New Tires on Stock Rims: 215 or 225?

[Gunman]

Originally Posted by wparsons

What are those weights based on? Including the wheel? Which wheel? A 215/45/17 MPSS is 21lbs and a stock Primacy is 21lbs (both according to tire rack).

Crap...sorry, tire weight came from the michelin website, and I was adding OEM and aftermarket wheel weights, I will edit the post to reflect ONLY the tire weight.

[wparsons]

Someone asked for this in a PM, so I'll add it here too...

225/45/17 ZII's compared to stock:


Same ZII's compared to 205/50/17 Barum Polaris 3 snows:


Stack of 4 stock tires compared to 4 225/45/17 ZII's, both un mounted:

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by football751

Hmm, hadn't considered going to a smaller tire. Why would you recommend going a size smaller? Keep in mind this is just my DD with a lot of time spent at 70+ mph and no track time currently.

With a smaller diameter tire you are dropping the CG whatever ~1/2 the diameter difference is and the engine doesn't have to work as hard to rotate the smaller diameter tire/wheel. This translates to a little more planted ride, a little bit more responsiveness from the throttle, and a little bit quicker acceleration. You give up theoretical geared top speed due to the smaller diameter, but that is a non-issue with a drag limited vehicle with too little power and too high a gearing to even get to the theoretical top speed to begin with. Actual top speed with a smaller diameter tire would probably be higher than on stock sized tires due to engine being a little more 'efficient' in its power delivery... would need GPS to verify of course since speedometer will artificially read high.

[football751]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Decided to stick with the stock size MPSS, should get them installed this week.

[FRed-S]

Originally Posted by Vracer111

Stick with the factory 215 width unless you want a more expensive, heavier, and less responsive steering but the same grip tire in a 225... if it were an 8" wide rim it would be a different matter and the 225 width would probably be more preferable with it's 8.2" tread width. Also, the 225/45-17 size will have your speedometer off on the high side, meaning you will actually be going faster than what the speedometer shows (by a few MPH at Hwy speed) and your acceleration will be a little bit slower...

Personally I would go with a different size MPSS though for even better performance improvements over the stock tire size... 205/45-17.

I'm going with the 225's in the same tire as above. I did a bit of research and at 65mph the difference is less than 1 mph with the slightly bigger tire. I can't wait to get rid of the stock Prius tires lol. Big difference in grip and handling is a plus.

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