Tire Tread Widths

[M Hankel]

I had an opportunity to try out my friends wheel/tire combo on the Tahoe a couple weeks ago. He has some 22" Silverado SS replicas w the same size tires as mine except his tires are Cooper Zeon XST, Mine are Toyo ST-II. After I got his set installed I imediately noticed rubbing everywhere, turning, angled approaches etc. At first I thought maybe the offset on his wheels were different. After we swapped mine back on I took some quick measurements and the Cooper's were a full inch wider contact patch. That is a huge difference IMO. Anyway, just wanted to share that not all tires are created equally. I will admit that i do like the looks of the Cooper's much better. They have a more blocky style sidewall which I prefer.

Can't remember the width off the top of my head but it would be cool to collect some data on different contact patches for the popular tire brands and sizes. I'll grab the contact patch measurements again tomorrow for the Toyos.

Mike

 

[OR VietVet]

Is the two sets of wheels the same offset? You never did say. Also, where the tire mounts to the wheel, is the gap the same across/width the same from bead to bead?

 

[01ssreda4]

Was tire size the same between the two manufacturers?

 

[M Hankel]

I did not verify the offset by measuring, but they are very close to being the same +/- 5mm.

Both tires are 305/40/22.

Mike

 

[01ssreda4]

Top are MT ET Street radial, bottom are Nitto 555R radial. Both 275/40/17, so yeah it happens...

 

[YukonXL04]

That's freaking crazy! Wow!

 

[M Hankel]

Nitto DR's have always been small compared to other brands of the same size. My old 315/35/17's I ran 12 years ago looked like a 275. But those are drag radails, not what I'd consider a normal street tire. Other than those, I've never come across such a significant size difference in a street tire.

Since this is a section with lowered vehicles it would be great to start a data base of info for different brands, sizes vs actual measurements. These differences would help explain why some trucks have rubbing/clearence issues etc.

 

[01ssreda4]

Well I can say my 305/40/22s do rub the inner fender liners in the rear when one side goes under too much compression. The fronts have never rubbed to my knowledge.