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Tires too narrow on Uberturbine

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The 235 width stock tires are narrower than recommended for 9" wide wheels like the stock Uberturbines. Normally 255 or 245 is recommended for 9" wide wheels. I don't know why Tesla chose this odd stretched pairing.

The partial solution is to get 245/35R20 tires, which should fit no problem. Or 255/35R20 which are known to fit on the Model 3 with some tire models but not all (not every 255 tire is actually the same width).

The real solution is to ditch the stupid fragile heavy 20" wheels for more practical and better-performing 18" or 19" wheels. The stock wheels look cool but their diameter (forcing use of rubberband thin tires) and weight are just bad in any functional sense.
 
Thank you.
That brings up another question I had planned to post separately: I don't mind the 20" size but the godawful weight of the Uberturbines.
Ist there a 20" replacement that will fit my car, retaining the same wheel spacing/offset and usable with the stock tire width (235/35/20) but at considerably less weight?
 
Thank you.
That brings up another question I had planned to post separately: I don't mind the 20" size but the godawful weight of the Uberturbines.
Ist there a 20" replacement that will fit my car, retaining the same wheel spacing/offset and usable with the stock tire width (235/35/20) but at considerably less weight?
The main weight that you feel is absence of sidewal damping. Move to 19 inch, you won't regret it.
 
There was a thread some time ago that explained the reasoning for this screwed-up combo of too wide a wheel and too narrow a tire.

Can I switch to a Tesla-approved Michelin 245, whose protective tire lip will protrude enough beyond the rim?
The 235 width stock tires are narrower than recommended for 9" wide wheels like the stock Uberturbines. Normally 255 or 245 is recommended for 9" wide wheels. I don't know why Tesla chose this odd stretched pairing.

The partial solution is to get 245/35R20 tires, which should fit no problem. Or 255/35R20 which are known to fit on the Model 3 with some tire models but not all (not every 255 tire is actually the same width).
 
I hope to gain what every manufacturer of every sporty vehicle is aiming for: lower energy consumption, better handling through less unsprung weight. Besides, I have never encountered a sports car manufacturer who has designed undersized tires for their rims.
 
I hope to gain what every manufacturer of every sporty vehicle is aiming for: lower energy consumption, better handling through less unsprung weight. Besides, I have never encountered a sports car manufacturer who has designed undersized tires for their rims.
The energy consumption difference from the weight turns out to be pretty minimal (like 1 mile extra highway range), which is why Tesla doesn’t bother making them light. However, on a narrower wheel the tire might end up narrower too which would help maybe.

I second the suggestion to go with 19s though, you get more tire choices and avoid the high rate of pothole damage risk. Most of the options are a half inch narrower too.
 
The main weight that you feel is absence of sidewal damping. Move to 19 inch, you won't regret it.
I just went from factory 20's to MW03 19's and it feels harsher against bumps. But I bought my car used and it came with snow tires mounted on them. The 19's have PS4 tires on them. The type of tire can make a difference too. I'm in CA, so I've never used snow tires before. I was surprised how soft the car felt over bumps especially given the short sidewalls. I wasn't surprised at how squirmy it was at the limits. I'm curious how harsh it is with summer tires on the 20's now.
 
I just went from factory 20's to MW03 19's and it feels harsher against bumps. But I bought my car used and it came with snow tires mounted on them. The 19's have PS4 tires on them. The type of tire can make a difference too. I'm in CA, so I've never used snow tires before. I was surprised how soft the car felt over bumps especially given the short sidewalls. I wasn't surprised at how squirmy it was at the limits. I'm curious how harsh it is with summer tires on the 20's now.
@CKwik240 Snow tires ride very softly in my experience too. I believe it's necessary for best snow traction.

Of course smooth ride is NOT good reason to run snow tires...unless you're actually driving in the snow!

I would also worry that 20" snow tires on a Model 3 are an even worse idea than 20" summer performance tires. At least the performance tires will have somewhat stuff sidewalls (varying by exact tire model of course), whereas I imagine it would take less of an impact from bad road bumps or dips to fully compress those soft squishy snow tire sidewalls.

