Just a simple question. Can the wheel wells of a 64 Dart house a 225 60 14 without modifications? Thanks, Dale

If you use wheels(rallyes,steel etc....) with the original off-set you should be fine.



JZ

You stand a fairly good chance of rubbing the outer sidewalls on the inside of the quarter panels (unless your '64 is a wagon, which uses fully-open rear wheelwells). Also, you stand a fairly good chance of rubbing the front tires' inner sidewalls on the frame rails in full turn, and there's a corner at the leading inboard edge of the front wheelwell that'll tend to catch the outboard forward corner of the tire.

"Same offset as the original" is tough to apply in this situation, for the original wheels were 13 x 4-1/2" units; you can squeeze a 225/60R14 onto a 5-1/2" wide wheel, but it'll tend to "balloon" the middle of the tread, largely cancelling the wide tires' benefit. You should try for a minimum 6" wheel width with 225-wide tires.

Heavy-duty tin snips can be used to round off the "offending" corner at the leading inboard edge of the front wheelwells.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

The reason I had the size of 225 60 14, is the figures turn out to be the closest to the tires I have on now -185 80 13. I'd like 60 series to improve handling. My engine is surely not going to break a thinner tire. I'd like a more agressive look and better handling. I don't want to cut up anything to fit a wider tire though. What size would you recommend?
215 is just shy of the original height-would these work? Thanks, Dale

If you're trying to stick with the original tire diameter of 24.65", then 225/60R14s will give you 24.63" (virtually identical), while 215/65R14s will give you 25" (a 1% increase in diameter, totally trivial).

Me, the handling improvement when going from 185/80R13s to BFGoodrich Radial T/A 205/70R14s is so enormous that I've never really been tempted to go for 60 or 65 series tires. If BFG expands their Traction T/A range to include 215/65R14 or 225/60R14, I may well change my mind.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Dan, 205 70 14 total height acording to my calculations is aprox. 2% higher and the 215 60 14 total height is aprox. 2% under. I also favor BF Goodrich, although the traction TA's stick well they're way too noisy for my taste, I prefer the good old Radial TA's. I checked for the heck of it and couldn't find anything in a 65. So that being said is there any regrets you've had with your choice and do you feel it a better choice than the 215 60's ? Thanks, Dale

That's what I'm running, Radial T/A in 205/70R14. I've run them on a few different cars, with 14 x 5-1/2" or 14 x 6" wheels, and like the way they work quite a lot. No complaints. I can't say if they're a better choice than 215/60R14, 'cause I've never run that size. One thing to remember is that especially the early cars ('67-down) have idler arm mounting arrangements that have relatively low stress limits. They work fine for years with the skinny little original-equipment tires, but put great fat meats on and the load on the idler arm goes way up, to the point where if you overdo it you can waller-out (or worse) the idler arm mounting point. The '68-up through-bolt style idler mount is much more robust. I wonder if anyone'll come up with a K-frame mod and suitably-picked idler arm to reinforce the early cars...I'm not necessarily saying 205/70R14 is safe for the idler arm and 215/60R14 isn't, just something to keep in mind. 205/70R14 is a lot more tire than the cars came with, and the improvement is nice. I've got a mental barrier against using a 60-series tire under an early A-body.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Makes sense to me. I think I'll try the 70's. Thanks, Dale

Dale get the 215s, I run them on 14x6 rims with no problems at all. No rubbing. You also had mentioned wanting to re-gear. If you go with smaller tires, that's like getting higher gears...I'm perfectly happy with my 215/60s and 3.23 in the rear.

MJ

I have the same tires as Dan (205-70-14 bfg ta's)and am very happy with them.I have a 65 Dart.They make the car very stable.They are on steel 14" by 4 1/2" rims.

I have a set of 5 1/2 steel wheels that I wanted to put on with some 215-70-14 tires but after hearing from Dan am thinking twice about putting them on the front.Dont want any rubbing.


JZ

I'm assuming you have the small bolt pattern wheels because you're only mention 14's.

I'm running 195/70 14's on the SBP 14x5.5's and the handling is much better than stock. The manufacturer states the diameter as 24.8"
I figured that the slightly greater width of the 205 was canceled out by the small 5.5" rim width....... i.e. the 195's stiffer sidewall made up for less rubber and the diameter was closer to the stock 24.65". (And the 195's were considerablly cheaper for some reason... )


Also I would put a 225 or 215 14" tire on a 7" rim.


If you go to 15" rims, I'd go with a 15x7 with a 205/60 or 215 /60 if you really want 60 series tire. A 205/60 15 tire on a 15x7 rim actually is about 1" wider than a 195/70 tire on a 14x5.5 rim due to the greater rim width (not the nominal 10mm)

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

1962 Lancer ≠ 1964 Dart. Your Lancer has fully-open wheelwells, front and rear. A '64 Dart does not.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I am running 235x60 on 15x7" rims on the back of my '65 Dart. No clearnace issues, no wheel well modifications. The rims were from a Cordoba.