275/50/15 Nitto NT555R no tubs or rubs

[67dartgtgo]

Hi Gang, I had an email from a member requesting some info on my rear wheel/tire set-up and figured I'd post it for all the guys...and girls.
My Drivetrain consists of a 1999 Mopar Performance Magnum Crate unchanged with exception of an Edelbrock Air Gap intake and a Demon "Street Demon" 625cfm Carb and an Electronic distributor, still on the orange box, headers for now but going to Gils(Treblig) exhaust manifolds soon. Figure to be in the 320 horse range. A 727 with shift kit to a narrowed 8 3/4, 3.55 trutrac rear end riding on Mancini Racing xtra heavy duty springs hung on a MP offset spring kit. No wheel tubs but my rear quarter lips are rolled.
The car runs great, rides terrific and is fast enough for anything I can do on the street.
I haven't strip driven it yet but looking forward to it in the spring.

I'm running Wheel Vintiques, 15x8, 4 1/2" backspace, Mopar rally rims that I originally mounted 295/50/15 BF Goodrich Radial TA's on. The stance was awesome with these however I was having a bit of sidewall rub on the driver side only when cornering or over road bumps, even with the rolled lips, which just wasn't acceptable. I was looking for a tire with as much tread width as possible which gave me performance as well as clearance so I started looking at everything there is out there but still try to keep it reasonably priced.
I compared everything to the Goodrich radial TA as far as sizing and came up with the Nitto NT555R 275/50/15. The tread width was nearly the same but the section width from sidewall to sidewall was nearly an inch in difference and the Nitto's are V rated. The difference is in the sidewall bulge. The Nitto's have nearly a straight verticle sidewall enabling more clearance. They're super sticky and priced really reasonably. I def like them.

Here are the relevent spec comparisons:
BF Goodrich Radial TA 295/50/15
Dia=26.7", Section width=11.8", Tread width=10.4"
Nitto NT555R 275/50/15
Dia=25.7", Section width=11", Tread width= 10"


Here are some pics of my set.

 

[cannucky]

I run the 275/60/15 they are 2" bigger diameter than the 50 series but the same width , I found they where tight on the springs so I added a 5/16 spacer behind the 15 x 8 x 4 1/2 BS rims , they roll give me a lower cruising rpm .

 

[67dartgtgo]

Here's a pic from the outside sidewall looking up into the wheelwell lip.

 

[EL5DEMON340]

i run them in the 60 size also, but my springs are moved in 3/4"

 

[EL5DEMON340]

one more

 

[pntastar69]

i run them in the 60 size also, but my springs are moved in 3/4"

Demons/Dusters have different wheelwell clearances than 67 - 69 Darts so you can't compare tire sizes.

 

[cannucky]

My car is a 69 Barracuda .

 

[FredS]

how much different is the 70-72 Darts wheel well compared to the 67-69?

 

[68er]

I emailed Wheel Vintique this week in regards to getting new 14 " rallys. He told me they

I recommend 14x6 front and 14x7 rear. Such a small diameter wheel, you can't go to wide or you start running into suspension and brakes.

I like the 14s and they have decent pricing for these rallys...

Not sure the advantage for me to go to 15"s is there one..?

 

[72bluNblu]

Not sure the advantage for me to go to 15"s is there one..?

Less sidewall flex, better tire selection, clearance to run larger brakes. But if you're just going to run BFG T/A's on the stock brakes it doesn't really matter.

 

[EL5DEMON340]

Lot of tire company's are not making much in 14" size . That's the main reason to go to 15's

 

[cannucky]

TA's are a garbage compound and since Goodrich sold out to Cooper there is 4 or 5 brands of 14 inch tires using the same garbage compound , my car used to get stuck on hills when stopped in even the lightest rain , nothing worse in traffic than the light turns green and all you can do is spin . You will love the Nittos even in the pouring rain I never lost traction crossing Canada last summer .

 

[72bluNblu]

TA's are a garbage compound and since Goodrich sold out to Cooper there is 4 or 5 brands of 14 inch tires using the same garbage compound , my car used to get stuck on hills when stopped in even the lightest rain , nothing worse in traffic than the light turns green and all you can do is spin . You will love the Nittos even in the pouring rain I never lost traction crossing Canada last summer .

