17.5 tires on a stepdeck

[Chamberpains]

To give you 1 advantage to the lower tires. The cut off for legal posted stepdeck loads is 10'. Thats a 42" deck height. Most steps are 40" giving you 10'2" or 122" load height. If you drop to 17.5 you can then play on some posted load boards Double Drop loads.

Buuuut, the downside is everything Hammerhead posted pluuuus,

Your ICC bumper will be lower and you'll more than likely tear it off a few times backing over curbs @ truckstops and job site obstacles.

With the smaller side wall you will be fighting with no less than 3 tire mounting bars to peel that sidewall off and on the rim.

Plus your frame will be that much closer to the ground. You will have to watch turning over hills , R\R crossing and speed bumps\curbs. There will absolutely be slanted docks at steel and aluminum mills that you won't be able to back down because your frame will drag. My trailer frame sits 14" off the ground with 155\22.5 tires and I've only hung it up twice on the road and once pulling out of a steep ramped building after loading. But I have a raisable suspension and was able to get up high enough to back off the hang up.

And then there is the fact when a load is posted to be a certain dimension, it rarely is measured correctly so you may chase that better $$ DD load only to go properly measure it and report that its over height and can't go on your deck without permits to the broker. In turn they will thank you for the updated correct measurements and reward you with nothing and no pay for you running out and doing that for them.

All that for roughly 2-3" extra height. Not worth any of it in my book. Just stick with 22.5 rims. They are much more common and easier to find replacements for. You'll more than likely be pulling mostly standard flatbed freight on your trailer with the occasional high load. Maybe 2-4 times a month. Those extra inches aren't worth all the down sides. Unless you have something dedicated and will pay for the very common problems mentioned.

The same applies to carrying ramps. They are very slow Return on Investment and added weight and more stuff to have fall off and be in the way. Unless again you work a lot of construction sites where you will be ground loading\unloading. But generally you won't get ramp loads but once every couple months or so. I carry them but rarely use them. They're one of those things that are great when needed but just there the majority of the time.