Outback tires

jdogsmith

New member
Hey there guys, I have a 2000 outback and recently had a new idea. I want to get wider tires on it. Now im really not sure how much wider i can go and if i do go wider can i keep my stock rims on or will i have to get new ones. Any advice would be appreciated thanks much.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
i dont know much about the outback specifically, but generally you can go a size or two wider on stock rims. If you really want to push the envelope it usually requires wider wheels, fender pulling/rolling and sometimes even coilovers (for clearance) for serious setups.

How wide were you thinking of going?
 

jdogsmith

New member
i dont know much about the outback specifically, but generally you can go a size or two wider on stock rims. If you really want to push the envelope it usually requires wider wheels, fender pulling/rolling and sometimes even coilovers (for clearance) for serious setups.

How wide were you thinking of going?

Well I was thinking just two sizes up for a more aggressive off roading look. If i can go just two sizes bigger without having to do any major adjustments that would be awesome. Just wanna have a little wider look on it. I really dont wanna deal with messing with the fender or coilovers so something just a bit bigger with no major adjustments would be ideal.
 

Spamby

Meat Product Toy
You can go wider than two sizes on a factory rim. I used to run extreme examples like a 12.5" wide tire on a 7.5" rim, though this was for off-roading on purpose built jeeps and more for rim protection. However, your biggest concern is going to be that you will crowning the tire, meaning, the tire will be squished like a donut and the footprint will be decreased by running on the center of the tread rather than the whole entire tread section. This will cause accelerated wear in the center of the tire. Handling may be decreased as your effective contact patch will be decreased. Another setback is that you now have a bulging sidewall and the factory inset or offset of the wheel will not bring this extra sidewall bulge out away from the inner fender and suspension components. Rubbing at full or close to full wheel lock may happen or when the suspension cycles up and down... Mostly on compression when the suspension gains negative camber. Another negative is that the overall diameter of the tire increases and thus throwing off the calibrated speedometer reading.
A few sizes wider may not increase this effect very much and I would say keep it at a few sizes larger and no more.
Another way is to not only play with the width but also the height or aspect ratio of be sidewall. This can usually get a more aggressive appearing tire without much negative drawbacks.
Figure out your wheel width and then go to the tirerack.com. Figure out what tire you like and then go to the specs of that tire and look at the section widths and heights with your measured rim width.

Hopefully I'm not confusing you. Lol
 

jdogsmith

New member
You can go wider than two sizes on a factory rim. I used to run extreme examples like a 12.5" wide tire on a 7.5" rim, though this was for off-roading on purpose built jeeps and more for rim protection. However, your biggest concern is going to be that you will crowning the tire, meaning, the tire will be squished like a donut and the footprint will be decreased by running on the center of the tread rather than the whole entire tread section. This will cause accelerated wear in the center of the tire. Handling may be decreased as your effective contact patch will be decreased. Another setback is that you now have a bulging sidewall and the factory inset or offset of the wheel will not bring this extra sidewall bulge out away from the inner fender and suspension components. Rubbing at full or close to full wheel lock may happen or when the suspension cycles up and down... Mostly on compression when the suspension gains negative camber. Another negative is that the overall diameter of the tire increases and thus throwing off the calibrated speedometer reading.
A few sizes wider may not increase this effect very much and I would say keep it at a few sizes larger and no more.
Another way is to not only play with the width but also the height or aspect ratio of be sidewall. This can usually get a more aggressive appearing tire without much negative drawbacks.
Figure out your wheel width and then go to the tirerack.com. Figure out what tire you like and then go to the specs of that tire and look at the section widths and heights with your measured rim width.

Hopefully I'm not confusing you. Lol
HAHA wow alot of info i like it. Kinda had to read over it a couple times but thats cool. Ok so let me see if i understand what your saying, so to avoid all the negatives go with just a little wider of a tire then match that width to the height of the tire so im not only wearing the tire in one spot??that right? So then also what your saying if i only go two sizes up not that much i really shouldnt have to many problems by doing that right?
 

Spamby

Meat Product Toy
Bingo.

Your sidewall height, expressed as aspect ratio, is a percentage of your tire width.
EX: 245/40-18 tire is a tire that has a:
245mm tread section width
40% aspect ratio OR the sidewalls equal 40% of the tread width. 98mm of sidewall height.
18" rim diameter.
Say I increase the width by 10mm to a 255 and the aspect ratio by 10% to a 50. I now have a tire that's 255mm wide with a height equaling 127.5mm.
A difference of roughly 30mm.
 

jdogsmith

New member
Ok so now could i use those exact measurements for my outback then?Or is that just a example of what i need to do?Cause i just typed those tire sizes in on tiretrick and i had some tires pop up. Or should i first just look more at the measurment of my tires and rim size and see?
 

Spamby

Meat Product Toy
Those were just examples. Find out what you have and go from there. Your tire size is stamped on the side of the tire. Your rim size should actually be stamped on the rim, usually inside. Taking the wheel off may be necessary. Or just google something like "2000 outback factory rim width"
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
One thing to get a meaner look is to just get a rim with a lower offset in the same width wheel. If you go to a wider wheel, the offsets change. But you can get a combo that essentially pushes the wheel further out of the wheel well. If you go too crazy you'll get rubbing issues that will require you to modify your fender to accomidate the wheel, but as long as you stay reasonable you'll be ok.

For instance, the stock STI wheels are 8" wide with a 53 offset. I now have an 8.5" rim with a 40 offset and the wheels are much more flush with the side of the car and IMO it looks much better.
 
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