[hat_man]

I have been reading here about the difference in lightweight wheels and heavier wheels and wanted to ask if my thinking was at least "in the ballpark". I know there has been much discussion and debate with this issue, and I'm not trying to open up another can or worms. I just wanted to see if I have the general idea.

Lighter wheels can be good for FE because of the static (?) weight savings and the rotational weight savings. Lighter tires also for the same reasons and maybe even a bit more savings as the lighter weight (over stock tires) is farther from the rotational center. This would be good in city/stop and go type driving as it would be easier on the engine to "get moving". At highway speeds it may not matter as much.

Heavier wheels may help when coasting (EOC/or MT in neutral) as they work as a "flywheel" but would be worse for FE in city driving as it would take more energy to "get moving". At highway speeds (consistant speeds) they may not make a difference.

Combining heavier tires and wheels may be over kill and not help in any type of driving.

The reason I ask is I was wondering if the combination of good LRR tires on factory "steelies" would be good. The advantage of LRR tires over regular ones would give an FE bump, but would it be offset by the heavier wheels?

For me, my typical drive is 20% city and 80% 2-lane asphalt backroads with numerous opportunities to coast 1/2 to 3/4 mile to stop signs. There are even two places that I can coast 1 mile.

Would the "steelies" only hurt a little as they would weight less than the tires, making the combination a "dual mass flywheel" of sorts. If the combination (steelies/LRR) weighed in at somthing similar to what you have right now, could it be a "best of both worlds" situation? Better FE from the tire design and better FE from the stored energy of the steelies?

I'm not a really smart guy, I am just wondering what the opinion of the ecomodders here is.