Best golf cart wheels: 10, 12 and 14 inch sets that fit without a lift

Buy 12 inch aluminum wheels with 215/40-12 street tires. For most owners of a stock-height Club Car, EZGO or Yamaha that is the answer: it fits without a lift, it costs about $550 to $850 for the mounted set, and it changes the look of the cart more than anything else at that price. The rest of this page is for the other cases: a tighter budget, a lifted cart, a cart that stays on grass, or wheels bought separately from tires.

This page is part of the wheels and tires section. The hub explains how to read a tire size if you have not done it before; the lift kit guide is where to go if you want anything taller than 20 inches.

What matters when you choose golf cart wheels

Three things, in order: the tire height the wheel will carry, the lug nuts, and the offset. The wheel diameter itself, which is what everyone talks about, matters least, because every common cart hub takes any 4x4 golf cart wheel.

Tire height is the whole fitment question. Stock is an 18 inch tire. A 10 inch wheel with a 205/50-10 is 18.1 inches; a 12 with a 215/40-12 is 18.8; a 14 with a 215/35-14 is 19.9. All three fit a non-lifted Club Car Precedent or Yamaha Drive. The EZGO TXT body is tighter at the front and most TXT owners stop at 12 inch wheels without a lift. Over 20 inches, every cart needs a lift.

Lug nuts are the thing that goes wrong on delivery day. Club Car and EZGO hubs take a 1/2-20 nut; Yamaha hubs take a metric 12mm x 1.25. Most combos include one or the other, and plenty of Yamaha owners have opened a box of 1/2-20 nuts that will not thread on. Order the Yamaha set if that is your cart.

Steel or aluminum

Stock wheels are 8 inch steel. Steel is cheap (about $40 to $70 a wheel in 8 and 10 inch), heavy and it rusts at the beach, but it shrugs off curbs and nobody steals it. Keep steel on a fleet cart, a utility cart or anything that lives outside near salt water and gets hosed off.

Aluminum is what the 10, 12 and 14 inch upgrade wheels are made of. About $80 to $150 a wheel, lighter, no rust, and available in machined, painted, black and two-tone finishes. The lighter wheel is not a performance gain you will feel on a cart; the look is the point, and it is a fair one.

Which size: 10, 12 or 14 inch

Ten inch is the budget upgrade. It looks noticeably better than 8 inch steel, the 205/50-10 tire keeps a little sidewall for rough roads, and the set is about $150 cheaper than 12 inch. It is also the right size if the cart might be lifted later with a 3 inch spindle lift, because 22x11-10 tires go on the same wheel.

Twelve inch is the standard. Best selection of wheel styles, the 215/40-12 tire is the most common street tire made, and the combo clears every stock cart.

Fourteen inch is the lifted-cart size, and a stock-height size only with a 215/35-14 tire. On a lifted cart the 14 inch wheel carries a 23x10-14, which is the tire that gives the stance people lift for. On a stock cart it fills the arch completely and some owners find the ride harsh on the short sidewall.

Offset and clearance

A cart wheel is 7 inches wide and the offset says where the hub face sits in that width. A 3:4 offset puts 3 inches inboard and 4 outboard, pushing the tire out about half an inch compared to a centered wheel. That is the standard for nearly everything sold, because the extra half inch clears the leaf spring on a DS or TXT and widens the stance. A 2:5 offset pushes out another inch and is sold for lifted carts that want width; it also puts more load on the wheel bearings and sticks the tire out past the body on a stock cart.

If a combo is described as fitting a non-lifted cart, trust that only for the offset and tire listed. Change either and you are back to measuring.

Which one for your cart

Cart	No lift	3 in spindle lift	4 to 6 in A-arm lift
Club Car Precedent, Onward, Tempo	10, 12 or 14 in street; 20x10-10 all-terrain	22x11-10 on 10 in, 22x10-12 on 12 in	23x10-14 on 14 in
Club Car DS	10 or 12 in street	22x11-10 on 10 in	23x10.5-12 or 23x10-14
EZGO TXT	10 or 12 in street; 14 in may rub	20x10-10 on 10 in, 22 in is tight	23x10-14 on 14 in
EZGO RXV	10 or 12 in street	RXV spindle lifts are rare; go A-arm	23x10-14 on 14 in
Yamaha Drive, Drive2	10, 12 or 14 in street; 20x10-10	22x11-10 on 10 in	23x10-14 on 14 in
Yamaha G14 to G22	10 or 12 in street	22x11-10 on 10 in	23 in with a G-series kit

Yamaha rows all take 12mm x 1.25 lug nuts. The fitment pages for Club Car, EZGO and Yamaha have the serial-plate details if you are not sure which model year you have, and the fitment finder narrows it from there.

Street legal and DOT tires

If the cart is being registered or driven on public roads, the tires on it should carry a DOT marking on the sidewall. Street tires from Kenda, Arisun, GTW and the other common brands do; turf tires generally do not. The combos on this page are all DOT street or all-terrain tires except the Kenda Hole-N-1, which is a course tire. The street legal guide has the rest of the equipment list.

Install: an hour with a torque wrench

Combos arrive mounted and balanced. Jack one corner at a time, pull the four lug nuts, swap the wheel, snug the nuts in a cross pattern and torque to about 60 to 70 foot-pounds (1/2-20) or the figure in your Yamaha manual for the metric nuts. Do not use an impact gun on aluminum wheels; it is how the mounting face gets gouged and the nut gets stripped.

Check the pressure before the first drive. Street tires on a cart run about 20 to 25 psi, lower than the number molded on the sidewall, and a turf tire about 18 to 22. Then recheck the lug nuts after the first 50 miles. New wheels seat and loosen a quarter turn; that is normal, not a defect.

If you bought wheels only, a tire shop will mount and balance cart tires for about $15 to $25 a wheel. Ask them to balance, since an unbalanced 23 inch tire shakes the whole cart at 18 mph.