Widest road legal tyre?

Wheels, Suspension, Brakes & Tyres questions and answers

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Hjt
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Widest road legal tyre?

Postby Hjt » Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:57 am

Hey all,

I'm after a set of the widest road legal tyre, currently the best I can come up with in my budget is the Hankook RS3 in the 225/45/15

My wheels are 15 x 8.5 +3 offset, i'm looking to run little to no camber and have the wheels professionally hidden by guard work so i'm not worried about clearance issues further.

Any knowledge of a +225 tyre available for a 15 inch rim?

Otherwise I need to put a 225 on and wait until the demand grows :(

- Hayden

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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby GP » Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:10 am

:?
I'm after a set of the widest road legal tyre. My wheels are 15 x 8.5 +3 offset

Pretty sure you can only go 1" wider than standard track. Yours seems to be about 3" wider. That will be hard to hide
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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby Hjt » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:01 pm

Car is a 2002 NB standard width was 7" I'm 1.5 wider. I have the wheels mounted currently, but I would rather lift the car more, run less camber etc.

Seems I can only find a 205 Kumho or a 225 hankook :(

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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby sailaholic » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:32 pm

No your 3 inch wider depending on offset. Track is measured from the centre of left wheel to centre of the right wheel.

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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby bensale » Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:49 pm

And 2002 NB8B is actually 6.5''
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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby Charlie Brown » Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:10 pm

Hjt wrote:Hey all,
I'm after a set of the widest road legal tyre, currently the best I can come up with in my budget is the Hankook RS3 in the 225/45/15


I’m not sure why you are looking for a legal tyre?
Your wheels are 15” x 8.5” and a +5 offset, (OEM NB8B rim is 16" x 6.5” and +40 offset)
so you have increased the track by 70mm, 45mm more than legal and the rim width by 50mm which is 25mm more than legal.

Hjt wrote:Any knowledge of a +225 tyre available for a 15 inch rim?

Otherwise I need to put a 225 on and wait until the demand grows :(


The reason you can’t get more tyres in your desired size is because it’s not economical to produce one. I ‘m sure there wouldn’t be many rims of that size around, so demand won't come.
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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby Hjt » Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:52 pm

Thanks Ben and Phil for the clarification. I'm not looking to get into a discussion about how illegal my rims are etc. ( I run a 10mm spacer ).

I'm aware of the illegal width, due to offsets etc. I'm just trying to source the widest 15inch tyre that isn't a slick.

Seems I have the 225 at best.

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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby bensale » Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:20 pm

I think Yokohama make semi slicks in 225 such as the A048... Thought I'd just import some RS-3s as they seem to be the best compromise tyre in the size.

If you're looking at running no camber though I think you're going to chew the outside shoulder these tyres up really quickly as they're designed to work on cars running a bit of negative camber.
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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby sailaholic » Wed Jan 11, 2012 3:24 pm

Hjt wrote:. I'm just trying to source the widest 15inch tyre that isn't a slick.


When you asked about widest legal I (like most others I would guess) assumed you ment legal width not legal tread type.

Yup 225 is as good as your going to get.

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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby Hjt » Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:02 pm

Sorry I should have explained better to begin with, thanks for all the useful info. Basically I'm -3 deg of camber atm and I'm looking to be between 0.5 and 1.5.

225 it is, :)


Thanks heaps fellas

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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby mrpham » Wed Jan 11, 2012 5:19 pm

I'm running some Hankook RS-3 in 225/45 with a 15x8 +25mm wheel. Offset is -2.5 at the front and -1.5 at the rear. Very happy with them, but need to but from TireRack.com because no one has them in Australia.
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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby bensale » Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:46 pm

I think you'll have tyre life issues at -0.5... Especially as a lot of these type of tyres run different compounds across the tread with the outside shoulder typically softer necessitating negative camber if you don't want them to wear that part out quickly. I've spent a bit of time looking at how alignment affects the tyres temperature profile and from what I see on my car I think you will get away with -1.5, especially if you don't drive too hard.
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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby Tony » Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:02 pm

I also use the 225 R-S3 Hankooks and have posted a review after 12 months of motorsport here (scroll down to my last post):

http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=42910&start=30

I hope it may be of some help.
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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby project.r.racing » Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:09 pm

Dunno how most have answered the question. Not once that the question of what state th OP live in come up. Different states allow different widths.

NSW, no maximum tyre width rule, but has maximum width from widest wheel available depends on weight of vehicle.
QLD, no maximum wheel width rule, but tyres must not exceed 33% bigger than widest available.

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Re: Widest road legal tyre?

Postby Jeo » Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:56 pm

Hjt wrote:I'm aware of the illegal width, due to offsets etc. I'm just trying to source the widest 15inch tyre that isn't a slick.


Also, his profile plainly says Warrawee.


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