[Brandon Clement]

Hi all, just purchased a 2019 Ascent after my 2016 Crosstrek finally bit the dust at 152k miles.

I do a lot of dirt, gravel and mud road driving and the KO2 tire is by far the best tire I've ever run. Has anyone found a way to run KO2's yet? I've read a lot about the 17" wheels not having space to fit the caliper and some load rating questions.

I had the 2" Anderson lift, 15" method wheels and KO2 tires on the crosstrek but by the time I hit 120k virtually every component of my suspension was gone. Not sure if it was from the lift and tires or driving through oceans, rivers, lakes, up ATV paths to top of mountains, driving 16 miles down railroad tracks, jumping it off a bridge, driving over downed pine trees, taking long road trips during blizzards, many trips through baseball size hail or driving around in the eye of Hurricane Harvey and Irma but would like to make it at least to 125k miles before the entire suspension is gone this time. :tango_face_wink:

 

[FourMoBro]

245/65R17 on Liquid Metal Shadow rims or 255/55R18 with the LP Aventure lift.

 

[Brandon Clement]

245/65R17 on Liquid Metal Shadow rims or 255/55R18 with the LP Aventure lift.

Thank you!!

 

[Brandon Clement]

I have the 20" wheels. So looks like I have to buy new wheels either way. I'm assuming the 18" wheel and tires with the LP Lift (on order) will have lesser impact with the speedo and the safety features. Is this correct?

If I go with 18" wheels then I can pretty much go any direction I want and I'm not limited to just liquid metal shadow rims like if I went with the 17's?

I'm eyeing these wheels with the 255/55R18 KO2's.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Rhino-Warlord-5x114-3-Gunmetal/dp/B01FYMDJFQ

Before I order, any reason this wouldn't work? Sorry for all the questions and thank you all so much. Trying to get this thing outfitted and turned around as quickly as possible since it's basically my office.

 

[adx]

Keep in mind that ascent is a pretty heavy vehicle. Double check the wheels weight rating before you buy anything.

 

[FourMoBro]

I have the 20" wheels. So looks like I have to buy new wheels either way. I'm assuming the 18" wheel and tires with the LP Lift (on order) will have lesser impact with the speedo and the safety features. Is this correct?

If I go with 18" wheels then I can pretty much go any direction I want and I'm not limited to just liquid metal shadow rims like if I went with the 17's?

I'm eyeing these wheels with the 255/55R18 KO2's.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Rhino-Warlord-5x114-3-Gunmetal/dp/B01FYMDJFQ

Before I order, any reason this wouldn't work? Sorry for all the questions and thank you all so much. Trying to get this thing outfitted and turned around as quickly as possible since it's basically my office.

I liked the look of the warlord wheels when i looked at them in the past. The problem that turned me off to them is their weight. Discount Tire had the rims listed at 40lbs a piece. Your amazon links show a weight of 19lbs. Given that their load rating is 2700lbs and they are not flow-formed, I tend to believe they are closer to that 40lb weight. Most 18" rims with an acceptable load rating come in around 25lbs.

 

[Soca]

Had photoshop open so I was curious how they'd look with a quick and dirty photoshop job

Wheels and tires pulled from 18'' warlords picture from a jeep so probably 33s or 35'' sidewall. I tried stretching the wheel a bit using the 20'' wheel as a template for scale.

Should look pretty mean with a lift

ps. If anyone else wants to roughly see what their wheels look like on the ascent just start a thread and include the URL of an Ascent and the wheels shot around the same angle. I can do a quick photoshop. Outdoor shot + outdoor shot at the same time of day is best.

 

[scooby]

Had photoshop open so I was curious how they'd look with a quick and dirty photoshop job

Wheels and tires pulled from 18'' warlords picture from a jeep so probably 33s or 35'' sidewall. I tried stretching the wheel a bit using the 20'' wheel as a template for scale.

Should look pretty mean with a lift

Ooof that looks aggressive! :devil:

 

[Brandon Clement]

Finally getting the wheels and tires put on tomorrow. LP lift is done and it made a bigger difference than I thought. Will post a pic when I get it back.

Soca, thanks so much for the photoshop job. Sorry I'm just getting back, got really busy shortly after posting this.


After the lift and tires are on it's going back into the shop to have a ton of lights installed. My Crosstrek looks great, not as sure about the Ascent.

