taller tires?

[Sasquatch]

I have a 2001 with the 215/65R16 (I think) tires.

Just wondering if taller tires can be put on this car, and if so, how tall.

Thinking maybe 225/70R16 or even 225/75R16 if possible.

The 225/75R16 or 235/75R16 opens up a lot of possibilities as far as snow tires go.

Alternatively, I saw some old rims/tires from an older Volvo for sale recently, which are probably like 215/70R15 or so. This would also allow a taller, narrower snow tire to go on for the winter.

Of course, the stock Scorpions (again, I think) might be OK with the 4wd, but I've not had the chance to talk to many people about this subject or to test it out first hand.

Thanks.

[gibbons]

A 235/75 will only give you 1.5" more ground clearance (3" on the diameter) but will make your speedometer read 10% slow. It will also change your final gearing to 10% higher. That's pretty dramatic. In musclehead terms, it would be about like changing from 4.10 rear end gears to 3.63 gears. I have never seen the transmission ratios for the XC, but the taller tires might feel something like starting in 2nd gear all the time. You would get better fuel economy at high speed if the engine wasn't lugging, but snow tires wouldn't want to run that fast anyway. Exclusive of whether or not they would fit, it probably would make the car less appealing to drive.

There are a bunch of magic snow tires to choose from in the stock size. Yeah, yeah, I switched sizes on my car from 215/65 to 235/60, but the diameter difference was insignificant (.3%).

[Sasquatch]

I did not realize the stock tires were so small as to it being a 1.5 inch difference!. Holy cow!

Anyhow, I don't really care about the speedometer difference, but the gearing for other reasons is important. How difficult is it to regear these cars? If I ever went with taller tires (more than .5 inch taller, that is), I'd want to regear just to keep it useable and for better (keeping close to stock) mileage. One of the reasons I'm asking these questions is I want a little more height than stock, but I guess 1.5 inches is asking too much from a station wagon type of vehicle. I imagine I'd need a decent lift kit of which I haven't seen any for a XC vehicle.

Any more input would be greatly appreciated.

[gibbons]

The stock tires (215/65) are 27.0" diameter, which is actually kinda tall in today's wacky world. I think my Subaru wagon's are 24.8", and our old Accord's were 23.1"

As far as re-gearing, I know nothing about aftermarket stuff for XCs, but I am guessing that there isn't anything available. I have swapped gearing on conventional rear differentials on Detroit iron, and it's not fun or cheap. Looking at the the differential "pod" on an XC, I would guess that trying to swap gears would be downright miserable. A science fair project comes to mind.

I like to tinker with things, but if I needed to change the XC's design intent that much, I would change the whole car to something that better fit what I needed.

Oh, yeah, those 15" wheels you're eyeing-in probably won't clear the front brake caliper.

You've all heard this before: throw on some Nokian WR 235/60's for darn near the best of both worlds, blah, blah, blah.....

[tooberand]

So will the 235 width tires fit on the Tellus and Xenia rims without any adjustments? I always thought (although never knew for sure) that if you changed the tire width, you would have to either adjust your rims (if even possible) or get new rims.

[gibbons]

Interestingly enough, the industry-standard recommended wheel width for the stock size 215/65 tire is actually 6.5" But the Xenia and Tellus wheels are 7". That's OK, 7" is still within the acceptable range, just not optimal for the sidewall profile, deflection, tread footprint, etc.

HOWEVER, the 235/60's recommended wheel width is 7". Perfect! By the way, the acceptable range is pretty broad at 6"-8" wide.

You have to make a pretty radical width change to require different wheels, like going from a 70 series to a 50 series while maintaining the original diameter.

[Raynald]

I think I've read somewhere on this forum that the overall wheel and tire diameter shouldn't exceed 30" because the VC AWD system (non-Haldex) of MY'02 and earlier could be damaged. I can't say for sure if it falls in the "recommended", "rule of thumb" or "must absolutely" categories, but you'd better check with somebody more knowledgeable than I... :confused:

[gibbons]

As long as all four tires are the same diameter, the viscous coupler doesn't care what size they are. All it cares about is that the angular velocities of each of the hubs is reasonably the same. If you have different size tires, then the angular velocities of the hubs will be different for a given linear speed of the car, and the coupler will bind/break/burn after a while.

[ifnt420]

All 01~02 XC came with the six spokes Tellus wheel, and from 03+ on the Xenia wheel was available as an option (it looks like 10 spokes split at the end).

Tellus:
http://www.clickar.it/wmupload/cmc_upload/XC70.jpg

Xenia:
http://www.galilei.ne.jp/car/nishimoto/img/xc70_02.jpg

[Sasquatch]

(Thanks for telling us.)

I have the Tellus.



What IS the final drive ratio of our Volvos?

Anyone know if there are optional ratios available?

Thanks.

[Sasquatch]

Anyone know about the final drive, and if there are optional ratios?