18x8 Wheels and Tires

[Brown_Muscle]

I've looked through old posts-lots of stuff on 17" wheels.

I was looking at 18X8 wheels with 4.5" of backspacing. I was looking at 245/50 wheels all around- not worried about the rear, but a bit worried about rubbing on the front. Going to be installing speedway springs, so it will be slightly lowered. Anyone have experience with these? They are slightly taller than 255/50R17's, however almost half an inch narrower.

Thanks

[sly]

That's only half an inch off center... so it may not have any issues since some folks run 9 inch wide up front and barely rub. If you do have issues... a half inch spacer would sort you out.

[knucklehead0202]

With my 17x8's and 255/50's, 4.5" backspace, i rub fender turning into driveways near full lock, and rub the sway bar a bit at lock. Hope that helps. My car is stock-ish height, although my springs are totally hashed. Rolling the inner fender lip in front definitely helps.

[sick88tbird]

The big thing to understand is that not all tire sizes are created equal. I used to have 245/45/17’s on my ‘01, I went to 235/55’s, same tire manufacturer, same model of tire and ended up having to run my Eibach Pro wheel spacers to make them fit. And the 235 has 1/2” wider tread area than the 245’s did. A size that may fit one car could be an entirely different story with another brand tire.

EDIT: I may have installed 245/50’s, I forget! Lol

[packman]

Also depends on the wheels. My 245 45R17 tires on the American Racing slot wheels (4.5" backspacing) had no problems up front. The 17" x 7" P71 wheels with 235 50R17 (I think that was the OEM size) and 1.25" spacers rubbed the swaybar. Had I went with 1.5" spacers, I would not have had that problem. It seems to me it's all in the wheels.

[P72Ford]

That's only half an inch off center...

4.5" BS on an 8" wheel is 0 offset. 8" is the width between the beads, and does not include bead width. A tape measure across the outer edges of the wheel will show 9", for a wheel that is advertised as 8" wide.

In the same way the diameter is not the gross diameter of the wheel, its the diameter at the beads.

[sly]

4.5" BS on an 8" wheel is 0 offset. 8" is the width between the beads, and does not include bead width. A tape measure across the outer edges of the wheel will show 9", for a wheel that is advertised as 8" wide.

In the same way the diameter is not the gross diameter of the wheel, its the diameter at the beads.

Good to know. I wish all the sites I researched wheel sizes on would actually state that. Most of them give one thing or another (BS or offset) but not both and leave you guessing. I do know the offset of the stock wheels are centered and most panthers should be able to handle 9 inch wheels up front and 10 inch out back without issue (maybe a little lip rolling). Personally, I wouldn't run anything that fat unless I was autocrossing it. But that's just me.