Anybody running 17" Cobra Bullit rims on a Duster
Hey... I know that guy... he really needs to update his web pages...
That 255/45 I originally tested with was a bit taller than the 245/45's I ended up running. The 255's were a bit tighter fit, but gave a good idea of where the tight spots were. On my Valiant, it seems the front wheel opening is a little more generous than the 2nd gen Barracudas, in spite of being slab-sided. The spot I ended up with somewhat regular rubbing was on the head of the bolt that locates the fender on the outer wheel opening. Looking at the driver side of the car, this bolt is at about 3 o'clock. Going to a pan-head bolt would have reduced that to probably nothing. When I installed stiffer (1.14") t-bars, the rubbing went away.
In any event, I tried a 275/40-17 mounted on the same 17x8 wheel, since I already had it around. Here's some photos of that test on the pass side of the car, so you can see how tight it got:
Turning right, front edge...
Turning right, rear edge...
Here's the bolt that rubbed...
And just because I love the way these shots look...
I'm likely to keep my 17x8's and just run a narrow-ish 275/40 in the future. Ideally, I'd like to find some 17x9's with the right offset, but that puts the wheel in to the outer tie rod end. Going to an 18 or 19" wheel might solve that, but wheels that big start getting heavy, and I really kind of like the look of 17's on A-bodies. The right wheel could change my mind, though.
Clair
Hey... I know that guy... he really needs to update his web pages...
That 255/45 I originally tested with was a bit taller than the 245/45's I ended up running. The 255's were a bit tighter fit, but gave a good idea of where the tight spots were. On my Valiant, it seems the front wheel opening is a little more generous than the 2nd gen Barracudas, in spite of being slab-sided. The spot I ended up with somewhat regular rubbing was on the head of the bolt that locates the fender on the outer wheel opening. Looking at the driver side of the car, this bolt is at about 3 o'clock. Going to a pan-head bolt would have reduced that to probably nothing. When I installed stiffer (1.14") t-bars, the rubbing went away.
In any event, I tried a 275/40-17 mounted on the same 17x8 wheel, since I already had it around. Here's some photos of that test on the pass side of the car, so you can see how tight it got:
Turning right, front edge...
Turning right, rear edge...
Here's the bolt that rubbed...
And just because I love the way these shots look...
I'm likely to keep my 17x8's and just run a narrow-ish 275/40 in the future. Ideally, I'd like to find some 17x9's with the right offset, but that puts the wheel in to the outer tie rod end. Going to an 18 or 19" wheel might solve that, but wheels that big start getting heavy, and I really kind of like the look of 17's on A-bodies. The right wheel could change my mind, though.
Clair