A heads up on the Nitto P305 Drag radials:

[BillyGman]

This only concerns the Nitto P305/45/18 size drag radial tires:


I got the Nitto P305/45/18 drag radial tires mounted on the back wheels that I had widened. They look and perform great. I have a little heads-up for you guys who are going to buy these tires and widened wheels in the future.....

When the tire place gets the widened wheels and the P305 tires on your car, they're going to tell you that there's a problem w/them since the wheels will not even turn due to the tires being right up against the shock absorbers. However, tell them to simply torque the wheels on and lower the car down to get all the car's weight on the shocks. Once they do, both you and them will see that there's enough clearence between the tire sidewalls and the shocks since the shocks will now be compressed a little bit from the weight of the car being on them. The shocks lean in a little bit towards the top of the car, therefore when the car is jacked up w/the weight of the wheels extending the shocks, and w/there also being none of the car's weight on the shocks to compress them, you'll see that the tire sidewalls will be right up against them.

but that does NOT indicate any problem w/the fit of the tires since it will be fine when they lower the car down.:up:
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

[woaface]

Hmm this is interesting. I really like the idea of widdening the tires, but I'm sceptical a little still. It just seems that messing with something that someone at Ford spent countless hours perfecting would be kind of wrong and my still have advese effects on the design of the rear suspension. As in, when the car is going up and down the road and flexing, might this still cause contact with the shocks?

[BillyGman]

Yes, during very hard cornering that isn't done on an every day basis, and also when you go over really big bumps while the shocks have a chance to extend quite a bit. However momentary rubbing is no biggie. The soft rubber compound of these tires (which is the reason they grip better than the stock tires do) will wear out long before ant appreciable sidewall damage will occur from contact w/the shock absorbers that's only momentary. I had this same occurence on my Vette for several years, and I had no problem at all.

But on a side note Jimmy, even though these tires make the car look real cool because of how wide they are, they're very expensive tires, and anyone like yourself who doesn't have a S/Cer under the hood realy doesn't need these P305 drag radials anyway.

[MikesMerc]

Also, not every car experiences the same issue. My 04 has no rubbing at all. The clearance is very tight though.

Just based on those folks who have had widened rims on for a good amount of time now, its not a big concern. Lidio has driven all the way to Florida and back without issue (not to mention other paces and races).

A good heads up by Billy though. We don't want to have folks freakin out at the tire store:)

[BillyGman]

yep, that was my point.

[Marauderman]

Hey - Billy --Just want to say -- I think you did a great job in explaining your heads up point--alot of people don't always understand as some others do--you did it in very simple terms and thats what is so cool==ok--so sometimes you get lengthy--so what--those "others" will need that --and I'll be the first to admit--it may be me on the next "heads-up"--good going.........Tom

[BillyGman]

Hey Tom, thanks very much for the encouragement guy. That's really great coming from a veteran of this board like yourself. Yeah, I just didn't want to take for granted the fact that when the guys at the tire place were mounting my tires, and they told me that they couldn't be used since the sidewalls were up against the shocks, that I knew enough to ask them to try torquing the wheels on, and then lower the car to compress the shocks. If I hadn't told them to do that, then I would've driven out of there w/my old tires still on. So I didn't want that to happen to anyone else here.

[Bradley G]

Hey Tom, thanks very much for the encouragement guy. That's really great coming from a veteran of this board like yourself. Yeah, I just didn't want to take for granted the fact that when the guys at the tire place were mounting my tires, and they told me that they couldn't be used since the sidewalls were up against the shocks, that I knew enough to ask them to try torquing the wheels on, and then lower the car to compress the shocks. If I hadn't told them to do that, then I would've driven out of there w/my old tires still on. So I didn't want that to happen to anyone else here.By the way you described what was left of your tires after those incredible burnouts, (necessity being the mudder of invention)you were'nt taking NO! for an answer.Happy Motoring BillyGman enjoy those new skins!!:up:

[BillyGman]

I have previously bought two new BFG's for the back in the stock size in anticipation of burning the original ones up as soon as I installed the 4.56 gears in the rear. So I still have those sitting in my house brand new, and I still have a set of the factory stock back rims that I can put them on IF I should ever choose to go back to the stock tires. But I doubt it.