P245/60R15 tires. Which would you choose?

Spring is in the air, and my new (to me) 15" X 7" Rallye wheels need some tires. I've decided to use 245/60R15 tires but haven't decided on a manufacturer. Locally, I have Belle Tire & Discount Tire where I can purchase the tires listed here.

The car is an ice cream parlor cruiser, never at the track. They will be black wall out to match the look of the front tires.

Any other options I should look at?

Of what you have listed, I've had good luck with Cooper Cobras

Cooper orMastercraft. I like the tread and letters of the BFG'S but Many have had issues with white letters discoloring.

7" rims are actually, IMO, too narrow for 245s which have a section width of 245=9.65 inch on a 70%checking rim of 6.75 inches. For the treads to run flat to the road, you will have to reduce the air pressure quite a bit because the narrow rims will tend to pull the outter edges around the corner and up off the road at a normal pressure.
245/60s really want a rim of about 85%, which is 8.25 inch , to run the treads flat to the road at about 29psi or so.
Even 235/60s which want 7.75" rims, are a stretch on 7s . I have had good success with 235/60-14s on 7.75s on the front of my 68 Barracuda at 29psi.
Working the numbers backwards, a 7 inch rim will like about 225s (which is 80%) , at ~30 psi,
Yes it is possible to install 245s on 7s , but if the tire burns the center off, what would be the point.

You'll have to be really careful trying to fit 245s on 7s on the front, they may want to rub in several places; and I'm not fond of running less than 28psi on the front. It is however, good for just cruising on.

245/60 want to be on 8” rims and on the rear IMHO

Coopers for sure. I have them on my car and really like them.

The 245/60R15 tires will be put on the 15" X 7" wheels for the rear. The fronts will not change (14" X 5 1/2" with 195/75R14 tires).

DartGTDan said:

The 245/60R15 tires will be put on the 15" X 7" wheels for the rear.

Click to expand...

well in that case I would just buy whatever is the cheapest

I wish people that put 275-60-15 tires on 15 x 7 wheels would listen to you guys , before they do such a thing , the world would be a safer place and have wider black marks.

Frank

I am unfamiliar with the Milestar Streetsteel tires, but the other 3 are good drivers with good dry weather grip. I like the Coopers a little better than the BFG’s, which are fine but the Coopers are better in the rain. Just drive sane. Like a cautious adult and you’ll be fine.

I myself would move to a 8 inch wide wheel for the 245’s.

agree 245's are too big for 7"rims . 235's on 7" rims , Mickey Thompson STreet ET

I know your car is destined to be a cruiser and all, but here's my opinion;
if you put 245/60s on 7s
your first hurdle is rubbing, and the second is tire pressures.
As to the first, and on the front;
depending on the backspacing, the tire will want to rub on something; Either on the frame in the back, or on the strutrod in the front, or the upper BJ will want to knock your wheelweights off, or if the car is lowered, they might want to rub on the fenders, especially when backing up and turning. So backspace will be very important.
A 245 is only a 245 on a 70% checking rim, which is 6.75rim; rounds to 7inches. But 245mm =9.64 section width on that rim. and the height will be about 60% of that so 5.79 inches. The tread will be about 8 inches..... On a 7" rim the outboard 1/2 inch on either side will not want to sit on the pavement at a "normal" pressure of say 32psi. In fact, it may never wear equally with the rest of the treadface no matter how much you lower the pressure, because those 1/2" per side are outboard of the wheel rim.
Ok that leads to the second hurdle; tire pressures. Say you run 24 psi to get somewhat of an even IR temperature across the face of the tread. You could get away with that on the back, but not on the front. If you try it, it will be fine in a straight line, except for the mushy steering and riverbarge handling, but in the turns, the inertia of the bodyweight will overpower the sidewalls, lift the inboard treads right off the road, and put the outboard sidewall, just 2 plies of it, onto the roadway. At 24psi, this cannot be avoided. So now, you have road hazzards to deal with. Radial tires have no ability to withstand sidewall abuse. And I'm not talking aggressive driving here, just normal everyday cornering. So 24psi is out. In fact the minimum pressure is gonna be about 28 psi. And that is gonna lift the edges.

