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Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by Michael McBroom on
Sunday, 18 May 1997, at 7:44 p.m.
I have an '87 740 Turbo Wagon, and I'm interested in doing a few "enhancements" to it. Since the car will still have to carry loads (although not especially heavy ones) from time to time, I hope to strike a good balance between handling, looks, and practicality.
Currently, the car has the stock 15" alloy wheels with 195/60's. I would like to replace these with 16" wheels and run 50-series profile tires. I do not want to overload the front steering and suspension components, however, so I would like to know what a maximum practical wheel width would be. 7 inches? 7.5 inches? If I can run 225/60 16's with 7-inch wheels, this would be good enough for me. Or would I need 7.5-inch wheels for 225/60's? I was looking at some 245/60 16's yesterday, and they looked to be way too wide.
I'm also considering replacing the stock springs with a set from IPD, which is supposed to lower the ride height about 1.5". My concern is to choose tires of the proper width so as to minimize any chance of rubbing, either when the car is loaded, or when hitting a good bump. The car already has heavy-duty anti-sway bars installed.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Re: Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by Michael McBroom on
Sunday, 18 May 1997, at 7:52 p.m.
Something else just occurred to me about the above wheels: I've noticed that my car has a pin in each hub that is matched to a hole in each wheel, concentric with the lug pattern. Will I need to have holes drilled in the new wheels, or can I safely remove this pin?
Re: Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by Stoney on
Monday, 19 May 1997, at 9:27 a.m.
Mike, The pin you mention is there to keep the wheel oriented properly for balancing and replacement. It keeps/returns the tire/wheel to the same position after a tire change or brake job. You can have a hole put in your aftermarket wheel if you like, I think it's a good idea. The pin is an attempt to avoid problems by establishing a standard position for the wheel on the hub.
Re: Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by Mark Klein on
Monday, 19 May 1997, at 5:56 p.m.
Keep in mind a couple things. If you run wider tires, you will need to increase the tire pressure to get proper tire wear. This will hurt ride quality significantly. The lower profile tires have a shorter side wall which will not flex as much. Better for handling- worse for ride quality.
The car was designed for the offset which it has now. If you go to a wider rim, that may put the offset out far enough you may run into a situation where you continually eat up wheel bearings. The tire/wheel store should be able to show you what your size/width choices are without getting into this.
Re: Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by Michael McBroom on
Monday, 26 May 1997, at 1:53 a.m.
Thanks for the insights. I would only go with wheels that were designed to provide the proper offset for Volvo. At first glance, it looks to be quite different than that of most other cars. And I don't mind having a stiffer ride, either. I like being able to feel the road.
I've found a tire dealer with the kind of tires I want...sort of. He'll even let me try on different sizes, so I can see what the widest practical width will be. I suspect it will be 205s, but I'm hoping that 225s may fit without rubbing. Do you have a feel for this? The car is an 87 740.
The problem with the 205s he has is they're only available in 205/55 series. I'm concerned that going from 195/60s to 205/55s will change the overall tire height, thus affecting the speedometer and final drive ratio. According to a set of rough calcs I just ran, 205/55s will be about 0.7" taller than 195/60s.
Re: Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by John on
Monday, 26 May 1997, at 11:32 a.m.
Michael, I discovered the following link on one of the Volvo Club web pages. Its pretty cool. Put your stock tire size in the block as the first entry and then all the sizes you think you might want to try as subsequent entries. You will get a matrix back that will compare all of the subsequent entries to the first entry. The data provided includes diameter, revolutions per mile, variance, etc. If the link doesn't work, here's the URL: http://www.powerdog.com/tiresize.cgi.
Tire Size Information
Re: Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by Michael McBroom on
Tuesday, 27 May 1997, at 1:59 p.m.
Thanks for the link. It's pretty cool, really, and confirms some of the calcs I had already run.
It looks like, for a car like mine ('87 740) that came with 195/60-15s, the best replacement candidates are (in descending order of best fit):
205/50-16s: 0.6% smaller (24.1" v 24.2" dia)
225/45-16s: 1.0% smaller (24.0" v 24.2" dia)
205/60-15s: 2.0% larger (24.7" v 24.2" dia)
205/55-16s: 2.7% larger (24.9" v 24.2" dia)
225/50-16s: 2.7% larger (24.9" v 24.2" dia)
Providing I can even *find* 225/45s, does anybody here know what the likelihood will be that these tires will rub, especially on the inside at full left or right lock?
Re: Tires/wheels/springs Combo for 740 Wagon?[ALL/1998] posted by Abe Crombie on
Tuesday, 27 May 1997, at 3:39 p.m.
You will be more pleased with the 205/60-15 or 205/55-16 tires. I have used both of these with no problem. if you go with the larger sizes you will encounter significant rub at near full lock and will have a car that is NO FUN IN THE RAIN! The correct original offset is important as it will drive strange and have vibration problems if you deviate much from the original offset (i.e. don't put different offset on in order to put wider tires on w/o rubbing.