XC90 2019 R Design Pro R22 wheels dilemma

[Mattfefc]

Love my Volvo but is becoming silly with the country roads. Had it three years now gone through 4 to 5 tyres not through wear and an alloy. Just had a service needs another 4. Driving with my awful roads is not enjoyable anymore awaiting the next puncture that now I’m thinking of getting rid. Volvo suggested finding someone to potentially swap cars with or changing the size of the wheels to smaller size. Has anyone gone to smaller wheel and tyres I also have the air suspension. Either that or I sell and buy a normal R design with smaller tyres but feels like hassle

[sandys]

I'm running 22s and for the most part it's fine but certainly the local potted roads around here are ridiculous and reckon I might shift to more tyre before too long as the pot holes are as deep as my tyre profile.

A different brand of tyres might also be another thing to think about, I had 4 various splits and blow outs on my Abarth after switching to Pilot Sport 4, never had any issues on continental, Goodyear, Pirelli or Pilot Sport SS, something about the construction of PS4 just didn't work for the roads/pressures and profile on my car (used to do club motorsport with it, solos etc, so tyres saw extremes) so won't buy PS4s for anything sporty

[Ian0803]

Mine is a 2022 XC90 running on 20 inch rims with std suspension. For sure I try to avoid pot holes where possible and reduce speed if necessary, but so far, the 20 inch rims with Pilot Sport 4 SUV tyres have held up perfectly.

22 inch rims look great, but 20 inch are a good compromise between looks, comfort and with the taller tyre sidewalls, have a much better survivability with potholes.

[sandys]

Originally Posted by Mattfefc

Had it three years now gone through 4 to 5 tyres not through wear and an alloy. Just had a service needs another 4.

What are the failures to the tyres BTW, you are suggesting you've damaged perhaps 8 or 9 tyres in 3 years, so interested to know how they have failed when it is not wear related, also what brand, the Pirelli? and what pressure do you run?

I was pretty sure on my other cars PS4 it was because the sidewalls were too soft (a general issue with Michelin IMO for what I was using them for) for the small sidewall and pressure allowing too much give.

I had to get home on this one Sunday Won the class but expensive day.

[Quaffwine]

I have some very smart 19inch diamond cuts that you can have! Look much better on an xc90.

I swapped down to 18inch. Made a good difference for comfort.

[Mattfefc]

Would 19inch fix the Air suspension model, presume with a thicker tyre would be ok.

[sandys]

Originally Posted by Mattfefc

Would 19inch fix the Air suspension model, presume with a thicker tyre would be ok.

There's nothing broken to fix and is something specific to your use case, I'd imagine tyre pressures probably too low for the off roading you need to do on UKs low quality unmaintained roads.

Changing wheel/tyre or car won't necessarily fix anything if you don't understand the problem. A chunkier profile from smaller wheels with allow slightly better impact absorption due to greater tyre deformation.

19inch would be fine provided there is sufficient brake clearance, as yours is only an R design its brakes should be the stock size so you should have no issue on that score.

There would typically be quite a reduction in width at 19inch which would lead to cheaper tyres, personally I would maintain the 9" wheel width/offset as 22s certainly on xc60 come with extended arches, I'd assume the same for xc90 so I'd go with 20 or 21 so it sits right but first research tyres options.

quick look on Autotrader momentum vs r design arches, does look extended like xc60 so you'd likely need a spacer for 19s to sit right on a sportier model.



approved sizes for xc90 Approved wheel tyre

[Discoman]

Best option is to buy a set of new/second hand 19" wheels and tyres. Cheaper in the long run. You can put the 22" ones on at resale and sell the 19" wheels/tyres later.

I bought a Momentum to get 19" wheels and it rides brilliantly even on the dynamic air suspension setting that I run it on normally.

[Philip Fisher]

With 19 inch wheels I have done 150,000 miles in 7 years and have literally never had any tyre damage (touch wood).

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Mattfefc

Love my Volvo but is becoming silly with the country roads. Had it three years now gone through 4 to 5 tyres not through wear and an alloy. Just had a service needs another 4. Driving with my awful roads is not enjoyable anymore awaiting the next puncture that now I’m thinking of getting rid. Volvo suggested finding someone to potentially swap cars with or changing the size of the wheels to smaller size. Has anyone gone to smaller wheel and tyres I also have the air suspension. Either that or I sell and buy a normal R design with smaller tyres but feels like hassle

Are you inflating the tyres to the higher of the advised pressures? Low tyre pressures are the biggest cause of this pot hole damage on ultra low profile tyres, I would use 40 psi...