This is a probably stupid question, but could you put a 265 or 275 on a 7 inch rim. I'm on a tight budget and the difference in price between a 7 and 8 inch rims is too much. Also, for the car to be street legal, how skinny of a rim can you put on the front tires. All of the 4 inch rims say not for road use. Is that just because it would handle like s**t or is it illegal?

A 275 on a 7" rim will look silly, so will the 265, as to running a
4" rim on the street, the manufacturers are just covering their butts,
generally speaking, the 4" rim with an appropriately sized tire isn't
really going to carry the load of the vehicle with enough safety
margin...

K

A 275 tire is 11" wide.

The recommended rim size for that wide of a tire is 9-11".

Pulling the tire in an extra 2 inches past the minimum rim size will put alot of strain on the sidewall, and look dumb.

It will affect your handling as well, as the curved sidewall will allow the tread to squirm around in corners. It may even deform the tread. On a really low profile tire you may not get the bead to seal right.




You will be happier if you get tires that fit your rims.


Hope this helps.

Mikey

__________________
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BE different....ACT normal.

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I guarantee they won't seal on the bead and the sidewalls will be all wrinkled. It will probably be impossible to actually mount it on that wheel since you can't compress the tire enough to fit it on. Even if you got it on, the carcass of the tire will be severely deformed and it would fail very quickly.

Grassroots Motorsports magazine just did a tire test last issue and showed a picture of what a tire looks like on a rim that is too narrow. It was ugly. It looked like the sidewall was made of wrinkled tissue paper.

Nobody can tell you what is recommended or what looks good unless you give more info. For example --

275/75R15 will fit 7.0 - 9.0 rims and they have a section width of just under 10.6 inches but a tread width of only 7.7 inches and they will not look dumb OR be 'wrinkly'. The number 275 is only the cross-section and will vary between different manufacturers and what rim size it is fitted on. Most tire makers will give you the measuring rim width with the section width.

Check out this PDF file. This is just one of many you can find on the web.
http://www.hankooktireusa.com/produ...3-Passenger.pdf

I don't know where people are getting their info from but you need to give your wheel diameter and desired aspect ratio before anyone can give you a recommended rim size.

You are right about needing more info from the OP..
I'm getting my info from, looking at the same type of charts as you, looking at the rim size recommendation for performance car tires, not light truck tires. Toyo, Dunlop, Goodrich, and Yokohama all have similar charts.

Basing my perception of the fellow, who has a name of "mightycarlo10", and has only asked questions about an 87 monte carlo that he wants to do some drag racing with, I would not think he is going to use light truck tires or that size range on his car. In fact, in one post he says he currently has 27" tall tires on his car now... That isn't very much sidewall.

My mistake for assuming.

Later, mikey

__________________
my signature lines...not really directed at anyone in particular..

BE different....ACT normal.

No one is completely useless..They can always be used as a bad example

Well Powerrods is right about the car and application. I've decided that i am going with a 15x8 rim with 275x60x15 BFG Radial T/A after talking with fellow Monte Carloeans on montecarloss.com. Thanks for your advice anyway. However, does anyone run a 4 inch rim with a tire like a 155x80x15 on the street?

Mike

I should of known that you had more info than the OP!

Learn't it all from this guy...
The envelope please...

R.I.P. Johnny.

You are absolutely right though about needing more info...MightyCarlo could have been just as easily asking about a truck. ( he did mention that he had one in one of his posts)

Later, mikey

__________________
my signature lines...not really directed at anyone in particular..

BE different....ACT normal.

No one is completely useless..They can always be used as a bad example

Those tires aren't just for trucks.
I got the Hancook file from these guys
http://www.dbtires.com/pricelist_18_20.htm

They supply a lot of similar high aspect ratio tires for hot rods. I will probably be using them on my 30's roadster. (Whitewalled of course!).