i do alot of camping and hiking and i take my accord places a accord should not go. i am in the market for some new tires and i cant seem to find any tires with an aggressive tred in a 195/65/15 (surprise surprise). i was wondering if anyone knew what bigger sizes i could use with little to kno rubbing. car is a 1998 accord 4 door

 

I'll assume you need to use these tires year round, in occasional snow in winter as well as in moderate to warm temperatures the rest of the year. As long as this is true, you need all-season tires, rather than summer tires that won't give you traction in the winter.

Why not get the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position in your stock size, 195/65-15? It's one of the very best all-season tires you can buy. And it's not all that expensive, either.

Two other possible size options are 205/60-15 and 215/60-15. Either can be mounted on your stock 15" rims.

In 205/60-15, whose outer diameter is 1.2 percent smaller than the stock size, you could still get the RE960AS and that would again be my top all-season pick. Other all-season choices in that size are the Goodyear Eagle GT and the Kumho ASX, which are both very good. But since the prices of those three are almost identical, I'd get the RE960AS over the other two.

The outer diameter of 215/60-15 is 0.7 percent larger than the stock size, and I'm not sure whether or not that size might rub in the wheel wells, so I'd probably avoid it. Also, the tires in that size - the RE960AS and Eagle GT are the best all-seasons - are a bit more expensive than in 205/60-15, which is another reason not to go that wide.

If you won't be using these tires in the winter - either because you have a separate set of winter tires, or another vehicle for winter use - then you could get better performance from summer tires. My top pick among summer tires is the Yokohama ES100 in 205/60-15. If you want to save a little money and you don't mind a little less performance in exchange, you could also consider the BFGoodrich g-Force Sport in 205/60-15.

Again, to summarize - if you'll be using these tires in winter, my top recommendation is the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position in 195/65-15; if not, then the Yokohama ES100 in 205/60-15.

 

i already have a set of snow tires and tire chains for the winter. i was looking for something with an "off road" look to them with not being too over the top. like i said b4, i do ALOT of camping and hiking in the adirondacks and alot of other places. i was looking as the pirelli scorpion ATR in the smallist size they have, 205/70/15. i dont know if they will fit but i have heard of people running up to 225 on my gen accord without rubbing, its the 70 im worried about

 

205/70-15 has an outer diameter that's 5.3 percent larger than stock (almost an inch and a half larger). In tire terms, that's a HUGE difference and there's a very good chance that size will rub in the wheel wells. (As for 225 treadwidth sizes, in addition to rubbing, they are also too wide to be mounted safely on your stock wheels.)

Have you considered buying an SUV?

(You know that no one but you is going to notice the tread pattern on your tires, right?)

 

hah yeah but its just some piece of mind for me knowing that my car will make it places i want it to go. yeah i would love to have a SUV but my accord is paid off so im going to run it into the ground. on another note, i was thinking of buying some wheel spacers because i was afraid i was going to run into the problem of the tires i wanted being to big. do u think i can run thoes 205/70/15 if i run wheel spacers?

 

No. Wheel spacers push the wheels/tires out away from the car, and are primarily for wheels with the wrong offset. They won't help you run oversized tires.