Mustangmaster

Do wider tires give a smoother ride or rougher ride? How about gas mileage? Do wider tires hurt gas mileage?

2005Redfire6

I would imagine it effects your gas mileage being thats more unsprung weight turning...

jdmcbride

Wider tires with the same sidewall height (ex. 255/45/18 vs 235/50/18) will ride smoother as there is more tire covering the road and smoothing out road imperfections. MPG could be reduced by additional weight and the increased rolling resistance. I will let you know when I replace my 235/50/18s with 255/45/18s this month.

Nuke

My mileage went down MAYBE 1/2 MPG when I went from the stock 235's to my current 275's. Although she became more sure-footed, the downside was tramlining something fierce on truck-worn roads.

But you have a Stang. Why are you worrying about a measley MPG or 2?

2005Redfire6

+1

What I like to mention often and forgot to throw into the first post...

Mustangmaster

Just want to get input from folks here. Thanks.

siggyfreud

More surface area equals more friction with the road thus more power (and fuel) to overcome. Smoothness wouldn't really change much based only on width. Unless, like nuke said, they grab more road grooves.

Menace

Comments like this tend to annoy me. YES, we all drive mustangs but that doesn't mean I want to get 10mpg. I like having 300+ miles on a tank and filling up once every 2 weeks if I'm lucky. Who wants to fill up, drive half way down the road and already be looking for the nearest gas station?

I've made several long trips (360mi one way) on my stock tires, and I will be taking this trip on my new tires which are wider and taller. I will give feedback (but not for several months as I'm still deployed) On stock tires I can make it 360mi, all highway on one tank with some left over. On ONE occassion, I managed 425 miles. I not only reached my destination but had a 1/4 tank left. Was pretty stoked about that but it only happened once, I don't know why and it might have had something to do with a fresh K&N Filter Recharge.

svastano

[QUOTE=Menace;7187868]Comments like this tend to annoy me. YES, we all drive mustangs but that doesn't mean I want to get 10mpg. I like having 300+ miles on a tank and filling up once every 2 weeks if I'm lucky. Who wants to fill up, drive half way down the road and already be looking for the nearest gas station?

QUOTE]

I agree. I for one don't have money to burn so 2 MPG does make a difference. Would I buy a Prius heck no but I want to squeeze every penny out of the fun I get with my Stang. JMO

Nuke

Get over it. You asked a question. If you're looking to save money in fuel, no mod will do it. Comments like YOURS tend to annoy me and lot of others.


After over 30 years of strict mileage record keeping, I'll tell you right now that it takes a lot more than 1, 2 or even 10 tank fulls to even begin to get an IDEA of what's affecting your mileage. But that's also been discussed to death here.

Your question is about wider tires and it's been answered; flat-out handling improvement but with tramlining and expect no change or a bit of a loss in MPG. But even a different tread pattern, tire pressure, rubber compound, etc. can affect your mileage even if it's the same size as the original tire.