic $5000 carbon fiber examples.
The key isn't saving 10 pounds from 3500. It's saving 10 pounds out of 80-90 pounds of unsprung weight. Makes it much easier to get things rotating and moving which means making it use much less initial fuel. Also helps ride, handling, braking. And the difference in weight of wheels can be surprising. On a prior vehicle it was 8.5 pounds per corner.
But if you don't know then you don't know. It's 10 pounds. Well is it really 10 pounds or is it 10 pounds 7 ounces or is it 9 pounds 9 ounces all of which are "10 pounds" if you only consider pounds. And every ounce has to be multiplied by 4 to get the overall number.
Usually on a forum for a vehicle, someone has weighed the stockers. On my Focus the stock ones are 15lbs, so not any cheap aftermarket ones will be lighter. Yours might be quite light already? Rims off a 5 bolt Focus might be pretty light too?
In an ideal world when it's time to replace my tires I could go from stock 225/65-17 to a lighter wheel and tire 225/70-16 and get better ride with deeper sidewall plus less unsprung weight but I'm told 16's won't clear the brakes on mine. I'll get it checked and verified when the time comes though.
Possibly true, possibly not. I believe a 14 ounce difference in unsprung weight is a statistically measurable difference. And again, times 4 corners is 56 ounces total, not insignificant when talking less than 100 pounds.
I would put them in the ballpark of 26-28 pounds. I agree to worry about pounds not ounces because at some point of saving weight, the economics of trying to save an ounce far surpasses the money saved.
It's widely accepted that 1 pound saved at each corner of just unsprung mass equates to 4-5 pounds of sprung weight. I'm not sure what it would 'generally' be equated to for rotational mass, but I would imagine it would feel even greater. If the stock 17" escape wheels were ~26 pounds/corner and you found some 20Lbs/corner wheels at a modest price (very realistic that you can), that's 6 x 4 = 24Lbs x 4 = 96Lbs saved. That's almost like throwing your significant other out the car!
Going back and forth between the stock wheels and aftermarket heavier and lighter wheels on the focus and evo were pretty noticeable in every performance aspect. Was it worth the big cost upfront? I'd say no, especially for a street car but to each their own.
It's widely accepted that 1 pound saved at each corner of just unsprung mass equates to 4-5 pounds of sprung weight. I'm not sure what it would 'generally' be equated to for rotational mass, but I would imagine it would feel even greater. If the stock 17" escape wheels were ~26 pounds/corner and you found some 20Lbs/corner wheels at a modest price (very realistic that you can), that's 6 x 4 = 24Lbs x 4 = 96Lbs saved. That's almost like throwing your significant other out the car!
Going back and forth between the stock wheels and aftermarket heavier and lighter wheels on the focus and evo were pretty noticeable in every performance aspect. Was it worth the big cost upfront? I'd say no, especially for a street car but to each their own.
According to the website https://www.wheel-size.com/size/ford/escape/2022/#trim-15-ecoboost-usdm-181 it is 7Jx17 ET50 and I believe they are aluminum as they aren't ugly.
I guesstimated 80-90 but it could be some more. Still even if it's say 120 a drop of 6 pounds or more per corner is significant. I didn't get them as I sold the car but my prior car I had a set of wheels/tires selected that cut 8.x pounds per corner.
