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Tire selection is a lot better in 18”.

Don

 

I've got 18's now and thinking going 19's in the rear when I mini tub because the 18's seem to be getting more and more limited in sizes

 

Both the 17-inch and 18-inch wheels and tires were in the sweet spot of grip, braking performance, ride comfort, and steering feel. Moving from 17-inches to 18s barely degrades ride quality, and the additional grip is welcome.

US Mags wheels really look nice on Camaro, a lot of my friends have them installed on their car.

 

Go for 17” all days of the week!
I have a set of custom made AR 200S in 17” and I love that you still have enough of rubber to get that muscle car look! But be sure to measure your specific car for exact BS, I did and have no problem at all with rubbing despite the car is lowered 2” all around!

I run 17x8", BS 4,75" with Kuhmo Ecsta 225/50 in front and 17x9,5", BS 5,75" with 255/50 in rear.

 

Thanks.

The US Mags have 17x7 with 4" BS and I believe my front tires are 205/60/17. The US Mags 17x8 have a 4.75" BS and right now I have 245/45/17. If I stay with 17" I'll get 255/45/17 next tire swap. There is less than half inch difference between 245 vs 255 but it sounds like 255 works so I'll move to that next time. I would love to do 275 but I'm pretty sure I'll start running into rubbing issues if I do.

I'm still leaning towards 17". Honestly I don't think I'll put them on and think....I should have gone 18" but I'm afraid if I go 18" I might think it's too much wheel and wish I would have stuck with 17".

 

double post.. hmmmmm

 

17's here, love the way the car sits.

 

There's nothing wrong with 18's its all about the sidewall as far as I'm concerned. I went from 15" to 17" and am very happy with the setup. Fronts are 245/45-17 on 8" wheels with 4.75" backspace. Rears are 275/40-17 on 9.5" wheels with 5.5" backspace. Tires are Firestone Firehawk 500's which is a really nice 3 season kinda gummy tire that's not super expensive.

My car is also pretty low. No rubbing while driving, but I have a very steep driveway and if I turn in sharply from the street the rear inside tire will kiss the tailpipe for a split second. Never happens anyplace else LOL.

BTW... that's a nice ride you have, especially the color!

 

Nice Camaro you have as well....

Those are 275 on 19.5" wheels in the picture? You look like you have tons of room. I'm assuming that's due to the larger back spacing on your wheels. Unfortunately, unless I want to pay a ton of money for a custom setup, the US Mags only come in a 17x8 with a 4.5" BS on the 4.75 bolt pattern. The 18x9.5 have 5.25" back spacing which I don't think will be enough to prevent rubbing. There isn't any choices with backspacing on these wheels. You either get what they have or you go custom which will be out of my budget.

 

I personally prefer 18s but its pretty much personal preference. With the 17s, you can run a taller sidewall and maybe get a more compliant ride and with the 18s you can run a shorter sideway and get better handling. I can't say by how much though. If you're not seeking one of those over the other, then looking at pics and deciding what you like best is the only way to decide. Pick what looks best to you.

 

What's your thoughts on going with 17" and 18" on a '69. Typically I don't like the two different sizes but US Mags widest 17" is a 17x8 or I can get a 18x9.5. I'm wondering how 17x7 with a 205/50/17 and then 18x9.5 with a 255/50/17 would look. I think the 18" would have enough of a back space to not cause rubbing. Just not sure that I like going the two different sizes as a general rule.

 

I am more of an original old guy so when I change I like tp keep the style of the original design. Too big or too small take away from the look of the car. The sidewall on a 17 will match the original size very close. My lowered BB, 2" lowering system turns out to be 1" lower than the AIM! 235/45 and 255/45 Foose on 8" all around. So what if the tire size is limited, try getting 14's!

 

Some folks actually care about grip, treadwear rating, noise, etc so having a decent tire selection does matter to them... :grin2:

For example I am very careful not to pick tires with too low of a treadwear rating because the soft rubber will pick up and throw a lot of gravel generating paint chips. Others want max grip regardless. So folks do care.... I generally like to be around 300 treadwear. Good compromise imho and limits an already limited tire selection....

Don

 

I get picky for tires on all my cars, but there seems to be enough selection to satisfy the best of us. I like all you said as well, My collector cars are mostly street driven. My Vette and V Caddy......well that's a different kettle of fish!!

 

I would like to hear more about running 17s and 18s. I been thinking about putting 18s on the rear of my 69. I have 17 x 8 Torque Thrust IIs all around, but I kind of like the staggered look of a larger wheel in the rear. Then I see so many of you guys sticking with 17s. Thoughts?

 

Dcaver and 57Vette:

I really...wait,no, no...REALLY like the tire & wheel setup on your cars. I have been looking for a solution for my wife's 68 Camaro that was a bit larger than the 14in that came with the car, but I still want some sidewall height to keep the look of that era. I think you have nailed it. I also love the look of the American Racing AR200 - I had those in 15in on my 79 Camaro in high school (I STILL have that car, sadly not the rims anymore) and I am so partial to those. I would love to know where you got them...

One question though...does anyone know if the tire/rim sizes and backspacing can be transferred directly to a 68 and work? I am unsure how different they are back there and I'd hate to go with something that is not going to work.

Absolutely love both of your Camaros...very well done! I'm hoping to start back to work on hers soon and will get there someday!
Dan...

 

What size are your disk brakes? An 18 inch wheel with a 11 inch disk just won’t look right. If you have rear drums even worse.

Every other day it seems I see a new pickup with 22’s and stock brakes - too much open space kills the look.

