taguy16

I've been reading on here about folks running tires as wide as 275mm on all four corners, but I also see a lot of pictures on here of Camaros and Firebirds with massive wheels and a lot of gap between the tires and the body. I've also read the recommendation of limiting the front tire width to 255mm. How wide can you realistically go on a moderately lowered (i.e. lowered enough to get rid of most of the unsightly tire to body gap) f-body without having steering or clearance issues? For example, would 275mm wide tires of the stock diameter on a 17X9" rim work with the right offset? What would that offset need to be ideally?

Anyones experience with this would be much appreciated. Wheels and tires are expensive, so I don't want to make the mistake of buying ones that won't work on my Camaro. .

Firechicken82

I had 275/17s all around lowered and was fine.
now 275/18 f and 305/18 r and it works awesome. My car is on weight jacks but it's really low.

my 17x9s were 5.5 bc all around. The 18x9 are the same. The 18x10 rears are 6-6.25.

ShiftyCapone

iTrader: (7)

I'm running 265/35/19 up front on a 19x9 and am super low. I rub at full lock but oddly its worse when going in reverse. Going down the road its just fine. I still don't know how guys run crazy wide wheels up front.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Just to manage expectations.... Most people with wide tires have some tire rub with tight turns. It comes with the territory. The wider and taller the tire the worse this will get.

17 inch wheels are limited in width to the inboard side by the steering tie rod. 17x9 with 5.0 - 5.25 range backspacing. Any extra width will need to go to the outboard side, and 9.5 width is pretty much the maximum before poking out from the car. Sometimes you'll see wheels with 5.5 inch backspacing but spacers are used to bring the resulting backspacing into the 5.0 - 5.25 range again. The rear doesn't locate quite the same as the front and often needs a little more backspacing and this is the reason for the 5.5 inch backspacing. 275-40-17 tire is common.

18 inch wheels clear the tie rod and can extend further inboard. 10 inch width is probably the max practical on the street. Only track cars are using 10.5 inch as the steering angles become pretty limited and not real-world friendly.

Rear tires are easier to figure out because there are no steering angles to worry about. Just measure up and see what you've got. If you're scratching your head wondering how somebody got such a large tire to fit.... what they do is cut out the bump stops and smash in the inner fender, or they tubbed the fenders. Removing bump stops is a foolish thing to do.

Also, wide tires often will not "tuck" inside the fender. You'll probably need stiff springs to limit suspension travel so the tires don't hit/cut by the fender lip.

Firechicken82

My fronts just hit the wheel liner in 1 spot on full lock. As a result I don't cut the wheel all the way. A 3 point turn is a 4 point now. Other than that it works well.

formularpm

I'm running 18 x 9.5s and Sportline springs. Some very minor hammering on the rear inner fenders and everything fit fine.

I'll echo what was said above. Expect some tire rubbing at full lock on the front. Usually nothing major but don't be surprised.

And my 18s actually fit better than the 17s did. More clearance with the strut and tie rod.