Legacy owners seem to be able to fit wider rims?

[-=HaZ=-]

Guys,

I am doing my research on XXR's and wider rims, and it seems that the owners on the Legacy GT Forum legacygt.com are able to fit wider rims and tyre combinations than we can?!

We(Australian Liberty) seem to struggle with fitting XXR 8.75 +35 with a 225 - 245 tyre; searching this forum, it seems that only a few have attempted this combination and with limited success. Some here have either attempted this combination, only to sell the rims and tyres later on because of scrubbing or others have conceded they have to run quite a high(relative to stock) ride height because of scrubbing. On the whole it doesn't seem like anyone has had any great success with the stance or the quality in ride because of scrubbing. All agree on this forum that +20 is pretty much impossible.

I have done allot of research on the Legacy GT Forum and it seems in general owners there are able to run much wide rims and tyres?! There are several examples of USA delivered Legacy's running XXR 8.75 +35 with 245 tyres, with apparently no scrubbing issues; some negative camber and a small pull of the fronts(so the owner says). Another example I have found is of the same car running 9.5 wide +40 offset rims and pretty wide tyre. There doesn't appear to be much stretch.

I am aware that some Legacy owners run an XXR 17 8.25 +30; I am excluding these from the discussion.

Below is one of the cars I am referring to; XXR 527 8.75 +35 with 245's he later goes on to fit 9.5 inch wide rims......apparently seems to have no problems fitting the XXR's?!

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.p ... 6p391.html

[rooby]

There are people on here that have put large rims on.

As an example - viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13494

You can do it if you want but to go low you would want guard rolling and pulling and trimming / removing the plastic guard liner.

Keeping the tyres narrower will help a lot too. 245 and up makes things much harder when low.

[zch91]

Its one thing for them to fit in the guard and fit nice (the above will do that) but the comfort factor and amount of scrubbing you can deal with on a daily basis is normally the issue, IMO

[KiDo_Tuning]

Australia has legislation that limits wheel fitments due to wheel track width

[rooby]

Australia has legislation that limits wheel fitments due to wheel track width

I assume people going for "flush" fitments don't care much for the legalities of their mods

[tkboi]

as stated above. its very possible to do but for some reason alot of people on here are totally against the idea of dumped and stanced liberties. as in alot of people dont like the look. if u want the look its possible but you have to remember its goner be a harsh harsh ride.. and camber wear is goner be a b****

[Jack_Keaka]

i have 19x8.5 +35, 0 camber on the rear and only 1.5 on the front, on my gen3 and from my understanding gen4's have a tiny bit more room to play with.

people in aus are very conservative understandably. ultimately you do to your car what you think looks good.
i find having my coil overs on max hard with 19's on 35% profile and as low as i can go fine for every day. i do have to go slower over things but thats not necessarily a bad thing. except when people beep you for going slow or taking driveways sideways.

[efracer]

I had 18x9 +35 on my Liberty GT Spec B Wagon, no real issues and was lowered, a little camber at front and rear (think maybe -1deg). Ended up selling them not too soon after though as I got defected for them and didn't want the hassle of defects.

[-=HaZ=-]

Thanks for your feedback and reassurance guys. I am not sure I agree that lower means a harsher ride. From my point of view, when you go a wide rim, the inside of the rim and tire can scrub against the top spring mount of the stock Bilsteins. One way to fix this is Coil-overs; some people buy coil-overs that give less than OEM ride quality hence the harsher ride. I intend to buy Ohlins; spoke to Troy from Prospeed today, so I believe the ride quality will be better than OEM.

I am going to get Mick from www.fatfitment.com to roll and flare the rear and front guards.

I bought some Toyo Proxes R1R's 18245/40's mated to the XXR 527 +35 offset; I test fitted them and was VERY worried about the fronts. With the stock suspension and 0 degree camber they stick out like dogs......

I am worried now I have bought too wide a tire. Unfortunately the Proxes R1Rs do not come in a 235 series only a 225. I may yet have to buy a set of 225's if I cannot fit the 245's under the guards. Having said that, according to at least one Legacy owner as I originally posted it is possible.

Ohlins are on order, approximately two weeks from Sweden; will let you know how I go.

Cheers.

[zch91]

What ride height are you aiming for? As in approx distance between tyre and guard? How much camber do you plan on running? Will you be buying rear camber bushes?

The 245 is gonna be a decent squeeze, I would recommend 235's at a minimum if not 225's to be comfortable. On a 8.75" there won't be a whole lot of stretch.

IMO the comfort issue comes not from the type/brand of suspension you buy, but the fact you need to set your damper a bit harder to prevent scrubbing, this is directly affected by the amount of camber you run/stretch/ride height obviously.

I find my 18x9 +42 with 225/40/18 scrub pretty bad up front. I am tucking approx 5-10mm tyre with 1degree camber (needs more) and it hits on the guard (rolled and very slightly flared) and on the inner fender (the guard cops it the most)

Rears do not scrub at all. 1.5 degrees camber and tucking 10mm tyre.

It's my daily though so my damper isn't set as hard as I could, about 10 from hard from memory (32 clicks total?)

[-=HaZ=-]

Hi Zach,

My car is an STi so its a little lower than the stock BL5 and I am happy with the OEM STi ride height, although a little lower would be nicer. I am not sure where that puts the car from a ride height perspective, I am going to play it by ear. I may have to run up-to 2.5 to 3 degrees of negative up the front; yup thats allot, because of the 245's. I have already bought the Proxes 18 245/40 tires and the KCA399 rear upper camber kit. I don' think I will bother with the KTA124 rear lower camber kit. Speaking to Mick, he believes the rears are no problems at all.

Thanks for the feedback regarding ride quality; I still say some of that does come down to quality of coil-overs, but I agree the ride height is bar far the deciding factor.

[Mat04]

Out here in the south side of Sydney we have some cars running 18x9.5+35's mine being one of them. A slight roll and stretch of the rear guards and some negative camber and they fit up in there.

[-=HaZ=-]

Hi Matt,

If you are referring to the BP5 wagon, the track and wheel arch cavity is quite a bit wider on the wagon than the BL5 sedan. I have verified that by fitting these XXRs to a wagon, they fit nice, no camber and no guard rolling etc. Go figure.....

[TheMightyGonzo]

If you are referring to the BP5 wagon, the track and wheel arch cavity is quite a bit wider on the wagon than the BL5 sedan. I have verified that by fitting these XXRs to a wagon, they fit nice, no camber and no guard rolling etc. Go figure.....

Glad to hear that wagons have a bit more space to play with, I'm shooting for some 9.5 +38 rota grids and was starting to get a bit concerned about them fitting.

[SHIZNT]

If you are referring to the BP5 wagon, the track and wheel arch cavity is quite a bit wider on the wagon than the BL5 sedan. I have verified that by fitting these XXRs to a wagon, they fit nice, no camber and no guard rolling etc. Go figure.....

Glad to hear that wagons have a bit more space to play with, I'm shooting for some 9.5 +38 rota grids and was starting to get a bit concerned about them fitting.

I would try and test fit first. I'm not sure about other people but when I purchased my Works VS-XX in 18x8 +38 I thought I would have no issues what so ever tucking them under my BP5 Wagon as I'm running Tein Type Flex coilovers.

When I fitted them to the car I found the rears were only a few mm off touching the guards and the fronts required a few degrees of camber to get them to fit under the guard. They do fit nicely now I've had all the guards rolled, but did take a bit of work to get them to fit.