Widest Rear Wheel Possible on 88?
12-09-08, 05:17 PM
#1
Black Beast
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Widest Rear Wheel Possible on 88?
Hey guys i was wondering what the widest wheel i could slam in the back could be.. Im open to using spacers. Hoping to get a lot more wet traction and reduce wheel hop in 1st. Also, anybody had experience with the hardened bushings in back?
Thanks Brothers
Thanks Brothers
12-09-08, 06:05 PM
#3
I don't believe that either wet traction or wheel hop are primarily addressed through tire width.
Traction is a matter of compound and tread design and I believe that wider tires tend to hydroplane more than skinnier ones.
Wheel hop is a function of suspension design and bushing material...again, wider tires only magnify the problem, not solve it.
Traction is a matter of compound and tread design and I believe that wider tires tend to hydroplane more than skinnier ones.
Wheel hop is a function of suspension design and bushing material...again, wider tires only magnify the problem, not solve it.
12-09-08, 07:49 PM
#7
When water is involved, things become much more complicated.
How much standing water?
How long since the last rainfall (lots of oil and antifreeze floating on a newly wet surface that hasn't been washed clean in a while)?
What kind of pavement?
You seek a simple solution for a complicated problem.
Even in the dry a wider tire is not necessarily the best way to go.
Excluding single priority events- like drag racing, where the launch is pretty much the whole show- the desire for more traction has to be balanced against many other factors.
Remember, a wider tire and wheel weigh more than a narrower one, so loss of acceleration may outweigh the advantages gained with greater initial traction.
Wider tires also impact the drag coefficient of the vehicle (which is why uber mileage cars come with skinny tires).
Many performance cars were designed with some tire slip as part of the handling.
An excellent example of a car that could have used more slip is the early Porche 911.
It gripped tenaciously right up to the moment it lost it altogether- very little warning that you were approaching the edge, just ooops!I'm going backward! (this phenomenon was exacerbated by the extreme rear placement of the engine but the principle holds true in most cases).
So basically, "I'm gonna slam some wide wheels on my ride" is the PepBoys approach to improving your handling.
Probably look great at the root beer stand but could cause worse problems than you started with.
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12-09-08, 08:20 PM
#8
wheel hop is in part the result of lost traction, but as everyone has said, there are other things at work here. I never get wheelhop on my T2, just clean wheelspin. What really helps is replacing all the bushings and the springs/shocks. Other stiffening may help some as well (strut tower bar). My old 88 GTU had significant wheelhop due to trashed bushings, and replacing the springs and struts alone actually made it worse.
12-09-08, 08:31 PM
#9
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Check your differential bushings, as well as all your rear suspension. Putting in a different bushing material and/or checking/replacing your rear shocks may help do exactly what you want, without having to buy wide wheels. Plus, wider wheels weigh more, you can put a fairly large tire (255ish) on a 9" rear wheel, so do you really need to go wider?
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