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Car Tire Sizes
Richy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, here's the situation. I have a car, with all-season and winter tires. I plan to move for one year and then go back to where I am. So for just one year, I'd like to carry only necessities to keep the move easy. One of the "extras" I'm struggling with are the winter tires for my car. As you all well know, they would take a hell of a lot of space to move, so if I could avoid moving them I would. However, to the place I'm moving to, winter tires are required by law in winter (and not driving for five months is not an option).
Friends in the area I'm moving to have some old (but good quality) winter tires from a car they no longer have. So I'm wondering if I can just use these for one winter?
Their tires are:
P225/60R16 97S
My car tires are:
P225/50R17 93V
Anyone know enough about cars and tires to advise me?
Thanks!
Friends in the area I'm moving to have some old (but good quality) winter tires from a car they no longer have. So I'm wondering if I can just use these for one winter?
Their tires are:
P225/60R16 97S
My car tires are:
P225/50R17 93V
Anyone know enough about cars and tires to advise me?
Thanks!
0
Posts
If the tyres are on wheels already, and the wheels will fit your car (correct p.c.d., correct center hole diameter, correct dish and offset to clear your hub, suspension and brake discs), then they will work. There will be a slight difference in overall diameter, their tyres will be 1 inch in diameter larger overall. This will affect the rolling circumference, which will slightly raise the gearing of your car and make your speedo read slow by a few miles/hour. Probably 5-10 mp/h at freeway speeds. So, when the speedo says 60 mp/h, you'd actually be going around 65 to 70.
If you're aware of that and drive accordingly, there shouldn't be a problem. The load rating of their tyres is slightly higher than your tyres, so there's no worry about overloading them and suffering a blowout. The speed rating is a couple of classes lower, but it's still an 'S' rating, so as long as you don't go over 110 mp/h, you can drive worry free.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php?tires=225-60r16-225-50r17
I think the underlying question you're asking is not "can i use them" but "will they fuck up my car." They shouldn't fuck up your car.
Important thing to note is that your speedometer will be wrong while on the other wheels/tires -- if your speedometer reads 100 kph then you'll actually be going ~103kph assuming your current tires are the size specified by the factory.
twitch.tv/tehsloth
The aspect ratio is a percentage of the tread width. 225/60 would mean that the sidewall of the tyre is 135 mm tall. 225/50 means a 112.5 mm tall sidewall. So over the diameter of the whole wheel (accounting for the sidewall on the top and bottom of the wheel), there is a 45 mm difference in sidewall height. You have to take into account the rim diameter too, though. The lower profile tyres are mounted on a 1 inch (25.4mm) larger diameter rim. Which meant that the overall diameter of the assembled wheel-tyre combination only varies by 19.6 mm, or about 3/4 of an inch, not 10 centimetres or 4 inches like you claim. This still results in enough variance in the rolling circumference that the vehicles speedometer will be reading low by exactly 1.8 mp/h at 60 mp/h (I overestimated in my original post).
That is nowhere near enough difference to cause brake failure in any way at all. It wouldn't even cause a measurable difference in braking performance under controlled testing conditions. The higher load rating on the donor tyres is irrelevant as it's higher than his current tyres. The only real problem here is that the 16 inch rim of the donor tyres may not fit over the OPs vehicles hub/suspension/brake caliper, assuming it is the right fitment to bolt up to the hub face at all.
A tyre designed for a 16" diameter rim will just not fit on a 17" diameter rim. It's not physically possible. Attempting to do so will destroy the tyre, and likely result in damage to the tyre fitting machine.
To answer: my tires are mounted on wheels, theirs are not. So I'd need to buy wheels, and make sure they fit on my car... are those easy to find? Can I get them from any hardware store with a car section or do I need a dealership store? What price range are we talking about?
Wheels are more expensive than tires by a long shot. If you're trying to save money, there is no reason you wouldn't just buy new tires at that point.
Unless you get something super-cheap, yeah. The cheapest wheels I can find run in the $60-70 range per wheel, so minimum $250+ to get all 4.
Personally, that's a lot of hassle and still somewhat expensive. You'll likely need to find the new wheels, dispose of old tires, have your friend's tires mounted / balanced, etc.
I'd just recommend going and having a set of winter tires put on your current wheels. In the Spring sell them off on Craigslist. The cheapest set of snow tires that will fit your current wheels are like $280 on Tirerack, and you can probably recoup at least $50 / each for them in the spring if they aren't too worn.
Tire Rack is a great site for searching for the right wheels & tires for your particular car and performance needs. I've been happy with purchases from there, too (they can ship to a local garage for the actual installation) but even if you just play around with the search feature it might help you get a better understanding of what you're looking for and what your options are.