Difference in ride after 20” wheel install

[tley]

First I have to explain a little. I had a ‘70 stolen from me two years ago. I had two sets of tires/wheels stacked in the garage that I had intended to install on it (6 lug). Fast forward to current and the stolen truck has been replaced with a ‘71. The tires on the ‘71 are terrible (would go flat within minutes). I had a hard time seeing purchasing a used tire and after mout/balance being a little shy of a new tire and if I bought new tires I’m just putting tires on ugly wheels. I hope you get my drift. That led me to wheel adapters; I know it is not the best choice but, I could use what I had on hand.

So my question. After installing the ‘09 Silverado 20” take-offs the truck seems to wander all over the road and is very slow to respond to steering input compared to when it had the 15’s. Is this normal? Does it indicate that it's time for a front end help?
Thanks for any input

[weq92f]

The wandering could be due to the adapter placing the front wheels out making the track wider without any adjustments. Maybe an alignment would help.

Could also be due to those tires. How old are they and how did you store them?

-klb

[tley]

tires were stacked, for several years, didn't think of that.

I had wondered about track width differences, it seems with the difference in wheel offset was offset by the adapter.

Would going to a bigger tire/wheel exaggerate any steering system problems?

[weq92f]

Wider definitely, not so sure about taller. Weight difference if they are heavy maybe would make a difference.

Take one of the wheels off and see if it will roll flat and straight.

-klb

[tley]

The tires are much wider. I will see how well they roll off the truck; I need to pull them off after I get a few more miles any how and check the torque on the adapters. thanks for your input

[biketopia]

More rotating weight plus the wider tire as well as the wider track width are probably exaggerating any looseness in the steering and suspension. Is your truck a power steering truck? I'd jack the front end up and check out all the suspension components, if they all check out good, or after replacing what ever you find lose, get an alignment and see how it feels.

[tley]

yes it is power steering.

[70STOVEBOLT]

Worn ball joints will cause it to wander, I would check those first.

[hewittca]

I recently switched from 15" wheels to 22" GM Transit wheels which are HEAVY and I had similar issues with my handling. I went through and corrected any issues I had with camber, caster, and toe (which were all misaligned) and also put new shocks on. Those changes helped significantly and now the truck handles just as well as it did before. My only guess to the actual change in handling between the wheels is that the heavy 22s amplified the feel of the misaligned front end and worn out shocks.