I have a 1965 Ford Country Sedan station wagon, I would like to put tall wheels and low profile tires on it. Can anyone recommend a size that would fit?
Quick answer - I don't know. Long answer: I'm sure you can make 20" wheels with very low-profile tires fit in the wheel wells, but I don't think you should. When originally sold new, these cars had skinny old bias-ply tires on 14 or 15" wheels. The thick sidewall acted as part of the suspension, absorbing a lot of the road surface imperfections, so they were fairly comfortable at a moderate pace. Putting larger wheels with low aspect-ratio tires (low profile) is going to do two things: 1. They will greatly disrupt the ride quality. You're going to feel every little rock or even a small seam between pavement surfaces. 2. Because your suspension is doing more work now (tires absorbing less of the 'road impact') you are going to be accelerating the wear on the suspension components themselves - shocks, springs, ball joints, tie rods, even motor mounts. I understand the desire to 'look cool'. I might want to do something non-stock if I had a wagon like that, but personally, I think a bit of moderation is called for. I would only go up to a 16" wheel on these, with 60-series tire on it. Now for the research... I used this tire size calculator. https://tiresize.com/calculator/ To keep your speedometer accurate, you want to stay pretty close to the original overall diameter of your stock tires. For example, If you somehow substituted a set of extremely large truck tires onto your wagon, You would be going in actuality a lot faster than what your speedometer indicates. Conversly, if you put on tires with a smaller diameter, you would be going in actuality slower than your shown speed. Also means your engine would be working harder, too. Assuming it's a 352 V8 you have (or a similar size) your stock tire size was 8.15 x 15. That size converts to a modern-day radial tire equivalent of P235/75R15, or for a slightly lower profile, P255/70R15. I've created a chart to give you some size comparisons, keeping very close to the original diameter that your wagon has. My suggestion was for a 16" wheel, but I know 16's could be somewhat difficult to find, so I've also included some 17" choices as well....... Tire Size.............Diameter.......Tire Width..........Tire revolutions per mile: P235/75R15........ 28.9.............9.3 (inches)...........699 P255/70R15.........29.1.............10.0....................694 P275/60R16.........29.0.............10.8....................696 P255/60R17.........29.0.............10.0....................695 P235/65R17.........29.0.............9.3.....................695
