new wheel and tire issue!

[av8or32]

Just got my new wheels and tires and my front tires look really odd compared to the rear. I've done the research and I decided to go with 18x8's in the back and 17x7's up front with 235 40's rear and 225 45's front......the problem is Coy's sent me 235 45's front and they have wayyyyy too much sidewall so they look goofy compared to the rears.....thoughts?

[Vegas69]

That would look horrible.

[Flash68]

no bueno. have to match the sidewall size.

[rjsjea]

Send em back

[av8or32]

so what size tires should I go with? How would a 235 40 17 and 255 35 18 look?

[Vegas69]

I should have read your post better. What you need is a taller rear tire. I like to see matching sidewalls front and back. If you went to a 235/45/18 out back that would match your sidewalls perfectly. You would have a 25.4" tire on a 17 up front and a 26.4" tire on a 18 out back. What car is this on?

[av8or32]

It's a 69 firebird......I was thinking about matching the sidewalls on the fronts to the rear......235 40 17 and 255 40 18 rear......what do you think?

[Vegas69]

That front tire is to short. Not sure what spec was on a firebird stock but on a Camaro it was around 25.5- 26" front and back. I would find a set of tires that will allow you to run 25.5-26" up front and 26-26.5 out back. That will keep your sidewalls pretty even and the 69's look better with a slightly larger tire out back to fill up the fender wells. Go to www.tirerack.com and look at the specs for different tires. You kind of screwed yourself with that skinny front wheel. I'd go with a 225/50/17 and a 245/45/18. This will keep your sidewalls even and these tires are the correct widths for your rims.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp?make=Kumho&model=Ecsta+SPT&partnum=25WR7KU31&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes&place=21

[av8or32]

I think I'll look at some 255 or 275 45 18's for the rear. Any thoughts? I want to go as wide as I can in the back.

[thedude327]

Can you post some pics of how your current setup looks? Like Vegas69 was indicating, Tire rack's website has alot of tire data to help you choose.Be aware also, that every tire size has a standard fit rim size to go with it and changing the rim width even 1/2" + or - will change the tires footprint width about 1/4".

Paul

[DriverzInc]

Wow,
If that happened to one of our customers, I would would send a call tag for the wheels, and turn around and send them the right stuff!

Since you are only running 7s front and 8s rear, I would look into the 225/50/17 for the front, and the 255/45/18 rear. This puts a 26" tall tire up front, and a 27" tall tire out back, and would give you the same amount of sidewall from front to rear. The 27" rear tire will fill up the wheel well nicely.

Curious, why did you not go with a 8 front and 9-9.5 rear wheel? We set up most of our stock track width first gens this way with a 245 wide front tire, and a 275 wide rear tire.... in this combo we run a 275/40/18 which is 26.8 tall (so you can see that 27" tall tire will work).

[chr2002ca]

Just got my new wheels and tires and my front tires look really odd compared to the rear. I've done the research and I decided to go with 18x8's in the back and 17x7's up front with 235 40's rear and 225 45's front......the problem is Coy's sent me 235 45's front and they have wayyyyy too much sidewall so they look goofy compared to the rears.....thoughts?

Hold on a second here. So, you're saying that you ordered a 225/45x17 for the front and they shipped you a 235/45x17 for the front? And then you say that these fronts look goofy with too much sidewall? Well, the shipper sent you the exact sidewall that you ordered(45). The shipper just sent you a slightly wider tire(235 instead of 225). I wouldn't think a 45 series front on a 17" rim would look 'out of wack' with an 18" rear rim running a 40 series tire. In fact, if I was going to run a 17" front and 18" rear, that's probably the exact series I would pick, or maybe a 50 series in front with a 45 series in back. I run an 18" 40 series tire in the front with a 19" 35 series in the back and most people agree that it looks good. If you run a larger diameter tired in the back, which you are, then there's definitely nothing wrong with have a slightly lower profile tire in the back. That evens out the actual overall diameter of the tires from front to back and helps to keep the back from looking 'jacked up'.

Also, a 17" front with an 18" in the back should still look pretty good if you get the tire widths right. Yes, an 18" front with a 19" back might look a little better(opinions vary), but it's more costly. An 18" front and 18" back would look good too.

If I was to question your selection, I would wonder why you chose such a narrow tire(235) for the back. If your front tire is 235 in width, then I would think the rear tire would look a little funny if it was also a 235 in width. I would go to a 265 or even a 275 in the rear if you can nail the backspacing just right. You would need a 9" to 9.5" rear width rim for that larger tire size.

Of course, feel free to browse all the cars here and check what tires and rims sizes they were using if you're wondering what other combinations look like. There are also quite a few threads on popular tire/wheel size combinations.

Good luck getting things sorted out. :thumbsup:

[skatinjay27]

^^^^^^^^^^^^the sidewall size/# is a ratio number that depends on the width of the tire ie:the 235 and 225 in this situation.
so a 45 on a 235 tire will be taller than a 45 on a 225 tire... not alot but there is a difference.

[av8or32]

Thanks everyone. I think the final solution will be 18x8's with a 235 40 18 tire up front and 18x9.5's with a 275 35 18 out back. What do ya'll think?

[TYMADI]

255 45 18 WORKS GREAT ON THE REAR AND A 225 40 18 ON FRONT . IF YOU ARE RUNNING A 17 ON THE FRONT GO WITH A 225 45 17 .:thumbsup: http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac327/TYMADI/69WITHGREYS002.jpg