Model Y Performance Tires

[psett]

Hi folks,

I know there are similar threads out there about wheels/suspension setups but I'm curious about one particular thing - what tires can I put on my 21" uberturbine wheels to make the car ride better? I don't want to swap out the wheels and I don't want to change any suspension components. And yes, I've dropped the pressure in the stock tires to about 35 PSI and it still rides hard.

I can't find much on this, the only youtube video I saw said to go up by 20 mm in width on each tire since the stock ones are so stretched.

I appreciate the help!

 

[acarney]

You'll want a 19" wheel or maybe even an 18" wheel from tsportline.

Even if you go from a 255 to a 275 up front you only go from 3.51 inches of sidewall to 3.79 inches. Personally I don't think less than 1/3 of an inch difference in sidewall will make any noticeable effect for you, especially for the hassle and price of buying four new tires.

If you don't want to change the suspension, I think stepping down as much as possible on wheel size is probably the only other thing. An 18 inch wheel will give you 4.8 inches of sidewall, or about 1.3 inches (30% more) sidewall. The cost of wheels is probably what you could sell your UberTurbines for, ~$1600.

You're going to have a lot more squirm while cornering and driving, and it might actually affect your range a small amount, but if comfort is what you really want and don't want to touch suspension, I think you need either an 18", or at minimum a 19".

 

[acarney]

Also, the max load on those tires up front is 1,653 pounds, but that's AT 42 PSI. Load goes down as pressure goes down. At 35 psi the load rating is more like 1,426 pounds up front and 1,664 on the rear.

Model Y Performance is ~4,398 pounds which puts a load of ~1,100 at each wheel before passengers or any other loads. That means you have about 1,306 pounds to play with before you overload the front axle. That sounds like a lot, but get four "larger" people in there at 200 to 230 each and you start to get close to that max load, and it's probably a little more complex and confusing since load ratings aren't equal between the rear and front.

You might be totally fine, but I personally would keep the tires closer to their max load range... like 38 to 40 psi.

(Example, cold morning that turns out to only be ~33 psi, then you only have ~262 pound buffer on those front tires...)