Anyone using 225/70R15's?

Campbell9

Campbell9

Forum Member
Joined
May 5, 2010
Messages
68
Location
Western Australia
Car Year
2008
Car Model
Forester
Transmission
Manual
Hi All

I need new tyres sometime in the next 4 months. I have a '97 Forester Ltd with 205/65R15's. I know the largest tyre I can put on is a 225/70R15's. I could also put on 215/70R15's which would be easier to fit the spare into the spare wheel well and should not rub on the wheel arches when on full turning lock. but would not perform as well as the 225's on sand.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences.

Campbell9 from Oz (WA)
 
Hi Campbell, im running 215/70R15. I have Yokohama Geolander AT-S tyres. I am very happy with with. 90% of my offroading is sand, beach and dunes. When aired down they preform extremely well. I would highly recommend them, very quiet and grippy on road compared to BFG's or General Grabbers. Offroad they are outstanding.
They dont rub and fit into the spare wheel well which is why I got them over 225/70R15. Do not hesitate to go with 215 over 225. Great size, they fit the wheel archs nice and dont make them look empty like the standard size.
Believe me the preform very well on the sand but only when aired down, when tight they just dig down. I usually let mine down to 15psi and I can go almost anywhere except for my lack of clearance (stock at the present time).

Regards
Taza
 
Hi Ray and Taza. Thanks for your input. i am very confident the 225/70R15's will fit. It is possible to increase the outer diameter about 40mm from the stock tyres. The O.D for 205/65R15's is 664mm while the O.D for 225/70R15's is 696 mm. So they will fit.
I am more concerned about performance. A friend has 215/70R15's on her Nissan X-trail and likes them. I would not go for BFG's. I do not hink they make them small enough.
It is interesting to read Taza's comments about the Geolanders. A lot of people on the forum call them Geosquealers. Still that might have been an older version. the new ones seem good.
I am hoping for comments from someone who is using 225's. It is interesting to see spurrymoses (who has his own website describing his mods) once had 225's but has droppped down to 215's.
 
^ I know spurry moses website well. I think that was the first modded Forester I ever saw.
Yeah the new geolanders are great, they dont sqeal. I know the older version was cr@p but the new ones are great. Just a suggestion anyway.

Your Forester is going to look sweet with 225's. I might give them a shot when its time for new ones in 20months or so. I cant wait to hear from you how they ride, rub and what brand you get. I have noticed going for my stock 205/70R15 to 215/70R15 a difference in performance. Not offroad but certianly on road. My acceleration is abit slower and when jerking the steering wheel at 60+ km/hr it feels abit mushy if you who what I mean but its a small price to pay. I would never go back to stock size.

Taza
 
Campbell9 said:
It is interesting to read Taza's comments about the Geolanders. A lot of people on the forum call them Geosquealers. Still that might have been an older version. the new ones seem good.
Click to expand...
The Geosquealers, (as we call them) refer to the crappy Yokohama Geolander G900 that came as standard on new Forry's (I think that's changed now though)
The Geolanders that taza has on are the Yokohama Geolander AT/S (GO12). I too have the Geolander AT/S on my Forry & love them.

This thread is also worth a look.
What tyres are you running on?

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
HI Mr Turbo
What size tyres are you running?
Thanks, for the thread link, Just finished browsing. A lot of people seem to be happy with the Geolander AT/S, the difference in tread and tyre construction seems to make a difference from H/T's regardless of size. What I did find interesting was that people seemed happy with the 215 tyre width. Some have 225's. More people seem happy with the 215's, while the 225's do seem to have some on road drawbacks (increased rolling resistance) but seem to perform very well offroad.
Most of my driving will be 80% on road, 10% sand and 10% gravel (no mud).
It seems that 215 AT/S should meet my needs but will still keep polling. I am very interested in other people's comments.
 
Hi Mr Turbo (and all viewers)

Thanks for that info.
I have done some analysis of everyone's responses for that thread.
I have converted everyone's tyres sizes into Outer Diameters to provide consistency between rim sizes. He is a summary of most people's results. ( I got most of the way through Page 2 and then had to have dinner)
1. The largest tyres of respondents have an OD of 722mm (The Cooper Discover ISX's 225/70R16) and the next largest was the BFG AT's 712 mm (225/75R15's).
2. The smallest were the Bridgestone HT Duelers with an OD of 664 (205/65R15's).
Here is a summary of the OD for other tyres
225/70R15 = 694mm, 215/65R16 = 686 mm, 225/55R17 = 679mm
235/50R17 = 668mm, 225/60R16 = 676 mm, 225/60R17 = 704mm (High rolling resistance reported) 225/50R18 = 683 mm
I suspect that the performance between two tyres of similar O.D the off road performance would be better with wider tyres.

