Got a 72 Scamp. It came with 14 inch steelies and hubcaps. I eventually put on rallye wheels and believe them to be the same width as stock. The tires I had on the steelies, I put on the rallyes a few years ago. They are 225/70/14s and I like how they look in the wheel wells. I read somewhere else that these were too big for what I was running. I have some before and after pictures of the car taken a while back. Any ideas?
Needing new tires
- Thread starter jrc4y4
- Start date
-
84Fifth Ave
Member
Get some cooper cobras 245 60 14. A little wider and shorter it should look great.
So technically my 225/70/14s are too big?
Yes, assuming your rims are 5" or 5.5" wide your current tires are too big. As far as problems, it depends. 225/70/14's should be mounted on a 6" to 7.5" wide rim. If your current rims are 5.5's you probably won't notice any of the possible negatives- poor tread wear patterns, decreased handling performance, etc. Not saying those things can't or aren't happening, but it should be a fairly minor issue. But if you're current rims are 5" wide then those issues will be more pronounced. The tire is squeezed on the rim, that will tend to make the tread profile more round, meaning more wear in the centers and a taller than spec tire assuming you run the normal air pressure. If you don't run the normal air pressure, then you will see better tread wear, but reduced handling as the sidewall stiffness will be decreased. At normal pressures, the additional load on the sidewalls from being squeezed onto the rims will still hurt handling, and at lower pressures it will be even worse.
Just looking at your current rim/tire combo you can see that the sidewall bulge is pretty significant, there's a lot of flex there. It probably isn't noticeable just cruising around town, but put a little side loading on there and the car will feel pretty sloppy.
Been running 225x70x14 on my BBP ralleys for 10 years with no issues,
Oh nice looking car by the way!
All depends on usage. Like I said, driving around town you'd probably never notice it. If you started to run lots of miles, you'd probably notice that the center tread wears out a little before the outers, but on a 70 series you have a lot of sidewall to take up the difference in width. And with that tall of a sidewall it's not like you don't already have a lot of sidewall flex that during harder cornering conditions.
These are the same tires I've had for 13 years, but only about 8K miles of driving. And they were on the car before I bought it lol. I wouldn't mind getting a shorter tire to combat the sluggishness of 2.76 gears. Suggestions?
I would suggest you measure the width of your rims. Remember the spec is from inside to inside, not outside lip to outside lip. Both 215/70/14's and 205/70/14's will be shorter, but you shouldn't run 215's if you have 5" wide rims.
Sounds good. I will have a shop pull the tire off when I'm ready to do this.
Of course now that we started talking about this, I located an 8.25 rear end with BBP. So I may delay the tires until I put 15s on the back. Thanks for your input. These technical things are beyond my experience still.
Of course now that we started talking about this, I located an 8.25 rear end with BBP. So I may delay the tires until I put 15s on the back. Thanks for your input. These technical things are beyond my experience still.
I would absolutely jump all over that BBP 8.25". 15's are much easier to find tires for than 14's, and with a BBP disk brake kit up front you'd stop better too (assuming you have drums up front now).
Johnny Dart
Well-Known Member
No reason to.
All 14" small bolt Chrysler Rallye wheels are 14"×5.5".
Your 225/70-14 tires are fine on them.
Your right, I don't put a whole lot of miles on my Dart. Just pleasure rides and car shows.
If they're original rallye's. If they're not, they could very well be something else. And not a single tire manufacturer's specs that I could find that currently make a 225/70/14 would tell you that it's ok to run 225/70/14's on a 14x5.5". BFG doesn't, Cooper doesn't, Hankook doesn't, Coker doesn't, General doesn't. Minimum rim width for that tire is 14x6" from all of those manufacturers. Just because you can make it fit doesn't make it right. Maybe you won't see obvious signs of abnormal wear, maybe you won't notice the differences in handling, but the folks that make those tires say they shouldn't be on those rims. And it's in their interest to tell you they fit because it will improve their sales, so, if they tell you they won't fit there's a reason.
Johnny Dart
Well-Known Member
Understood.....But ive never had a problem with a 215 or 225 tire on a 14"x5.5" wheel.
I even had 235/60-14 tires on a 5.5" steelies, with absolutely zero issues.
We do all kinds of things that manufacturer's frown apon. Its call Hot Rodding.
Last edited:
Running tires that are too wide for the rim isn't hot rodding, it's just a bad idea. You're losing performance whether you realize it or not, and that's definitely not in the spirit of hot rodding.
Johnny Dart
Well-Known Member
Exactley....
You know, you guys are probably right. I'm sure you guys know better than the engineers that actually designed the tire. Maybe the engineers just don't really understand that the handling on a musclecar with 70 series 14" tires is so abysmal that it's probably not possible to make it any worse, so you might as well run oversized tires because they look cooler.
Hot rodding is about making your car perform BETTER. Putting wider tires on tiny little stock rims doesn't make anything better. You're just throwing away money on a larger, more expensive tire without getting any of the benefits. You'd get better performance out of the right size tire, and save some money to boot.
Hot rodding is about making your car perform BETTER. Putting wider tires on tiny little stock rims doesn't make anything better. You're just throwing away money on a larger, more expensive tire without getting any of the benefits. You'd get better performance out of the right size tire, and save some money to boot.
Not everything has to be an argument. I've done non conventional things that may be frowned upon. Some would be against some things, and some would be against others. I appreciate your all's input. Like I've said, I've ran these tires for a decade and have not seemed to notice any issues. Although I have nothing to compare them against. I would like to run a shorter tire though. We will see once I pick up this 8.25 this weekend. Then the question will be how wide a tire can I get under it without alterations 
. Thanks for the compliment SGBarracuda!
. Thanks for the compliment SGBarracuda!
It's not an argument. The manufacturer's specs are the manufacturer's specs, that's just a fact. If you choose to ignore those specs in this particular case, you will lose performance. That's not always true with manufacturer's recommendations in general, but it is true in this instance. Most autoX and road race types won't even run the recommended minimum width rim for a given tire as even that can produce a noticeable loss of performance compared to running the maximum recommended width rim. The fact that none of you apparently drive your cars enough, or hard enough, to notice that loss of performance doesn't mean it isn't happening. At 13 years your tires should be replaced just because of age, treadwear is almost irrelevant with that little mileage. Some car companies recommend changing your tires regardless of mileage after 6 years, and most tire manufacturer's put the top end of tire life for safe use at 10 years. How Old - and Dangerous - Are Your Tires?
With a Dart/Scamp the widest tire you're going to fit easily is a 245. If that's with an 8.25 they're narrower than 8 3/4's, so, you'd be looking at a 15x7 with about 4.25" of backspace to make that work. Some folks have made 255's fit, but that usually requires quarter lip modifications or a very stiff rear suspension to keep from rubbing during cornering or with weight in the back of the car.
With a Dart/Scamp the widest tire you're going to fit easily is a 245. If that's with an 8.25 they're narrower than 8 3/4's, so, you'd be looking at a 15x7 with about 4.25" of backspace to make that work. Some folks have made 255's fit, but that usually requires quarter lip modifications or a very stiff rear suspension to keep from rubbing during cornering or with weight in the back of the car.
-
