My neighbor has a '72 Super with 165/15/86t's (Pep Boys)on all four wheels. He wants a wider look, but is not even sure they're 5.5 rims. Will 205//65/15s work alright on the rears, and 195/65/15s on the fronts? STOCK WHEELS. The car is a stock Super, with lowering springs on the front alone, to solve that "Super star-gaze" these cars have. THANKS!! snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net
205: NO!!!!!! It's even illegal in many places. Not to mention stupid, and dangerous. And the tire won't work anywhere near as intended on such a narrow rim.
The max you can go with 5.5 rims is 195. I'd recommend 185 all around. Or 6" rims.
Jan
....................I just checked the tire manufacturers' minimum rim width recommendation for their tires in the 205/65-15 size at tirerack.com. I found eight companies that say that 5.5" wide rims are OK. There was one other company (Dunlop) that specified 6" without any deviaton larger or smaller. All of the others specify 5.5 to 7.5 for that size tire. I have
205/65's mounted on 5.5" rims on the back end of my bug and they look and drive great (I flog them pretty hard because I'm a maniac). Along with 185/65's on the same 5.5" rims on the front, it's a sweet set-up for high speed cornering & braking.
Hmm.. perhaps my memory is failing, maybe it was 4.5 that wasn't legal... thank you for correcting, Tim.
Jan
..............I won't mention this to Kidd, but there's something else that starts failing right after the memory lapses.
Yanno, I'm pretty sure we're safe there. He had a shotty memory 4 years ago and it didn't seem to have any horrible side effects. Course he was a young man then... still in his 20's. He's old now so who knows what I'm facing!!
J/k dear. I have faith in you!
Kidd Andersson
"A hundred days to make me older since the last time that I saw your pretty face. A thousand lies to make me colder and I don't think I could look at this the same, but all the miles that seperate disappear now when I remember your face."
Thanks, Jan, for the quick answer. This is why I hold RAMVA in such high regard. :+)
I have a '73 Super and posted a similar question some time ago. It was a really long thread, so based on the aswer I decided to go 195/60R15 on the back and 185/55R15 on the front. I also have 5.5" rims. They handle great. Try them.
Karls "Axle nuts are fun" Peña
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