3. Most people are running tyres between 676 (225/60R16's) and 694 (225/70R15's).
4. The most common brand was the Yokohama Geolander AT's. No one complained of squeeling.
5. All tyres were reported to be grippy in the wet and dry although this may be a function of the Subaru's AWD system.
6. Only two people reported noisy tyres (Slight humming). These were most of the largest tyres.
7. In terms of offroad ability the only people who claimed poor performance were those who had the smallest tyres (one of which was me)
8. Most tyres get between 40K and 50K km's of wear, more if rotated.
9. No one disliked their tyres, but two were ambivalent.

I am looking at the 215/70R15's and 225/70R15's All Terrain. I think the tread will have a big influence over my Highway Terrain tyres
Yes I am a nerd and proud of it.
Any comments and feedback are welcome.
 
Glad I found you guys, even if it is a bit late. Just joined this forum (my third subaru forum - one thing about the interwebs, everything you want to know is not in one place!)

I am this close to buying a (rather nice) set of 15x7 wheels (Speedlines) and trying to determine if they will fit my '11 Forester, and what sort of tires will fit the wheels in turn.

According to Speedline, yes these wheels will fit even though the offset is slightly larger (53mm as opposed to stock 48mm). I have determined that 215/70-15 tires would fall within 0.4% of the stock diameter (I compared that to both the 16" and 17" OEM options).

Any advice, comments or suggestions would be welcome, this is my first attempt at a serious 'mod'. Well it's serious to me (buying a bunch of pieces without knowing 100% in advance they will fit/work well).

Oh, I should add, the primary intent of these wheels/tires is for winter driving - at least for now.

Thanx!

Blodger
 
G'Day Blodgeryou won't fit 15" rims on your 2011 Forester without modification to the calipers. Only the 1st gen Forester could fit 15" rims as standard and/or without any mods needed.
I know Kevin has 15" rims on his 2003 but needed to modify the calipers.
The smallest you could go is 16"

Taza
 
Thanks mate. That was quick.

I've heard elsewhere (if you search the internet long enough, eventually someone will agree with you) that 15"s WILL fit, but only if they are competition-style. Which these are: Speedline 2118s.
https://www.speedlinecorse.co.uk/motorsport/cat2118.htm

Apparently they will wrap around WRX brakes, and that's big enough for a Foz.

I'm still very unsure of what I am doing - but at least the shop in question will let me do a 'test fit' of the rims before signing off on them. Unfortunately I have no way to test the wheels AND tires before ordering those as well.

I'll let the world know what happens after I try them next week.

B
 
If you can test fit the rims thats the main thing. The tyres you can work out after. But you could get 225/70R15 or 215/75R15 that would both fit. I would say just try the rims and see if the fit without the need for modification then make your choice.
Let us know what you end up getting and doing.

Taza
 
taza said:
I know Kevin has 15" rims on his 2003 but needed to modify the calipers.
Click to expand...
From what I know (& understand) yes that is correct.
But from what I have heard, it also depends on which wheels you decide to fit. As some brands will fit without doing any modifications, whilst others won't.

At least your tyre shop will let you test fit the wheel(s) first to check.
And I will also agree with what taza says, worry about the wheels first, then once thats sorted, you will have a better idea of which tyres to put on :iconwink: :)

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
i searched for two days on the sf forum for a post like this. and first search attempt on ORS i find this!


Thanks campbell9 for the post with all the OD info and conversions since I'm in need of new tires and can't decide between 215/70R15's or 225/70R15's.

What size tire did you go with?
 
OK. The wheels fit. JUST. There is maybe 2mm between the front calipers and the inside of the wheel (we even called Speedline again while the car was up in the air during a trial fit). Hopefully that is enough that the brakes won't rub anything while in service. Tires have been ordered and will be here in a few weeks. Now all we need is snow.

I'll update again once everything is fitted, and maybe a photo or two as well. I got Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1, which I think are also known as "winter 'Duelers". I have had these (or something close to it based on tread pattern) on a previous Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro, and they were fantastic. So I opted for something more 'truck-y' again rather than Blizzak WS70s.

Here's to hope...

B
 
Wheel offset and Kings springs

Are there wheels out there for my wheels?

I am a third time Subi owner, I have driven mountain tracks in a MYseries and in an L series and now a 98 Forester. ( in these older cars I managed to crank up the suspension and use Puegeot 14" rims with 85 profile tyres)

1. Rims
I wanted to increase tyre size on the Forester but found the rear strut is too close to the tyre wall for a wider tyre and hardly allows any increase in OD for a taller tyre.
Are there rims available that will give a bit more off set to allow me to sneak bigger tyres under the standard guards?

2. King Springs.
My standard Forester rides well over uneven surfaces. If I fit King springs to gain a little ride height and effective articulation will I find it harsh over normal road bumps?

Feejaru.
 
Hey feejaru welcome :welcome:

Its prob best to copy & paste your query into your own thread rather than use someone elses...I'm sure there are many people who would be happy to reply...
 
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