tire size confusion

[DenisM]

im looking for some new tires for my 87. i cant decide between the 245/60 15 or 255/60 15. a tire guy i deal with said 245/60 is the largest you can fit on caprices up front without rubbing, but i saw on here that you can get 255's. do the 255's rub?

[Cyrix_2k]

Originally Posted by DenisM

im looking for some new tires for my 87. i cant decide between the 245/60 15 or 255/60 15. a tire guy i deal with said 245/60 is the largest you can fit on caprices up front without rubbing, but i saw on here that you can get 255's. do the 255's rub?

not on my '89

[silicon212]

Never had a rub problem running 255/60s on my Caprice, either.

['97ventureowner]

Somewhat related to your question, I was told the same thing for my 1964 BelAir. I still went ahead and put 245/60's on it without any rubbing or other problems, and this car sits lower. I had the same issue when getting new tires for my 1995 Roadmaster. I wanted to go back to the original 235/70 that were supposed to be on it, instead of the 225/75 that the previous owner put on it. I was told the same thing about the rubbing, yet again I went with my instincts and put the 235's on it with no problem. One of the garages I used to work for had a complete tire shop out back and speaking from experience, the guys were told by the boss to try and stick with what the book recommends even if there are other sizes that may fit. This is a form of "covering their asses" as we used to call it, so they wouldn't be responsible if problems occured after the customer left the shop with a different sized tire than was recommended in the book.

[Cyrix_2k]

BTW, the 255/60's are the same diameter as 205/75's so your speedometer will still read correctly

[BZR77CHEVY]

I'm running 255/60 15's on my 77 (inner fenders are the same up to 90) at all corners and never rubbed even under hard cornering and braking, loaded or unloaded, and even hitting bumps, ect. The Tech is just reading it out of a book.

[smokinhydes1]

I had a look I wanted, bought new Chevy Corvette Rallies thru a local biz, and I installed 235/60/15 on the front, 275/60/15 rear Firestone Indy 500's. This is on my 89 Brougham. No probs whatsoever. It has new gas shocks from two days ago, I don't know if that affected the clearance because of better rebound or not. But it handles great, and looks fantastic. To go with 245 on the front <given the supplier I have, I run an auto repair shop> I would have been forced to go to the Disastercrafts <Mastercraft, Bastardcraft> which just ride like Tractor tires and wear like Ice cream. I don't know how to upload a photo, but I can flip you one on regular e-mail. And hey, what are the factory wire caps in great shape with all the hardware worth?

[smokinhydes1]

I forgot to mention, the 235's up front help with the "snowplowing" effect...whereas I think <don't KNOW, but think> the 255's higher sidewall would be more susceptible to roll in corners. The balloons on the back are handled nicely by what is in effect a 4-link rear end.

[Cyrix_2k]

I never had a problem with my 255's on shocks that were shot to hell... though the car rides/handles/etc so much better with new shocks Also, if I were you, I'd get 255's up front and 275's out back. For some reason, the tires on the back of my car look smaller than the ones on the front; 275's should fix that.

[smokinhydes1]

It's weird you say that, the 235's look every bit as big as the 275's on my car, you'd have to get a tape out if there weren't numbers on the sides

[studious03]

not exactly current topic but i have a similar question how wide can i go on the back of my 92 caprice i have "skirts" on the back thats why im asking. current size is 215/70/15 all around