Oh I totally agree. There's pretty much nothing in 14" except the T/A's, and that's hockey puck rubber.

Even the Nitto's aren't the best out there for traction, but they're light years ahead of the BFG T/A's. That's why I've gone to 17 or 18" rims on my cars that I have on the street. The difference in traction is amazing when you can go to modern compound tires.

 

[cannucky]

The nt555r's are a drag radial compound so they are very sticky in the summer , not so much in the cold of winter but even then they are still better than the TA's , my only complaint on the Nitto's is they come with such a small amount of tread , I was worried they were going to wear out too fast but they have 6k miles on them now and haven't lost much so I expect I will get somewhere around 20k out of them .

 

[SRT_DSTRHOLC]

275/60/15 fits on A body rear with 4in bs perfect

 

[67dartgtgo]

The BF TA's are one hard *** compound...great if you want to smoke the rubber off them....terrible if you want traction. :burnout::burnout:

 

[EL5DEMON340]

That's why I went with Nitto, seems most were getting 10 to 20k out of them. They don't hook as well as M/T or other drag radials but they will go longer than 3k !! I don't have hi HP so the Nittos work great! These tires also hold air great, mine have not lost any
Psi since spring.

 

[71swing]

275/16-15 here. Took a good amount of work to get them in and it is tight. I might be switching to 4 link to get a little more room.

 

[FredS]

anyone running these on a Dr Diff disk brake stock width 8 3/4 housing. I just got my Dr Diff rear disk setup in along with the inboard leaf spring kit, and it looks like I'm going to need a 15x8 wheel with 5 inch backspacing to make it fit in the very center of the wheel well.
4.5 puts it way too far out and into the fender lip, and if 5 inch is a tad too much, I can always run a thin spacer to move it out a touch. My measurements puts the tire at least 9/16ths away from the leaf spring, which should be enough.

Just ordered the wheels from Wheels Vintique, now the waiting part. Tires are 275/50-15 Nittos.
Here's the setup ready for wheels.

 

[FredS]

got everything installed last night. Had to trim the fender lip a bit to give enough clearance.

 

[autoxcuda]

275/16-15 here. Took a good amount of work to get them in and it is tight. I might be switching to 4 link to get a little more room.

Yours is much more lowered in the back. You can see in a picture above that points upward on the outside of the tire that the outside inner fender starts to turn inward. If the car is lowered and it hits a bump the tire will get close to the outside inner fender and could rub.

A lot of the cars pictured are jacked up in the back. So that helps with clearance.

 

[FredS]

autoxcuda, with mine, I'm only 1inch higher in the rear from stock, and with Cass's inboard spring mount, I'm considering moving the spring eye to the upper hole to drop it back down some and see how the fit is.

 

[autoxcuda]

autoxcuda, with mine, I'm only 1inch higher in the rear from stock, and with Cass's inboard spring mount, I'm considering moving the spring eye to the upper hole to drop it back down some and see how the fit is.

Comparing the distance from the top of the rim to fender lip to 71swing's car, there is 2-3" height difference.

 

[70Duster440]

4.5 puts it way too far out and into the fender lip, and if 5 inch is a tad too much, I can always run a thin spacer to move it out a touch. My measurements puts the tire at least 9/16ths away from the leaf spring, which should be enough.

Just ordered the wheels from Wheels Vintique, now the waiting part. Tires are 275/50-15 Nittos.

So, you ordered wheels with 5" BS? I only see their 8" listed with 4.5".

 

[FredS]

autoxcuda, yeah I can see his is alot lower. Not sure I want mine that low for my use of the car.
Duster440, call Wheel Vintiques, as custom backspace cost a little more than their standard listing. After getting this all installed, and if I did it again, I'd get 5 1/4 or 5.5 BS, and use a thin wheel spacer if I needed to push it out a tad. As I was aiming for the wheel to be exactly centered in the wheel well, it did offset just slightly out, so a small amount of additional backspace would cure that.