tire safety question

hytorksc

Registered User
can i have 255 50-16's installed on the stock 16x7 rims all the way round? is there a safety issue in terms of handling?

thanks-
 
Tire Rack BAD.....Discount Tire GOOD

The "all mighty Tire Rack Book" (reportedly written by the hand of god himself!!!!!!!!!!!!) says that the largest tire that will fit on an SC, is a 245/50/16. That is a load of CRAP, because many of us, including me, have 255/50/16's all around our cars. I believe that even though Tire Rack is in the business of selling tires, they are actually afraid of selling the customer what they want, because somebody might sue them cuz got what they wanted. They probably have some corporate lawyer dictating what's in "the book". I won't buy tires from Tire Rack any more. Discount Tire doesn't give me any schitt, they just sell me what I ask for.

68COUGAR
 
thanks again for the advice. i was actually looking at the tire rack website, and deciding whether or not to order from them. i'm on a budget so my choices were narrowed down to dunlop and sumitomo. i had sumitomo's before- good grip, but not much lateral support. the steering response was spongy. but these tires are in my price range at $91. looking at dunlops... i had these before also and by far was a much better tire. love the responsiveness and quietness. lateral support was great. but the tire is not all that attractive looking. i have BFG KDM's on my sc right now and those have phenomenal dry pavement handling, but they are the most noisy tire i ever had. they also scallop very easily- a terrible ride. don't last long either- only got 8000 miles or so on them and they are close to being fully worn out.

installed new tie rod ends and adjusted to compensate (about 2 turns each side) to correct the toe out condition which showed on the front tires (inner tread severely worn). it also needs upper control arms with new ball joints, which probably created the condition in the first place (held off on this due to money). amazingly, the car now has sharper steering (holds very straight) and awesome cornering/handling in my opinion (not jumpy and darting anymore), and hopefully that corrected some of the irregular tire wear. hopefully the next set will last longer, will probably not get a full life out of them though- the adjustments are probably leaning more towards negative camber i know. still need new tires though. if i took this to a tire shop for alignment, this would not even be on their radar- they would just tell me what i already know and try to scare me into spending the money to have a bunch of front end work done. yeah, i know it still needs to be done, but what i did will (hopefully) hold off for a while. ahh, the strategies we use to save money.
 
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Putting a wider tire on the stock rims is going to exagerate your worn front end parts. Expect even less mileage from the wider tire. Have fun though.
 
less than 8k miles? if i rotate them more frequently maybe i can get a few thousand more. i'm expecting to change tires twice a year anyways. problem is that i drive this car to work everyday and put about 40k miles per year on this car.
 
Depending on the tire brand and model, 7" is usually the minimum rim width listed for a 255-50-16 tire. Obviously, minimum is not ideal, but it will work. That size of tire goes much better on 8 or 8.5" wheels. Check the tire manufacturer's specs for the actual tire you are going with.


cheers,
Ed Nicholson
SCCoO
 
Obviously treadwear varies based on tire construction and tread compounds, but apples to apples, the wider tire will wear faster and get loud quicker than a stock sized tire. A 10" wide tire on a 7" rim doesn't wear well, you just can't defy the physics involved. The carcas is going to be bowed in at the edges resulting in center wear, and if you are already wearing out the inside edge of the tire due to added camber stress, the wider tire is going to have even more stress on that inside edge. That does not take into account that a bowed tire carcas will cause the vehicle to wander around and follow every rut in the road.

The best handling tire you can put on the stock rims will be a 225/55/16 with a an agressive tread compound (120-180) and a z,w,or y speed rating (not all season rated). However, most people just can't get past the "wider is better" idea so each to their own.
 
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