Going back to 1929s Style Skinny tires

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They are going to work great until you bolt them onto a bloated modern car and try to take a corner over 20mph.

Every watch the pre war cars race? For starters they weigh a lot less than modern vehicles, but man do those old Bugatti's and Alfa's slide around the corners!
 
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Originally Posted By: mechtech2
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/03/25/tall-and-skinny-tires-next-big-thing/

There ARE advantages, for sure. Good bite in snow, less rolling resistance , Better in water, etc..

And let's face it... for our daily drivers, we should bias our tires for the 98% of our driving.


Classic Beetles and other VWs use very skinny tires on 15" rims and I think they look great.

My 1 ton van has a new set of LT225/75R16 tires which are fairly narrow for such a big tire, but that's the equivalent replacement size for the old 16.5" wheels/tires it was sold with. They look nice in my opinion.

They are NOT light tires, however. Combine it with the 16" steel wheel and you have to be careful not to strain yourself picking one up.
 
Originally Posted By: Cubey

My 1 ton van has a new set of LT225/75R16 tires which are fairly narrow for such a big tire, but that's the equivalent replacement size for the old 16.5" wheels/tires it was sold with. They look nice in my opinion.

They are NOT light tires, however. Combine it with the 16" steel wheel and you have to be careful not to strain yourself picking one up.


well i imagine... probably load range e
 
Load range E is what I have on my Suburban. Very stout tire spec, much hardier than the original 245/75-16 in the wear and durability department..and gets better fuel economy too. All I had to do was get the OEM spec for the same vehicle but only the 3/4 ton version and ended up with the 235/85-16 I have had on for 5 years. Funny thing is it cost me less to have more of a tire. I would never have a truck that I used as a truck with anything less than load range E.
 
I'd be all for the move to skinnier tires ... I think someone else posted on this a few months ago.

There are definitely some advantages to skinny tire:
-Better traction in snow and wet
-Less Rolling Resistance
-Less weight, easier acelleration, slightly less fuel used getting going
-They look pretty darned awesome
laugh.gif
(Well ... that's an opinion)

I run 215 85R16 on my Cherokee - EXCELLENT in the mud and light snow. Horrible in the ice (not due to skinny, due to no siping).

@Sequoiasoon, I though I'd have problem with sand, but one of the off road trips I recently went on, I had no problem climbing a lose sand hill.

@Cubey , the steel wheels on my Cherokee with load range E truck tires are some of the heaviest tires I've ever lifted.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88

@Sequoiasoon, I though I'd have problem with sand, but one of the off road trips I recently went on, I had no problem climbing a lose sand hill.


Did you air down for the off roading or the hill? The beaches by me all have air compressors at the entrances (during "the season"). The sand is real soft and if you don't air down to stay on top you are going down and winching with help.
 
Fuel effeciency and better ride are the reasons I went back to a 205/65/15 from 225/60/15 on my bmw. Not to mention that the larger size tire is not made by Michelin any lontger.
 
The current trend is not pointing to skinny tires.
Vehicles are getting bigger/heavier and tires are getting lower profiled and wider. Modern half ton's average a 10K lb tow and the tow wars are insane with 3/4 and 1 tons. No way they're going to skinny tires.

I just picked up TWO brand new mounted 185/75r14 tires for my kid's '94 Ciera for $50 mounted and balanced. The guy said no one called except me. Wagon wheel days are behind us.
 
The best compromise size for cars, not trucks, seems to be around a 65 profile. Lower than than is often for looks, rather than overall performance in ordinary passenger service. There is only so much one can obtain in ride comfort with an inch worth of sidewall.
 
Originally Posted By: Zaedock
The current trend is not pointing to skinny tires.
Vehicles are getting bigger/heavier and tires are getting lower profiled and wider. Modern half ton's average a 10K lb tow and the tow wars are insane with 3/4 and 1 tons. No way they're going to skinny tires.

I just picked up TWO brand new mounted 185/75r14 tires for my kid's '94 Ciera for $50 mounted and balanced. The guy said no one called except me. Wagon wheel days are behind us.



Yep, GM is going wider on all tire and wheel combo's for the upcoming 2014 Silverado and GMC half tons.

High HP performance cars are going to AWD because RWD even with 305 or wider tires on the back is really limited to around 600hp.
 
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Originally Posted By: Zaedock
The current trend is not pointing to skinny tires.
Vehicles are getting bigger/heavier and tires are getting lower profiled and wider. Modern half ton's average a 10K lb tow and the tow wars are insane with 3/4 and 1 tons. No way they're going to skinny tires.

I just picked up TWO brand new mounted 185/75r14 tires for my kid's '94 Ciera for $50 mounted and balanced. The guy said no one called except me. Wagon wheel days are behind us.



Aircraft, heavy equipment, trucks, etc., are obviously not involved.
 
Originally Posted By: Zaedock
The current trend is not pointing to skinny tires.
Vehicles are getting bigger/heavier and tires are getting lower profiled and wider. Modern half ton's average a 10K lb tow and the tow wars are insane with 3/4 and 1 tons. No way they're going to skinny tires.

I just picked up TWO brand new mounted 185/75r14 tires for my kid's '94 Ciera for $50 mounted and balanced. The guy said no one called except me. Wagon wheel days are behind us.



Im not sure that heavy trucks would agree. On a normalized weight basis (tire width to pounds carried), heavy truck tires look like bike tires!
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I'm not sure that heavy trucks would agree. On a normalized weight basis (tire width to pounds carried), heavy truck tires look like bike tires!


When we start talking about truck tires - and here we're talking about the 18 wheeler variety - we need to understand that this evolves very slowly - unlike cars which change from year to year.

Truck fleets have tons of money invested in wheels and a system of retreading that can't quickly change. You just don't have that problem with cars. So you have to take a longer view of things - and tires have been gradually going down in aspect ratio, just like cars have been.

It's just that trucking fleets do not care one iota about how it looks. If it doesn't reduce cast, they aren't interested. Things move very slowly because each change has to be tested out.

Truck tires have significantly lower aspect ratios than in the 1970's - but no where near where passenger car tires are.
 
Yeah but is the contact patch any wider than when there were dual really narrow tires?
 
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
They are going to work great until you bolt them onto a bloated modern car and try to take a corner over 20mph.

Every watch the pre war cars race? For starters they weigh a lot less than modern vehicles, but man do those old Bugatti's and Alfa's slide around the corners!


I still like skinny tires for fun driving, its all about playing with the limits even if they are artificaily low. One of my favorite Neon drives was with 155/80R13 snow tires on a wet sandy highway in the winter winding up and down the hills. Averaging 55mph was a bit of a challenge and the tires at 35psi didn't fold over, but allow some slip angle without a sudden drop off in grip. For autocross with the clock running, then wide and sticky is the way to go of course. But for daily driving all seasons a bit on the narrow side are fine for me with less noise, rolling resistance, aqua planing and cost.
 
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