wider tyres on the front?

I had bigger 155s on the front and 145s on the back of my daf for a few months a couple of years back. Apart from knocking the speedo out a bit you really couldn't tell the difference.

When you fit new tyres it's advisable to have them on the rear even if it means swopping the existing rears to the front first. The reason given is that you need the most grip on the rear so in the even of a skid it's the front that breaks away first and that is easier to control than a rear letting go. Same COULD apply if you have wider front tyres and therefore more grip on the front. On a rally car the drivers probably use the rear breaking away to their advantage but personally I'd prefer all wheels to remain firmly planted all the time !



Paul H

Hmm composimmonite that interesting, I guess if I run the 165s on the front they'll get worn down quicker then I buy new 185s when I have to (swap them to the rear) and have same all round.

Not worried about how it looks.

Still tempted to put them on the front though. See if anyone else recommends/has used wider on the front?

Thanks guys

there's more weight over the front (generally) so if you put the wider tyres on the rear, you run the risk of LESS grip at the rear.

An exaggerated way of thinking about it, what would be harder to push:

A) a 4 legged table, with 300kg weight
B) a large flat-bottomed box that weighs 300kg

It seems a bit strange, but generally, the table would be harder to push, as there's a higher concentration of force at the contact patches.


I've also got personal experience of this - my scimitar was turned into a pickup (ie: naff-all weight over the rear) and it had HUGE rear tyres. It spun-out all the time, and was just a pita...


Shove them on the front, and you should see a tiny smidgen of a gain of grip (in theory)

it's not just the "wear" of a tyre that degrades grip - it's thermal cycles, UV, and oxygen that degrade them.

So even if it's never moved an inch, a 3 year old tyre, will have far less grip than a new one

Right so I put them on all fine, but while tightening (by hand) one of the rear wheel bolts I sheared it :(and its stuck in the wheel still.

Happened to me before, am I simply too manly for the puny bolts? The brace I was using slides out so is reasonably long, and I think the force generated may be too great so I used the short one that comes with the car to do the rest.

Another trip to the garage to get that sorted :\

I used to have a corsa diesel. When i needed some cheap tyres I ended up buying 2 second hand wheels with decent tyres. Didnt realise that they were 145 wide rather than 165. Put them on the front and its was awful, understeering every oportunnity. Swapped them onto the back, and it was considerably more fun than when it had the wider tyres on the back!

Never felt like the back end was gonna come out though, even under heavy braking

It did have a chunky diesel engine up front though, so all the weight was on the fronts.

Yeah ive had a car that I had to put a scaffold tube over the biggest breaker bar I have to get the wheel nuts off, someone had done them up that tight without snapping them. I know I can undo a crank bolt tightened to 186Nm with that bar so those wheel nuts where bloody tight!