Another tire question

Topic: Another tire question (Read 746 times) previous topic - next topic

Another tire question

November 08, 2008, 02:39:53 PM

I did a search to see what the widest tires were that you can run on 87-88 Birds without clearance issues. None of the threads I turned up seemed to address 16" rims. Only 17" and 15" rims were talked about. I don't want to run 17" rims, because of the harsher ride they give.

Having said all that, can anyone tell me what the widest tire is that I can run on the back of my 88 TC? How about the front? What rim width would you recommend using? I know that handling will be adversely affected if you don't run the same size tire on all 4 corners of your car, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

From reading through tire-related threads in this forum, I'm getting the impression that TC's with their 8.8" rears will accommodate wider tires than 7.5" rears on sports. Is there any truth to this, or is the width the same between the two differential housings (7.5" & 8.8")? I'm also hoping someone would be kind enough to educate me on how much wider of a tire I could run on my car if I got rid of the quad-shocks.

Another tire question

Reply #1 – November 08, 2008, 03:12:07 PM

Well, I'm running 245's in front and 275's in back on 17 x 9 rims. In a 15" tire, I also run a 275 width tire in the back and it fits about the same. Since the sidewall bulge on smaller diameter rims is more, it's usually better to use the rule of thumb that says as the wheel diameter gets bigger, so does the rim and section width. 225/60/15 on 7", 235/55/16 (or 245/50/16) on 8", 245/45/17 on 9" in general terms to keep about the same size as stock. In front you really can't fit much more than stock sizes from what I've seen (my tire is 1/4" from the strut tube).

To really understand the details, read this page carefully http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html . Note the offset and tire size comparison tools on page 2!! It's very useful IMO.

Another tire question

Reply #2 – November 14, 2008, 09:47:01 AM

Hey, thanks for breaking it down like that for me. That's good info. :D