Tyres again

[NorthernBoy]

I know that the subject has come up in several places but I've never seen it collated, and I'm keen to hear people's opinions about what they've found when trying 275 sections instead of the standard 255s.

After managing 16,000 miles on my first, and original, set of OE rubber, and despite still having legal tread all round, it's time to change, to make sure that I'm on good rubber for the winter. I've decided to get a set of Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas, but am mulling over the question of whether to get 255s or to go for 275/30s instead.

The main (in fact only) reason for going this route is that for some reason I just can't avoid kerbs with the wheels on this car. It's never happened on anything else I've driven, but I just keep scraping them. Never at speed, but too frequently when parking.

Living in London I use a fair few tight car-parks, and also face the dilemma when parallel parking in a bay that if I leave a few inches spare between the car and the kerb then I am also putting the offside wheels over the line marking the outside of the bay, and so am risking fines/towing. This means that I want to nestle as close to the concrete as I can.

The solution, I hope, is the 275/30s, which will at least give me a fighting chance of getting away with gentle rubbing. As long as I hear rubber before metal, then that'll do me fine.

But...

Are there ANY downsides to going this route? Yes, I'll be 1% off on my speedometer and odometer readings, but do people notice heavier steering, has anyone suffered unusual tramlining, torque steer, pulling under braking, or anything else similar when upsizing like this, or is all fine?

[P_G]

I'm on my second set of secret Santa's on 275 and the only difference I have found is better turn in. they will rescue your wheels a little more than 255's as the RS alloy wheel does protrude somewhat but on the whol grip, turn and handling has been improved. On cold mornings the only down side is they ride a little harsher because of the 30 profile but once up to temperature no issues.

[NorthernBoy]

Thanks, that's good to know. Unfortunately they aren't in stock, so I'm going to have to wait a week for them, but I won't be travelling far afield in that time.

I can hopefully wince a bit less now whenever I go into a tight car park.

[P_G]

Where did you try? Tyremen in Hull were cheapest at £167 per tyre including home delivery and could get stock delivered to you in 2-3 working days. I got my last two from them the week before last and that was from new supplier stock.

[ArthurPE]

has anyone looked at how close a 275 gets to the upright?
the tire radius/shoulder is the closest point, in fact Audi notched it for clearance...
with 265/35 on 19 x 10 wheels ET30 it's very close, mm's, I measured ~5 mm...
I would imagine 275's (+5 mm more) would be similar, although they are a bit shorter so that should open the gap up some...

[PetrolDave]

I had a set of 275/30 Goodyear F1s last year, including during the freeze earlier this year.

Had no rubbing problems even when heavily laden coming back from holiday, and found grip in the wet (and in the snow and ice) excellent. Didn't replace them because when I did the sums the PS2s worked out cheaper per mile - 30% more cost but 40% more miles.

[NorthernBoy]

Where did you try? Tyremen in Hull were cheapest at £167 per tyre including home delivery and could get stock delivered to you in 2-3 working days. I got my last two from them the week before last and that was from new supplier stock.

I am getting them supplied and fitted at £176 each at Elite Tyres in Essex. I could have got them a bit quicker if I'd bought form one place, and had them fitted at another, but I'm off to New York at the weekend, so it wasn't worth the hassle, I'll just wait until I'm back to get them done.

On which unrelated point, never, ever use Meteor Parking at Heathrow. They brought the car back absolutely stinking of burnt clutch last time. I asked the management to find out what had happened, assuming that they'd tell me that the driver was new, or that he was not used to a car with so much power, perhaps, but what I actually got was a blank denial that anything had happened. It was also rarely faster than parking in the long-term car park, and getting the courtesy bus over.

Arseholes.