I’m on a mission to reduce unsprung weight, and what could be more unsprung than… tires?
Still, tires need to be made of ‘stuff,’ of ‘materials,’ so tires need to weight something.
So Vredestein makes a GOOD tire (based on Tirerack reviews) called the Quatrac 5. In the 175/65R15 size, the weight is only 14.X lbs. (versus the average of 17 lbs.)
Since I’m pairing these with a set of Konig Helium lightweight alloys (11.2 lbs.) this makes for a pretty drastic weight reduction.
The Konig Heliums are 15X6.5
175/65R15 are spec’d for a wheel width of 5 inches to 6inches. Mounting these tires on a 6.5 wheel puts it out of spec by half an inch…
I’m thinking that since there’s so much sidewall, this should be OK (maybe even beneficial since this stiffens up the sidewall a little–I’m told these tires have soft sidewalls!)
What do you think?