[victorzhu]

Hi, I am interested to buy the Palisade, but I want a car with comfort ride. Any idea if the 18 inch will offer better ride quality than the 20 inch?
I test drive one with 20 inch wheel, there are some rough road near the dealership, I felt the ride was quite bumpy. Dealer does not have a lower trim with 18 inch available for test drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[Gene]

While 18's will give you a softer riding because of the larger side walls.
They will also decrease the over all handling and control in turns.
There are much better 20 inch tires than what the palisade comes with

 

[LagoonSEL]

I specifically bought the SEL, because I no longer enjoy the ride of larger wheels and feel 18 inch is the sweet spot for performance and comfort. I am a very critical of vehicle handling and feel my Palisade with the 18 inch wheels handles very well, far better than I would expect for this type of vehicle.

20 inch wheels in my opinion is a matter of aesthetics more than it is performance, but yes, reducing the side wall will always mitigate some flex of the tire. At some point there there can also be diminishing returns.

The Palisade does not have the extreme power or handling dynamics to push the vehicle to limits that you would benefit noticeably enough from the 20 inch wheels. However, I feel you would notice a comfort difference between the 18 and 20 inch wheels is more prominent than any performance attributes.

It was only a decade or so ago when many sports cars... Corvette, Camaro, Firebird, all often had 17-18 inch wheels, some 19 inch and very limited 20 inch, and they all handled far better than anything in this discussion.

 

[Safeplayer22]

Man. Hate to bring an old topic back but this is my complain. Now I'm not sure if it's the tires that are giving me what I would considered a rough ride. When I go over rough roads, and I'm not even saying very rough, I would feel it on the gas pedal and the brake pedal. My 2013 rav4, dont have this problem.

I have the SEL with AWD and 20" tires. Wondering if that is the cause of the rough ride? Is anyone else feeling the road when driving? I mean it's not very bad but I can definitely feel it (slow or fast speed)

 

[saxman242]

Now I'm not sure if it's the tires that are giving me what I would considered a rough ride.

Have you checked your tire pressure? Not uncommon for the pressure to be set too high causing rough rides.

 

[Safeplayer22]

When I drive, I can see the trie pressure at 37 psi

 

[anthpalisade]

Pressure is good thing to check. 35 is the stock cold pressure recommended. If your using the built in monitor you have to drive at least a "few feet" for the gauges to give the information. Naturally as you drive pressure rise by as much about 2-3 PSI. I do not suspect you would notice much if you were keeping them 1-2 PSI higher then recommended.

I would if you concerned have your dealer check that all is in order when your in next.

To second what some have said yes some people like "look of larger" wheels and this is why in most cars as you go up in Trim levels they put larger wheels in the case of the Palisade they put 20s versus 18s.

But its not a "free" lunch. The car is actually designed nominally around (245/60) 18 inch wheels versus the (245/50) 20 inch wheels. Its not just the 60 versus 50 but ratio of Tire height to the size of the wheel. The 18s have around 1/3 more Rubber and presumably air volume between you and Road. You can actually see it of your had a dealer with virtually any SUV with the two trim levels differing size tires

In fact Consumer Report and some others feel that cars where they test both they find the handling and ride quality preferable with larger aspect ratio/smaller wheels. They dinged the Palisade for that and standard safety features (SE). The tires, because they felt there were not enough trim levels with 18s.

That is the SE/SEL (no options had 18s). The Telluride LX 18s, EX 18s (basically like a Palisade SEL with Premium and Drivers) has 18s too. While the Mid trim S and SX have 20s. Kind of silly because both cars come with both sizes and different trim/options levels. But I get their point they think bulk of buyers people will want an SEL with options or an EX.

** Any way assuming there nothing wrong with your Palisade and its worth it to you can swap your wheels for 18s. If I were to do that I would use the 20 rims for snows if your in that kind of climate so they do not go to waste. Naturally you could visit any dealer and test drive an SE or SEL without options to see if you like it better for free. I personally did try both and noticed a difference, everyone is different.

 

[Kris]

Man. Hate to bring an old topic back but this is my complain. Now I'm not sure if it's the tires that are giving me what I would considered a rough ride. When I go over rough roads, and I'm not even saying very rough, I would feel it on the gas pedal and the brake pedal. My 2013 rav4, dont have this problem.

I have the SEL with AWD and 20" tires. Wondering if that is the cause of the rough ride? Is anyone else feeling the road when driving? I mean it's not very bad but I can definitely feel it (slow or fast speed)

Hi, did you figure out the rough ride issue? I just bought the Limited a week ago and noticed the same thing. Unfortunately, I couldn't test drive it that long due to dealer limitation and didn't notice it during the test drive. Seems rougher than my 10 year old truck... But all reviews said it was a very smooth ride.

 

[saxman242]

Hi, did you figure out the rough ride issue? I just bought the Limited a week ago and noticed the same thing. Unfortunately, I couldn't test drive it that long due to dealer limitation and didn't notice it during the test drive. Seems rougher than my 10 year old truck... But all reviews said it was a very smooth ride.

Have you checked your tire pressure?

 

[CVP33]

I saw some reviews that described the ride as firm. I didn’t feel the Palisade was overly firm. Our X7 is really cushy in comfort mode. When we use the X7’s sport mode it feels about like the Palisade only handles better. There are different tires for AWD versus FWD. Our Palisade was FWD.

Are people that are complaining about the ride in AWD vehicles?

 

[Kris]

Have you checked your tire pressure?

They were all at 37 instead of 35, so I lowered then back down. It actually did help. (Still feel more bumps at slow speeds than I thought I would based on all the reviews. My 2010 Honda Ridgeline actually feels smoother to me on Michelin Defenders)...Thanks for the help!

 

[anthpalisade]

The other variables are which brand / model and tire size a car comes with. Regardless the larger profile 18 inch 60 series are going to be a smoother and some would say better handling then 20 inch 50 series more rubber and air between the car and road on the 18s. Many people like the look of Bigger tires so higher end trims come on 20s. It is not strictly the size of course the car is designed around 18s in the case and so to get same ride height they had to use lower profile 50 series in the 20 inchers. This is true in any car that comes with multiple tire sizes

 

[anthpalisade]

Ask them LOL. Wheels and Tires both.