 

Looks to be a pretty decent selection of 325/30-19's and it looks like a good size tire to stuff under a min tubbed car

 

I like 18s. Good tire choices

 

You must be seeing something i'm not, 19's have a whole bunch more sizes available

 

I don't know why I stopped getting notifications about posts but I came back to give more info. Sorry about the long post but wanted to give everyone that might be in the same boat as much detail as I can.

A buddy of mine has some 18x9/4.75 backspace with 275/40/18 and his fronts are 18x8/4.25 backspace on a '70 Chevelle. I took my Camaro over to his house try them on last weekend. First off the 18x9 with the 275 will by no means fit my car. Again, remember my car is lowered 2" in the rear. Those 275 on the 18x9 were about 1" on the outside of my rear fender well. The only way to get those will work would be to jack it up in the rear with some air shocks and that ain't happening!!

I then tried his 18x8/4.25 BS fronts on my rear and I believe they had 235/45/18 (I'm drawing a blank on the tire size but I'll confirm it and come back to edit). Those worked pretty well for my rear. I liked the look of the 18" on the rear and would choose that if it works out but I will say it wasn't a super dramatic difference over my 17" wheels. So, I'm good with the 18" on the rear and it will clear with maybe a slight ding in the rear section of the exhaust pipe just for good measure.

I also put his other 18x8 on my front and set the car on the ground. The tire went up into the fender well but that was pretty much it. There was about a 1/4" clearance if I was lucky. No way that isn't going to rub in a turn. On top of that it just looked off to me. The 18" was too big for the front IMO. I just didn't like the looks of it at all. At first my buddy thought the 18" up front looked fine but after about 10 minutes of looking at it, he agreed, the 18" up front was a no go with his setup. Maybe with an 18x7 up front and a lower profile tire but not the way this one looked. Besides, the US Mag I'm looking at, they only come in 18x9.5 or 18x8. I contacted US Mag and to get a 18x7 I would have to get a custom two piece wheel made and the price of one of their two piece wheels was the same cost of the whole set of pre-fabbed wheels....again, not something in my budget.

I actually have a picture of a '69 with the US Mags in an 17" and 18" staggered setup and it honestly looks it would possibly be workable. However, my personal preference is to not do staggered set ups. I think at first I might be okay with the two different sizes but eventually wouldn't want it. That's just my opinion on running staggered wheels. I know there are plenty of people out there who are good with staggered wheels but I'm just not one of them.

That being said, it looks like I'm going to go with the 17x7/4.0 backspace up front and 17x8/4.5 backspace out back.

So, now it's on to the tires. I'm currently running 17x7 with 205/50/17 and 17x8 with 245/45/17 for about 15 years now. My car is pretty damn low and I've have zero rubbing issues ever with this combo. That being said, I do think the rear 245 is borderline being too skinny out back. I would love to do a 275 but that's just not going to be in the cards with my car being lowered. I think the biggest I could get and not rub would be a 255/45/17 but that's only .4" wider over my current 245/45. Still, I'll take any width I can get if it doesn't rub. However, looking around there seems to be 10x as many brands that have a 245 than 255. I've run Sumitomo tires for the last 15 years with good luck. I know they are cheap and probably not the best performing tire but I don't drag race, auto-X, or road race my car. I only drive it around town to car shows and so forth and I estimate I put about 1,000 miles a year average on my car so my tires usually need to be replaced due to age rather than being worn out. The Sumitomo's are super cheap on price, I was quoted all 4 tires mounted and balanced out the door for $400 even.

Looks like when it's all said and done, I'm going to be going back to my same set up of 17x7 with the 205 up front and 17x8 with 245 on the rear. Total wheel and tire package price is going to be $1,200 turn key for everything including installation and taxes.

I'm still going to keep my current Boyds wheels in case I ever want to go back. I'll try to post some pictures when everything is all done within the next couple weeks or so.

 

Those Chevelle wheels had the wrong backspacing leading you to incorrect conclusions imho.

Correct backspacings are:

17x7 = 4.25"bs
17x8 = 4.75"bs
17x8.5 = 5" bs
17x9 = 5.25"bs
17x9.5 = 5.5" bs

Ignore the 17, they are correct for all wheel diameters.

Don

 

I had 275 18” on my 68. You should have no problem on a 69 with the correct offset. I can’t remember my offset but I had a shorter 9” rear end so my numbers would t work for you anyway. But you can fit a 275.

 

'68 and '69 have different wheel wells in addition my car is lowered at least 2" in the rear. I put the wheel on the car but couldn't let it down because it stuck out so much. The backspace on that wheel was 4.75 and the US Mags are 5.25 but that's only .5" difference and the wheel stuck out way more than .5". In addition the US Mags are 18x9.5 where the Chevelle wheels are 18x9 so I would probably be in the same boat even though they with the extra backspacing.

You are correct, with the right offset it would work but I would have to pay to have a custom wheel made with the right offset. That's out of my budget so I have to stick with pre-fabbed widths and offset.

 

I have 17" TT IIs on my 69 vert. I think 17s look right..enough wheel /tire and wheel well symmetry. I am limited in brake size though.

 

I ended up going with the 17's all around as well as I went back to the same size tires I've been running. I have an appointment to mount/balance them today. I'll get some pictures and try to post them if I can.

I looked back at my recipients and I've been running my Boyd Smoothie II wheels for 18 yrs now. It's time for an update, although I'll probably keep my Boyds around in case I want to go back to them.

 

It's really a personal preference. I bought 18" American racing wheels from 4wheelonline so that I can have better tire selection. Ride quality is still good.