17" Tires on 16" Wheels

i talked to a guy today who works at some sort of tire place(IDK where), he has a truck bed full of 235/55/17 tires, at least 10 of them. The tire models were discontinued and thrown out so he grabbed them. He said he would sell ALL of them to me for $100. I have a 1996 Riviera with the 12 spoke wheels. I have 235/55/16s on there now, will 235/55/17s fit the wheels that i have?

texasfan010 wrote:

i talked to a guy today who works at some sort of tire place(IDK where), he has a truck bed full of 235/55/17 tires, at least 10 of them. The tire models were discontinued and thrown out so he grabbed them. He said he would sell ALL of them to me for $100. I have a 1996 Riviera with the 12 spoke wheels. I have 235/55/16s on there now, will 235/55/17s fit the wheels that i have?

I would say no since they're meant to fit a wheel with a diameter a whole inch larger than yours...So i would imagine they wouldn't even mount. But i would wait for further answers to this to be sure. All i gotta say is just buy tires in the correct size to avoid issues.

Positive they would never work. Pick up a set of cheap 17s and put them on those!!!

No. 16" rims must have 16" tires. There is no such thing as an adapter.

I agree with Rick - find yourself a cheap set of 17s! Hard to pass up a deal like that!

texasfan010 wrote:

i talked to a guy today who works at some sort of tire place(IDK where), he has a truck bed full of 235/55/17 tires, at least 10 of them. The tire models were discontinued and thrown out so he grabbed them. He said he would sell ALL of them to me for $100. I have a 1996 Riviera with the 12 spoke wheels. I have 235/55/16s on there now, will 235/55/17s fit the wheels that i have?

No.


Specifically, the beads won't seal right and you'll have a collision of some sort.

Look at Sears's newspaper insert, they have specials on alloy wheels from time to time.

Also - look at the DOT numbers on those tires. If they are more than 2 or 3 years old, you probably don't want them anyway even if they are cheap/free due to aging of the rubber.

Albertj

I agree with the age of the rubber.

Check ebay. There are usually some 17" wheels that come off of LaCrosse or Lucernes that look prettiy good and they have the Buick logo.

Oh yeah, I forgot about age. An older tire could be all done even though there is some tread left. It depends on the tire.

be careful buying tires like that too. back when i worked at pepboys, any tire we couldnt sell we would throw in the back in a giant cage for pickup (rubber co.). people would drive back there all the time and grab tires. however, our managers made us punch holes in the sidewalls with a pierce before throwing them back there so that nobody could reuse them. some of the tires may have been brand new but b/c the customer didnt want them (blowout/noise/vibration/etc) we couldnt just put them back on the shelf.
i'd hate to see you pay $100 for tires that wouldnt hold air or had broken belts or something like that.

alright thanks, i think i will just pass on those. My high school graduation party is today, and hopefully i can buy new tires with grad money?

I got a question about the aging of rubber. Is it a problem if the tire is on a car and occassionally driven? How many years should a tire last, mileage not being a factor?

being that they are 'discontinued' there may not be a huge problem - most likely for the store a tread style change. The hint for you, though, is that instead of putting a "SALE!" tag on the tires and sticking them by the door, the store ditched them. That is NOT good.

that said - here is the 'summary' of possible problems.

1) you want 5 matching tires, maybe 6 - not just 4, in case one gets an unfixable flat.
2) you need to read the DOT number and make sure the tires are not more they a year or 2 old. Here's the thing - after about 6 years of sitting, rubber tire quality has degraded a lot. So if you use tires that old it is likely (not merely possible) to have all sorts of problems from sidewall checking to carcass separation.
3) don't even think about putting the 17" tires on your 16" wheels. you will need 17" wheels. SO what you saved on tires (all you want for a Benjamin) goes up in smoke 'cause you have to buy new wheels. I reckon these cheeapie tires are going to run you at least $500 after it's all said and done.

Probably your best bet is to get a set of 16" tires (225/60R16) of the right code (97S, 97T, 97H or better) from Discount Tire Direct or Tire Rack and have them mounted/balanced at a local gas/service station.

