Tire benefits - 205 vs 215

[Tasty]

This thread is confusing me. A wider tire rides better and looks better than a taller tire?? 40s ride like 40s, and I too think they are a bit too short. 45 is a good trade off, but for battling the Houston roadways I think I'll stick with my stock wheels and 50s. Take a pothole at about 45 mph with some 40s and see what happens. I hated having to worry about bending rims when I had my 17s with 40s on.

Anyway, I may have to strip the rubber and sell them because they are basically brand new Yokohama Avid tires. Tons of tread left.

Comparison of stock setup vs. 205/40/17 iKON GT5 wheels.

 

[P5inder]

rollover varies with brand, sub-brand of tire within a brand, and performance type. you can't just generalize a particular size. most 215/40s are plenty stiff (especially for the street). my least responsive, weakest sidewall tire was a 205/40R17 Kumho which gave me a nice gash in my rim from a pothole. those tires felt like they would roll off of the rim in a long hard sweeper. but, in some cases, you get what you pay for.

rim protection is good.(first)

This is very true. Yet generally, the more material sticking out past the rim's edge, the more roll-over there will be.

Side wall height AND stiffness especially stiffness, as well as tire pressure and how far the tire sticks out from under the rim's edge will generally decide how much roll-over there is.

Many autox-ers use fairly high sidewalls on their racign tires yet the sidewalls are generally very, very stiff and the tires are run at a fairly high pressure, when compared to your run-of-the-mill performance tire. The construction and hgh pressures allow a higher sidewall to roll-over less than a tire witha a softer, lower sidewall.

I should've gone into this yesterday, but I didn't have much time.

Thanks for bringing it up.

BTW, my best friend uses 17X7 rims with 205/40/17 Federal UHP's and he says that when he corners it feels like he's driving on Jello...yet nothing compared to driving on his stock 15's with Dunlop 195/60/15 all seasons...