Wheel width VS tire size

[~MRVIBE2006~]

Is there a suggested wheel width/tire width? I know that with a 7" rim you don't want to go above a 225. Can you go to a 235 on a 7" wheel? If not, what width is recommended? And with an 8" rim, whats the biggest width you can go? Just wondering

[manicdan]

225 is actually designed exactly for 7", so u can go up to 245 without a single problem, but i wouldnt recommend that on 18" rims cause the clearance is to low. but for 17 or 16" it will be just fine. just remember that you also need to decrease sidewall as you increase treadwidth so it all stays about the same, but for that small amount you can just deal with your speedometer being off by a half a percent

[manicdan]

based on price is what i would end up deciding, but the tire calculator says this about 17" rims with different sizes225/45=808 revs per mile205/50=804 (stock)235/45=796235/40=827245/40=816 -thats as far as you want to go, the tread will wrap around the sidewall alot, but it wont look horrible or anythingall of those are safe to use on 17"

[Sublimewind]

Manicdan,I must disagree on SOME points you made... You CAN go over in size on the width, BUT, once you go over the recommended width, you start to "crown" the tread or bulge the tread outward. This causes 2 side effects, 1. the tread wears more down the center as if it were to high of pressure AND with that crowning, you actually get LESS of a contact patch for the same reason as i listed above... The fact is, you will get BETTER traction with the proper sized tire.... Here is more information on tire than you could read in a week....http://www.tirerack.com/about/techcenter.jsp

[djb383]

If you go to TireRack.com, the tire manufacturers show the various rim width ranges for their various tire sizes. My C1500 Silverado has factory 15X7 aluminum wheels and 235/75/15 is the factory size tire. Whoever said you don't want to exceed 225 width on a 7" rim, doesn't know what they're talking about. I had 275/60/15s on the rear and they worked fine on 7" wide rims

[manicdan]

the correct size for the tires on tirerack are still wrong for some applications. for our car on a 16x7" rim they recommend 205/55R16 when in fact the real recommended size is 225/50R16. sub, i do understand you should be cautious going outside the recommended sizes, but i dont understand what points you feel i stated wrong? its not like i said he can use anything, i just said its ok to go around the numbers by a small amount and see almost no side effects

[djb383]

That's what some goober at tirerack (or possibly a typo) recommends for a tire size for a FWD Vibe, not what the tire manufacturer recommends as a rim width range for their specific tire size. The original post was about wheel/tire compatible widths, not diameter or circumference which is a whole different can of worms. Also, I believe the OEM aluminum 16" Vibe wheel is 16 X 6.5.

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by manicdan »the correct size for the tires on tirerack are still wrong for some applications. for our car on a 16x7" rim they recommend 205/55R16 when in fact the real recommended size is 225/50R16. sub, i do understand you should be cautious going outside the recommended sizes, but i dont understand what points you feel i stated wrong? its not like i said he can use anything, i just said its ok to go around the numbers by a small amount and see almost no side effectsI am sorry, I didn't say you were wrong, i just said i disagreed, i could easily be the one that is wrong. I am not a tire expert, but, i am an information expert "of sorts" I have spent copious amounts of time on NASIOC.com (over 7yrs)which is the center of the performance universe for import owners, reading about tires, size and reading different reviews... I used to run 225/45-16 in place of my 205/55-16 on my subaru and i always wore more down the center and since i went back to the proper size 205/55-16 the car is much happier, in terms of traction....