 

[Kevin Williams]

I liked the look of the warlord wheels when i looked at them in the past. The problem that turned me off to them is their weight. Discount Tire had the rims listed at 40lbs a piece. Your amazon links show a weight of 19lbs. Given that their load rating is 2700lbs and they are not flow-formed, I tend to believe they are closer to that 40lb weight. Most 18" rims with an acceptable load rating come in around 25lbs.

I too looked at the black rhino wheels but instead bought the raceline shift wheels which were 16lbs per wheel lighter PER WHEEL but with a similar aggressive look!

 

[FourMoBro]

I too looked at the black rhino wheels but instead bought the raceline shift wheels which were 16lbs per wheel lighter PER WHEEL but with a similar aggressive look!

I went with FastWheels Switch....
https://www.ascentforums.com/forum/...spension/5101-new-18-wheels-test-fitting.html

 

[Brandon Clement]

I think I could have fit more tire.

 

[FourMoBro]

I think I could have fit more tire.

One of the 265 widths (265-60?) but can be made to fit after some trimming according to LP.

 

[Trey T]

I think I could have fit more tire.

Can you do some in-depth review of the tire/wheel combo? I would like to confirm if a 31" can fit (rubbing during steering) w/ a particular off-set (even if they poke out a bit).

 

[Subiesailor]

Any odd vibration at speed with the lift? Guessing over 2in lift? Was it just a block lift added to the struts or did you find taller springs and struts?

 

[Brandon Clement]

So far so good. It's the 2" LP lift. Everything runs smooth, no vibrations. Suspension is a bit soft and it feels somewhat top heavy but they put factory spec psi in the tires and it should be in the 55-65 psi range and will likely solve that. Will handle that in a few minutes. Here are some more pics. Also of the vent visors, I know a lot were asking about them too.

Let me get the tire pressure right and give it a hard drive then I'll go more in depth with a review.

As far as testing other tires, I had to order these so I can't really do any testing.

 

[WebSnyper]

So far so good. It's the 2" LP lift. Everything runs smooth, no vibrations. Suspension is a bit soft and it feels somewhat top heavy but they put factory spec psi in the tires and it should be in the 55-65 psi range and will likely solve that. Will handle that in a few minutes. Here are some more pics. Also of the vent visors, I know a lot were asking about them too.

Let me get the tire pressure right and give it a hard drive then I'll go more in depth with a review.

As far as testing other tires, I had to order these so I can't really do any testing.

I've got KO2's on my Toyota FJ, and mine are E rated, and I don't run anywhere near those pressures. Seems more like max pressure than standard running to me, but I didn't easily come up with a pressure rating online to link to.



Looking at this https://lpaventure.com/collections/lift-kits/products/lp-aventure-lift-kit-subaru-ascent-2019 looks like the lift is spacers and mounts then I'd assume it has raised the center of gravity a bit with no real suspension parts, but I'm far from a lift expert.



When I leveled my FJ on the front with Bilstein 5100 struts and put new shocks in the back, etc it helped with nose dive and body roll quite a bit, but looks like the LP kit doesn't do that for the Ascent.

 

[Subiesailor]

For highway stuff and loaded I ran my Landcruiser 285 KOs at about 50psi. Around town I kept them in the 45ish range. Empty no load highway 45 was fine. But too soft for highway speeds when loaded. Any thing less than 40-45 they wore on the outsides anything over 50psi they wore down the middle.

Packed weights affect the deeper side wall tires more than the 50/60 series thats for sure.

You’ll need to watch the wear pattern and see where they end up with the Ascent weights

 

[Soca]

Finally getting the wheels and tires put on tomorrow. LP lift is done and it made a bigger difference than I thought. Will post a pic when I get it back.

Soca, thanks so much for the photoshop job. Sorry I'm just getting back, got really busy shortly after posting this.


After the lift and tires are on it's going back into the shop to have a ton of lights installed. My Crosstrek looks great, not as sure about the Ascent.

No problem man, Im still waiting for my wheels but I do have my XL80s waiting to be installed! I just need to figure out to remove the bumper. Going to put 2 outserts into the steel bumper. Then it's almost 20k lumens behind the lower grill.

 

[Brandon Clement]

I'm conflicted. Either going to try and put a light bar in the front grill and the bottom grill or have a bar fabricated for the front for both lights. Then I'll have two big side light bars and one over the windshield. I need all the light I can get since I am a videographer and shoot a lot of video at night on the fly.

Here is my crosstrek. Love the way it's setup it's just too small. So basically trying to do the same thing. First pic was before I got the wheels, tires and lift.