mjohnson4381

Hi, I'm new. I drive a 2001 Mustang. Nothing fancy like a GT or anything...it's just a regular automaticcoupe.

I'm planning on buying some new tires this weekend and I'd like some advice. I need tires that have the best traction possible.My car goes allover the road when it rains theslightest little bit and that makes me uncomfortable. So Ineed some good tires.Oh, I only drive on streets and don't race or anything.

Also, doesanybody know where I can go online to compare prices of tires? I want to know how muchdifferent brandsnormally cost, so I don't get ripped off when I go buy my tires. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

mjohnson4381

Oops...I wasn't supposed to post my question here. Sorry.

ravenforbidden

Either way I'd recommend BF Goodrich thru Discount Tire. KDW or Radial's are good tires, I have a 375 ft lbs 89 GT Crankin t5 and it's working great rain or not with stock 225 size, so your much larger tread should be phenominally better! LOL

Nitto is overrated, and most others are over rated as far as performance of the tire, BF Goodrich is usually rated fairly, Nitto is just a high performance small gain over the cheaper BF Goodrich brand, but then there is Cooper, or what not, but most guys I know live and die by BF Goodrich.

CruizinConcepts

Hi there,
There are plenty of tires to choose from. If you are interested by buying an enexpensive tire that has good wet traction ratings there are several to choose from. One thing you may consider is going up slightly in tire size. For example you could go with a 235-45ZR-17. Prices will run almost the same as the 225 series. The extra width will help and you could go with Falken, Toyo, Kumho in there performance category for a good fit.

mjohnson4381

Thanks for your replies. I've heard a lot of good things about BF Goodrich, so I think I'll go with that. I actually didn't go buy any tires this weekend, because I'm so paranoid about getting ripped off. I think I'm going to ask one of my guy friends to go with me to buy them because a lot of places like to rip girls off. Not ALL places do that, but I figure that I might go with a guy just to be on the safe side.

And, since tire size was mentioned, I was also wondering about my wheel size. The rims I have right now are 16 inch. I've heard that getting bigger rims wouldn't help me out inthe traction depatment because of some kind of torque issue. Is this true? I guess I'm just wondering what gets the best traction...small wheels/tires or big wheels/tires?

mjohnson4381

Oh yeah, and if I go up a tire size, do I have to buy new rims? Please educate me.

ravenforbidden

Okay real simple, your numbers are like this 225\60\15 k? The "225" denotes width, "60" denotes profile, low profile tires rock for performance but are the b-b-ba-bumpyest damn things around k? And the last digit tells you about rim size. ZR and all that is your speed rating, on a Mustang you usually should go for 120mph + range because the torque is high on our cars and without good rubber your waisting money cuz you'll be back soon.

Now simply said research whatever you go buy before you go in, discount tire makes that pretty easy. Now as far as width and all, well big width is not the best way to go, quiet frankly most guys will put a 255 on the front only if they're like drifting or some such. I wouldn't say go higher enless you needed maximum grip. Otherwise on a sixteen inch rim it depends on how wide, but it looks like 225 comes pretty easy. I'd recommend a 225\60\16 if your looking for ride comfort. However I'd shoot for the 245\50\16 KDW if you have a 7 inch rim width or about up to 8.5 BF Goodrich has a site, if you need help figuring it out let me know, but it lists sizes and tire specs.

Now the other thing is this, Toyo is third in tire ratings at the moment, everyone else is way lower.

BF Goodrich and Nitto are slugging it out, and for price BF Goodrich is way better. I have tried Falken, Toyo, and such, needless to say I ran out of rubber to quick to say I enjoyed them, in fact I ran out so fast I was upset, not cuz I wanted to either!

BF Goodrich's other non-performance tire (this is the one if you do not want to use your Stang for racing or sporty stuff, just drive it around economy choice) is the Radial. Now the tire guys should be clear, don't let them shove off any other brand! BF Goodrich is the tire of choice for a large amount of talented drivers, and I've never been let down by BF Goodrich where other brands rated much higher in one feild absolutely failed me in that feild during testing or track runs.

And when a Tire can't keep grip without the rain, it's fudged (you know what I mean) when you try it wet.

I have radials at the moment cuz it's snow season and they're studded already, so far I havn't been able to get the tires to break loose "unnaturally", which means I have to romp on the gas pedal to see some clouding.

A wider tire will cost you some speed, it's due to the grip of the tire, which is usually why pro drag cars have "skinny's" in the front "slicks" in the back. Slicks are just treadless full traction tires, absolutely worthless in the rain... Otherwise wider to a limited extent will not hurt. If you went to 300 or so it'd be a notable issue, but otherwise a jump to something as high even 255 shouldn't be concerning, so shoot wider, don't worry bout it, and if you need more help I could look up the discount tire near you and chat with em for you so you just had to go pick up the tires or something.