Your Second Best bet is to contact junkyards near you that are buying cars, and ask them to call you when a car comes in with a set of good wheels/tires your size. Happens more often than you think and as the economy improves people are going to be trading in the cars they've been limping along with. Point is that as often as not cars come into dismantlers with decent tires. Especially in the luxury car class like Buick, Cadillac and Lincoln. Who knows you might snare a set of Vogues...

If you know anyone in teh business - a car dealer - you could ask the used car manager to swap tires. That is, if they get a ratty car in with decent tires they can trade your tires for the ones on that car. You'd pay for the mount and balance and you would get no warranty. Being a high school student, a manager you or someone in your family knows could very possibly go for that.

I have to run

Albertj

Jack the R wrote:

I got a question about the aging of rubber. Is it a problem if the tire is on a car and occassionally driven? How many years should a tire last, mileage not being a factor?

Rubber ages and decays/dries over time. I wouldn't run a set of tires more than 5-6 years. Tires that sit at a tire dealer for that long aren't even supposed to be sold.

Oh yeah, the original question...NO WAY you can mount and fill 17" tires on 16" rims, PERIOD. They won't even seal up and hold air.

[quote="1998 Riv"]

Jack the R wrote:

I wouldn't run a set of tires more than 5-6 years.

Crap, I bet mine are getting close. I don't know how long they were on the car before they came to me. They had a lot of tread on them, but they weren't brand new.

Sounds like I need a super-soft performance tire since most of the value of a long-wearing tire will just rot away on me.

The BFG's on my 68 are about 5 yrs old now, and don't have nearly enough miles on them. They'll stay til next year probably, then I'd like to run street slicks.

Crap man, I didn't realize how long I've had the Riv now - the tires have got to be 6 years old if not more.

Well now I've got a good excuse to upgrade

i had 2 of the stock tires on up until november...
95-2008. they were still pretty good to. i ran sumthin over and popped one bad. so i deceided to just get 4 new ones.

Mine look good too. I don't see any cracking on the side walls.

What about the little spare? People never replace those.

I go through a set of tires a year in the riv.. im on my 4th set...

...the stock tires were Goodyear Eagles or Michelin XW4s. Anything else means that the tires were definitely replaced before you got your Riv. And if you read the DOT number on the sidewall you can see the week and year of manufacture.

My Riv's XW4's lasted years and years - 'cause I did not run them in the winter. Took more than 6 years to wear them out. Next set was Michelin X DLs from Sams Club. Those ran well too. Now have Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring. Nice tires, too. Only gripe is it's a pain to keep the sidewalls black, they turn a brownish gray pretty quick after being washed. On the other hand, they are a lot less expensive than the comparable Michelins. I'd buy them again.

Albertj

98riviera98 wrote:

I go through a set of tires a year in the riv.. im on my 4th set...

That's just crazy. How many miles per year?

i went through my front 2 BFG traction t/a's in 11000 miles.
fbody brake tests, 2 trips to the track, and aggressive city driving.

I'm probably a lot easier on my Traction TA's than most of you guys. Would much rather avg 22mpg than 17avg.

I probably have about 20k on my tires, and should last a couple more years.

wow, i'd love 17mpg
i'm happy when i get 12mpg but then again i only drive ~9k miles a year. (most of that is my trip home every few months.)

The rubber aging topic in this thread is very good as it raises interesting points about tires in that you cannot always judge one by how much tread it has left. The existing tires on my Riv were Uniroyal Tiger Paws on the rear and a different manufacturer on the front. I rotated the rears to the front to see if I could get rid of some vibration on the highway. The vibration actually got worse and the tires were really noisy around turns. Stupid me, I didn't even give the Tiger Paw tires much inspection aside from seeing the heaping amounts of tread they had left. After a closer look, I noticed a lot of dry-rotting and what looking like the sidewalls coming apart from the tread with multiple cracks in the rubber. Yuck... Needless to say, these tires were junk. Who knows how bad of a blowout I could have had with this car had I not caught the rubber condition in time. Always be careful to give these sort of things a good inspection from time to time.

Safe motoring everyone.