Black Pearl - New 20" Giovanna Dalar-5 Wheels
Thanks to all who've posted their rides with wheels - really a great inspiration to those of us still searching for the perfect look for their own ride.
Here is the final result for my summer crusing: 20" Giovanna Black Dalar-5 wheels.
Well after many months of trying to get the right rim and then finding out it's not available or was back ordered for several months, I found these online in Texas with a company called streetdreams.org (
20x8.5 Giovanna Dalar Matte Black 20 inch Wheels at Street Dreams).
At first they didn't have the right size bolt pattern in stock (5x120) and offered to re-drill the rims to fit my Rav requirements (5x114) at $40 each, but I didn't feel 100% comfortable with that and decided to purchase a wheel adapter, since I didn't mind if my tires would stick out an extra inch from the vehicle.
So I bought the 5x120 rims, and a wheel adapter from EZAccessories (
Wheel Adapter 5450-5475P Wheel Adapters). About 2 hours after I bought the wheel adapter, the sales rep from streetdreams called me back and was enthusiastically telling me they found the 5x114 rims on their warehouse shelf and so I readily accepted the substitute to get the exact rim for the RAV.
I called back the EZ accessory guy and told him I wanted to cancel my wheel adapter order, but he bluntly told me they'd already shipped it and the best i could do was to not accept the shipment when it came to my door and I'd have to pay a restocking fee. Well I argued briefly, not believing they'd shipped it in 2 hours, but to no avail...(and to their credit I did get the wheel adapters in about 4-5 days). I'd probably order from them again - as long as I know what I want and be confident that it will arrive fast.
I called the guy back from streetdreams and for my trouble - he threw in some black gorilla lug nuts for the rims. I also purchased the 245x45 R20 all-season Yokohoma Parada Spec-X from them. I'm not a huge fan of really low profile tires, so I went with the highest I could fit while within the same specs as the original tires that come with the limited. They had good reviews (
Yokohama Parada Spec-X Tire Reviews (33 Reviews)) and I wanted an all-season tire for the unpredictable weather we have up here in Alberta - summers can be snow or sun... Streetdreams balanced and shipped the tires/wheels together and they arrived in about 9-10 days from Texas with no problems at the border.
I picked up the tires at the FedEx warehouse and was slightly disappointed with the packaging - it was just a piece of cardboard on either side of the rims with plastic banding holding them on, and right beside my tires were some other ones that another person had purchased that were all shrink-wrapped - two tires in a bundle. A much superior packaging job - which if I had thought of it I would have requested them to really package mine as well... but this was my first time buying tires online. I looked mine over when I got home and there was 2 little dings on the rear side of one of the rims, but the fronts were mint - so very thankful they arrived in such good condition.
I installed the first tire, but ran into a problem right away. The lug nuts provided with the tires were acorn style, and the ones that come on the Rav4 are the mag lug type which has a sleeve that goes into the bolt hole for extra support. I was getting about 12 full revolutions with the original lug nut and only 7 revolutions with the acorn style. With a 1.5mm thread per revolution I was getting the bare minimum support with 7 turns that several websites said was the minimum recommended requirement. Well I don't want to drive like an old grandpa, and always worry about my wheel coming off on a corner, so I ordered some better lug nuts from SFX Performance (
http://www.sfxperformance.com/parts/GOR21133ETBC.htm)
Installation was a breeze and the wheels stick out a bit more than the stock 225/55R17 that come on the Limited - they come out to the very edge of the wheel well, which looks great for me. There is no rubbing at all - its maybe only an inch further out than the originals.
All in all - been driving on them for a couple weeks now, and I'm careful not to hit any deep potholes, but the ride is pretty good, and not that much different from the original tires. Very happy with my purchase!
... I can't wait for the snow to melt and put on my aftermarket wheels again. If you have aftermarket wheels on your 4.3 RAV4, post some pics! Here is a pic of mine last spring ... 
