whats the best tire to put on the factory 17" rims that will fill in the wheel well space. taller tire more agressive

You really shouldn't put on a larger tire. It'll throw off your speedometer, change your transmissions shift points, and possibly be reason to void your powertrain warranty. The warranty issue is the one to be most concerned about.

why soooo much rooom in the wheel well

then go w/ some 275/75/R17's

or are you serious?

seriously I am thinking about pirelli scoprpion what would be the best Size to accomplish that rugged

off-road look

post this in the off road forum, they may know better. use an on-line tire size calculator to figure out total diameter and compare to what some other guys are running (they probably have 15" or 16" wheels). but there aren't many outback XT offroaders so info may be limited. some vendors (Allied Armament) have made lift kits for some EJ models so they may know as well how big you can go on a stock setup. the search function might be your best bet on this...

FWIW on my '97 I went from 205/70/15 to 205/75/15 AT tire... only a small increase (about +.5" sidewall, plus a few more mm of thicker tread), and when I'm turning and the suspension gets compressed (like through a dip or pothole) while braking there is slight rubbing.

 

So, the point is, you can't go much bigger if you want to be able to turn the wheels and actually drive the car, tires will rub. You can fill up the well a little more or get a knobbier treaded tire but I wouldn't think you could go more than a few percent bigger, I doubt the 05+ models differ too much from first gens in this regard. Unless you want to start doing things like cutting the fenders and bashing things in with a BFH, then you'd have more room.

 

In theory my speedometer should read a bit low... but in reality it's more accurate now, according to the roadside "Your Speed" type things I've driven past. It's dead on now. Speedos often read a little high by default, so by increasing the circumference of my tires I've corrected that.

 

A great tire calculator I like to use is found here:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

 

Steve

I dont think the pirelli scorpions are that great of an offroad tire. How much more traction are you looking for offroad? I think they actually make "Low profile M/T" tires these days, so you can have yourself a set of dubs to go with your offroading H2. But I just got done stuffing some 27X9.5x15 tires on my wagon, and the tires on mine are actually larger in diameter than the stock ones on the Outback xt. (by a mm or two) You could check into rally gravel wheels that can clear 4 pot calipers and are 15 inch in size. Thats about it?

that is a great tire size tool, i've used it many times.

 

i agree with the larger tire sizes as well. i've used larger tires that should have had a %6 increase but noticed only a %3 difference in odometer inaccuracy. so it must have been around %3 low.

coming from someone if "offroad subaru" arena and from a Good Year garage, you're not going to find anything that's aggressive in a 17" thatll fit your car.

 

if you want offroadish agressive tires on a sedan then you need a car with 14", 15", or MAYBE 16" (though your choices will diminish with 16").

 

my stock size is 195/60r15 and i have 205/75r15's on it. Trail Mark Radial APR's.

 

youve just got too big of a wheel to find an agressive dirt-tread.

even if you go to a truck tire

even if you go to a truck tire

 

any agressive truck tire thats in 17" will be HUGE.

 

no, you won't be able to find anything along the lines of what i imagine you're looking for.

how about rally tires are there any on 16" that will fit

how about rally tires are there any on 16" that will fit

 

yeah, there are 16" rallys.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=ECSTA+R700

 

http://www.hankooktireusa.com/products_view_info.asp?Item_ID=74&CatID=3

 

http://www.hankooktireusa.com/products_view_info.asp?Item_ID=75&CatID=3

 

http://www.hankooktireusa.com/products_view_info.asp?Item_ID=76&CatID=3

 

http://www.hankooktireusa.com/products_view_info.asp?Item_ID=68&CatID=3

 

http://www.libraracing.com/tires.htm

 

to name a few.

if you want to be changing your tires every couple weeks then get rally tires...:-p

 

they don't last long... even if you get 90 compound they still don't last long... and on road handling with gravel tires will go down... they tend to have super duper duty sidewalls making them great on (suprise!) gravel but not on pavement...

 

 

You could get rally wheels or even any 16's that would work, and some 215/65/16 General Grabber AT. They're All terrains so it would be ok to leave them on all the time for everything. Not much of a size difference either.

where can I get OZ crono's or crono's 4x4

I went with a Yokohama Geolander AT+II's 215/75R15 which are 1" larger diameter than stock 225/60R16's.

I put these on my '03 outback although I had to grind my front calipers 1/4" to fit 15" rims on!

Your gonna run into the same problem with new gen. I'm also lifted 2" via kingsprings. I filled the wheel wells nicely!

 

so then will 16" rims clear the calibers

so then will 16" rims clear the calibers

 

who knows. no one's really downsized new gen wheels yet. if you're that hard up for it, get the wheels and worry about grinding later.

so then will 16" rims clear the calibers

 

I think 16's will clear .However , check with the dealer and ask the parts guys if Subaru changed the calipers since the gen 2 OBW.

 

The first gen 2000 model still has the gen 1 calipers , so 15's clear no problem. Mine is an '03 and they do not clear due to larger calipers, better check rather than buying wheels that won't fit.

 

If your local tire shop has a 16" ask to have one fitted on the front and rear of one side to see if they will mount. I did this when fitting mine with 15's ...they were really kewl about it and made easy grand for them....

is there any tire richer than those grabbers that will do the same thing but have stronger sidewalls

I just changed from 205/55/16 to 205/60/16...enough of a change to notice the cornering, but i gain in confort!So before you do any changes think about the tradeoff

why soooo much rooom in the wheel well

 

At the top? Because Subaru decided to qualify the OB as a light track by jacking the suspension up an inch to 8.2" of ground clearance. At great expense to high speed cornering stability - one of the dumbest things SOA has done lately.

 

If you read your owner's manual about snow tires you'll find the section that mentions 16" wheels are supported. It's also online at subaru.com.

I'm suprised there is not a lowering kit that drops it back a few inches without changing the geometry