how big of a tire can i use with 17" rims?

[bigarmzz]

i know alot have asked similar questions....but i did a search and still couldnt find a direct answer.....i've got a 3/4 drop with front spindles and rear shackle/hangers.....i want the "muscle" look with lots of tread (meat) in the rear...ya know i just want the tire to fill in as much of the fender wells as possible

i was going to run 285 70-15 X8" torq thrust II's....but the cheapest i can find the 15" ones on the web is $690 and that just seems high for just 15" rims to me ...so i'm thinkin about spending just a few bucks more and getting the 17" rims, but i'm not sure what the equivalent to the 285 is in a 17"?

[N2TRUX]

You can use these Tire Size Calculators to help you get a visual of what your trying to accomplish.

http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecal...?action=submit

http://members.aol.com/agspeed/tiresize.htm

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

[Earl Filter]

A 285/60/17 is almost a dead ringer for the 285/70/15 that you listed, and you can get a Kumho ECSTA STX Sport Truck tire (or Yokohama AVS Sport Truck) in that size. The Kumho is $6 less, and is a lot more tire! When trying to come up with an other-than-stock tire size, start with a known size, and play around with other sizing here:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalcold.html

Then, look at tires by size, and see if it's a real tire. If tire rack doesn't have them, it's a good chance it's not a real tire size.

www.tirerack.com

EDIT: Great minds think alike.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Earl Filter

.....EDIT: Great minds think alike.

And at almost the same time too....

[454HO]

I'm going to have a similar setup to what you are looking at. I have a '77 long box that is getting a 3\4 drop with spindles and hanger/shackles. I will be using ImpalaSS wheels which are 17x8-1/2. I want to keep the tire diameter around 28". The biggest tires with that diameter are 275/50x17, and there are only two companies I know of that make that size... Falken and Nitto.

Now, your proposed 285/70x15 tire size would be around 30.7" in diameter. So you could use a 275/60x17 (30" dia) or a 285/60x17 (30.4" dia) on an 8" wide wheel. The next tire size up is a 305/60x17 (31.4" dia) but that would require a 9" wide wheel, and the only company I've seen that makes it is Nitto.