Evaluating my 15" front tire choices.

[BR3W CITY]

So, I'm trying to get my front tires setup for this year. I tend to buy 2 tires at a time due to the staggered wheels.

My truck started off with 235/60/15. Not the most common size, but seemed to fit the (iirc) 15x8 M/t's well, and felt/handled decent up front. (my m/t 325 dot's are in the rear)



I lost a tire a little early, and had to hurry to get a new set of fronts before a trip. Due to time and local availability, I ended up just throwing my "spare" rear combo on the front, a 235/70/15 on the same rims. It raised the front end more than I'd like, and they +camber too much, making it touchy. I'm keeping them for a rear spare, but don't like them on the front.


So now I'm faced with finally finding a "correct" front tire that feels and fits good....but that I can FIND. I've found a few 235/60/15's and could go back to that size OR I can switch to the easier-to-find 215/65/15.

The 215/65 will give me the sidewall height I liked on the 235/60, within 2mm. BUT I lose about 20mm of section width. Ok as a front runner, but do you think its too narrow for a steering/stopping tire?

What yall think?

[BossHogg69]

I was always a fan of the 235/60/15 - I ran them paired with a 295/50/15 in the rear on a 5/7 dropped '92 ecsb c1500 I had back in the day. A 215 seems awful skinny for truck tire up front, but I have nothing to back that up vs a 235/60.

[Tx Firefighter]

I like 215s on the front. As a matter of fact, I'm running 215s on the front of my stepside right now. They perform fine and they're easy on steering components. I think if you'll ask Scoti and Lolife they will both concur. Between us, we've run the 215 combo on a lot of trucks.

[BR3W CITY]

I've got a vote going either way now

Allow me to expound upon my thoughts;

235:
Upside
I've driven on a 235 already and know how it should feel, which is nice going in. The width of the tire is nice for stability and contact patch for braking (my hydroboosted d52s lockup nicely, but I have uncooled drums on 12" wide steel wheels out back, so the front is REALLY doing most the work).

Downside
Seems to really start to become limited on tire choice and availability. I don't like having to switch brands everytime, or end up with mistmatched tires side-to-side because I can't find a matched tire in a pinch. Price for some of these tires.

215:

Upside
Skinny tire works better as a front-runner on my pro-street style truck, makes the stagger look mean. The side profile is the same, so they should feel similar going down the road, with a slightly higher chance of understeer from less tire. About double the tire choice, and prices down to $70some dollars for tires. Even Bfg's as low as 80 with the choice of some Grand Touring and HP all seasons, which is nice for a summer truck. I don't need real front-runners, but I don't want to put a hard mega-mile tire on this thing either, ya know?

Downside
I'm a little concerned about the contact patch for braking considering the concerns mentioned above. I also have pretty light steering with the hydroboost on the 71 rack, and the 2005 pump. I don't want the narrow tire to become twitchy, but my alignment guy has me setup to a pretty good road-center so that might not be an issue.


Anyone else want to weigh in? We drive this thing on the road a ton, occasional strip use.

[BR3W CITY]

Cmon folks I need a little more insight before buying some new meats.

Surely me, Boss and Tx Firefighter aren't the only 3 with a 15" front wheel.

[Tx Firefighter]

I don't know why Scoti and Lolife haven't spoken up. Those guys have definitely run 15s under low trucks and Scoti is the guy who steered me out of my 60 series tire rut and into taller, skinnier tires that I run now.

[gottattooz]

If you go to www.tirerack.com, you can plug in any tire size and it'll give you the specs of whatever tire you're looking at. I'm running 15X8 1/2 fronts and 15X10 rears on my 68. I've for 245/60R15's up front. I had 295/50R15's out back, but I just swapped for 275/60R15's to get better mileage, as the Speedometer is off by about 10%. For the 8 inch front wheel, a 235/60 or 245/60 has a decent sidewall that's not a rubber band that you'll feel every bump in the road.

-Josh

[BR3W CITY]

Originally Posted by gottattooz

For the 8 inch front wheel, a 235/60 or 245/60 has a decent sidewall that's not a rubber band that you'll feel every bump in the road.

-Josh

245/60 is a little too wide for the fitment as the 235/60 is as wide as I can comfortably go without scrubbing fender.

Its gotta be the 235/60 or the 215/65, just need to figure out which.

[Custom 68]

I guess it depends on your "look" I like wide all the way around but big and little or staggered look is a cool look.
Currently I am kindof staggered I am running 18s but have 255/55-18 front and 285/5018 rear. Prior to that I was 275/60 15 all the way around. That was a big tire...

[Special-Ed]

235 is what i would go with... cuz wider is better.

sidewall i like more sidewall..feels softer, so i would not go smaller than a 60 series

with tire choices, in my opinion, its really all about what you are trying to acheive. and how much road you need to hold with the tire.

for me its all about comfort...
now for performance wider and shorter is where you want tot be.

[Custom 68]

I will include this old link it may not be applicable but it is one I subscribed to years ago when I was running 15s it was mainly for the tire brand not the size specifically. It seemed like I was limited in brands on the performance side at the time with the 15 inch but now I am not sure.
http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/3...which-to-chose

[lolife99]

Super low static dropped trucks with the inner fenders installed can't run a very tall front tire.
On the front is a 215/70-15 on a 15x7 wheel.
They look kinda short on a stock height truck,... but pretty good on a 5.5" front drop.
The rear is a 275/60-15 on a 15x8 wheel.

[SCOTI]

It's really personal preference. I've ran BFG's in both 235/60 & 215-70 sizes on 6x-90 model trucks. Both work fine IMO but I don't really disect the specifics your concerned with.

For me, I like the sidewalls to be symmetrical. So if I run a 325 on a 10" rear wheel (325/25.4)/ 10"= 1.27. 1.27" x 8 (your front wheel width) x 25.4 = 258mm. I then find the closest tire size to that w/the height I desire so if this was mine I'd do 245/60's or run a 7" front wheel & a diff size.

If 245's will rub, stick w/the 235/60 combo.