I picked up some 17x7 rims...what's the max width I can go on these? Is there a rule of thumb out there?

 

On a Civic or a Prius?

People please, provide adequate info when asking a question...

 

sorry...03 bugeye wagon.

 

What offset?

 

..and is the car lowered or going to be lowered and by how much...

 

I believe it's +48 and I have some Prodrive springs on it that lower it about an inch...but I guess that's not really my question. I'm not too worried about it rubbing or having to roll the fenders. I suppose it's more of a general technical question I'd like to know since I won't necessarily be putting it on the subie. I have a couple of other candidate.

What limits the width of the tire aside from the space it occupies/interferes with? What's the advantage of getting say 17x8 or 17x7.5 vs 17x7? Will tires that too width simply refuse to mount on rims that are too thin? In the end, what's the limit on the tire width to rim width ratio.

 

215/45/17 is ideal size for 17x7 inch rim in general. But 215 is silly skinny for WRX.

225 is a tad on the wide side for 7". ideal for 7.5".

For WRX wagon, I recommend 17x8 +52 or 17x7.5 +50 with 225 or 235 tires.

 

As the tread section gets larger in relation to the rim width, the tread pattern will eventually become rounded slightly. This has the effect of lessening the contact patch with the ground. If you go "too wide", you'll end up losing traction.

The 17x8 rim will allow you to mount a wider tread section tire, and still have the tread remain square to the surface of the track. OTOH, if you can't stuff a 255 width tire under your fenders, a 17x7 will weigh a bit less.

Eventually, you can get down so far that the sidewalls of the tire simply aren't pushed out onto the bead of the rim, so if you go wayyyy too skinny you could eventually get tires that couldn't be mounted on your rims.

Don't go that way, though - wider is better! :-)

 

thanks guys...guess I'll go looking for some 215.