24psi on the rear will work, I mean besides the floaty ride. But again, when cornering, the rear of the car will sideshift. This causes two things; 1) the rear will tend to oversteer, causing a bit of a surprise to the driver, and again, 2) the sidewalls are gonna want to roll under. It's not quite as pronounced in the back, on account of the rear is lighter, and has not as much inertia.
All in all, you will be rotating the tires more often, and leaving more rubber on the road than is necessary, causing you to replace your tires more often.
but hang on
there is no correlation between treadwidth and section width, nor any specification regarding treadwidth of any kind.
So just because I guessed at your 245 having a treadwith of 8 inches, does not make it so. The manufacturer is free to install any width tread on his tire that he wants to. So maybe, just maybe, you can find a 245 with a 7" tread, then yur good to go. And that is where a cheap tire is likely to to get at least part of it's cheapness. So now you have a fat section 245 balancing on a narrow 7inch tread, and maybe you can run that at 30 psi; and so everything is golden. Well except for your contact patches..... since those are now 225mm sized, you might as well just put 225s on those 7s in the first place, and run those at 30ish psi, all problems solved...... depending on your backspaces..
And that's my opinion.

The 70%checking rim for a 225 is 6.2; rounds to 6 inchs. Meaning that a 225 tire installed on a 6" rim will have a sidewall section-width of somewhere between around 225 +/- 5mm.
But that does not mean you have to or even want to, run that 225 on a 6" rim. That 6incher is already .2 less than what the formula spits out, and at 7 inches the ratio is just 79%, IMO a much better number. ( I like 85%)
Yes you could run a 235 on a 7"rim for a ratio of 75.7%, and on your cruiser, you should be able to find a pressure she likes. But in my experience 235s like closer to an 8 incher (86.5%); I think mine are on 7.75s (83.8%) and they like 28/29, on the front, holding up an aluminum headed 367, with battery in trunk.

The bottom line is this;
IMO;
a 7 inch rim wants ; (7/79%) x25.4=225mm
an 8incher wants..... (8/.81) x25.4=251mm
a 9 will like ............. (9/.83) x25.4=275mm
a 10 might like ...... (10/.85) x25.4=299mm
All are +/- 5mm
all work at 50/60% profiles; taller tires will put up with more narrow rims.

I can make you a heck of a deal on a set of BFG's that are 235-70-15 that have 50 miles on them.

I don’t think you will need wider rims. I got 9.5 inch tread width BFG tired on a stock rally wheels . My tire guy said that it would be ok unless I was racing, road coursing racing, or lots of hard cornering. Its not gospel just my .02 cents lol

I’ve got 255/60/15 Cooper Cobras on 7” wheels on my Belvedere.

Coopers.

And I'm usually on the opposite side of this conversation, but 15x7's with 245/60/15 is just fine. As in, perfectly fine. As in, a 15x7" rim is actually the rim size that the tire manufacturers use as a "measuring rim" for all of the published specifications for a 245/60/15. If a 15x7" is good enough for Cooper and BF Goodrich to use as the their measuring rim, it won't cause you any issues on the street.

And, for those that don't know, a 15x7" is not 7" wide. Outside lip to outside lip, the width is 8". The width where the inner bead of the tire sits is 7". But that 8" of tread all has rim underneath it. And, in the case of the Coopers anyway, the tread width is listed at 7.2". The BFG is listed at 8.3". Both use a 15x7" for the measuring rim. These will be a little hard to read because of their size, but you can go right to TireRack yourself and see.






As long as you stay within the manufacturer's specs you shouldn't have any issues. That's not to say that a wider rim wouldn't give you a little more tread patch or that the narrower rim might change your tire pressure requirements, because there is variation even within the manufacturer's specs. But, it's still in the recommended range, so, the manufacturer would stand behind it. Good enough for me. Technically, both Cooper and BFG still list a 255/60/15 as fitting on a 15x7". The measuring rim for a 255/60/15 is a 15x7.5", and they would be better on a 15x8", but a 15x7" is still within the recommended range even for a 255/60/15.

I’ve got some small name 255/60/15 on 15x7 rims and they look and work fine. Don’t think I’d try 275’s on them though.

I like these. I have their little 185/70/13s on Vixen and they ride great.

Galaxy R1 Tire by Vitour Tires Passenger Tire Size 245/60R15

Have you looked at Hankooks? Quality tire, lots of sizes, reasonable price.