Is this another thread I should paste my cracked Tesla wheel photo into? I guess why not... @clyde this is really for you. This was a stock Tesla wheel wearing 245/35 tires. Happened driving down one of those roads that looks like the moon surface. For sure roads shouldn't be that bad...but many are, that's the real world we live in, and it's stupid to spec a wheel that can't handle them. No we weren't driving fast, just following the flow of traffic.

download_20151020_100549.jpg


You can search through these forums for plenty more examples of big Tesla wheels that got cracked or bent, way out of proportion vs smaller wheels where the tires have more sidewall. Maybe forged wheels would hold up better with rubberband tire sizes but Tesla seems to never bother with that, not even for their extra big "performance" model wheels.

We downsized our S P85 2" in wheel diameter after that. No more cracked wheels. When we ordered our M3P, wife and I were both like yeah...those wheels need to go. I ordered 2" smaller wheels for it before even picking up the car. Wheels took longer to get than the car though so got to experience the stock setup for 1k miles, which made for a nice comparison even though I was sweating potholes / bad roads most of the time.
 
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@CKwik240 Snow tires ride very softly in my experience too. I believe it's necessary for best snow traction.

Of course smooth ride is NOT good reason to run snow tires...unless you're actually driving in the snow!
I went to surprised at the soft rubber. That makes sense. The soft sidewalls, or at least how soft they were, did surprise me. My Chrysler 300S rides on 245/45R20 tires. I'm running Firestone Indy 500's on it and my initial impression is that the M3P was much better at handling jolts in the road despite the suspension being noticably stiffer overall. I'm thinking the snow tires had a lot to do with that. I'll probably get the same tire on the MW03 with 245/40R19s when the PS4s wear out so I'll have a more direct comparison then.
 
You can find allseasons with some pretty squishy feeling sidewalls. Probably not snow tire soft but softer than any performance-focused tire. I really don't like using squishy sidewalls to achieve decent ride quality though. It's a direct tradeoff in handling responsiveness and road feel. Plus street tires with really squishy sidewalls are generally low-grip too, in my experience (even if they're not snow tires).
 
Btw if I remember correctly - it's been many years - my snow tires would firm up a bit in actual freezing weather, vs being driven around in a more mild non-freezing climate. This is comparing with unadjusted pressure, so lower pressure in the freezing weather.

So for someone who lives in a colder climate, they might not feel quite so squishy when it's actual winter season. Still pretty squishy though!
 
Also here's my M3P 20" vs 18" comparison summary. This is based on 100% stock 2021 suspension that I had at the time of switching wheels. (My suspension is no longer stock.) I switched at about 1,000 miles as mentioned, so this is a proper comparison of fresh vs fresh tires! :)

Stock for me was 20x9" Uberturbines wearing 235/35R20 Tesla-spec i.e. foam-lined Pirelli PZ4 280TW "max performance " category summer tires.

New setup is 18x8.5" forged Titan7 T-S5 ET35 wheels wearing 245/45R18 Bridgestone Potenza Sport 300TW "max performance" category tires. So same category, but different tire and no foam liner.

Better with the new setup: dry grip, wet grip, ride quality, wheel protection (from bad roads / potholes), tire cost, quieter when driving hard (the PZ4 were squealers, the Potenza Sport thankfully are not), power steering feel in quick back-and-forth turns.

Same/similar with the new setup, as best I could tell: hydroplaning resistance (didn't have issues with either tire), steering response (stock M3P mushy steering remained but didn't get worse than I could tell).

Worse with the new setup: Slightly louder on the highway (not a lot, I've had much louder performance tires and these are still very daily friendly to me, but they are a bit louder cruising on the highway than those very quiet OE foam-lined PZ4)
 
Upgrade to 265/30/20 and enjoy the OEM rims. I'm confused why anyone buys a performance model then chooses to downgrade the wheel width.
@Jangy Because lighter 8.5" wide wheels can still be an upgrade in performance vs the uber-heavy Uberturbines on subpar PZ4 tires, and if you want to run 18s then 9" width doesn't make sense due to limited tire availability.

I considered 18x9" in order to run 255/45R18 tires. However that size had very limited options among summer performance tires, and there were few or no direct M3P fitment wheels in 18x9" - probably in part because of the crappy tire selection.

I could've run 245/45R18 on 18x9" of course but that would be mostly pointless in my book, might as well go with 8.5" wide if running 245's. Which is what I did.

For max grip, sure, go wider than 9". Going to 9.5" wide or wider in either 18" or 19" opens up good tire options in Model 3 friendly sizing, especially in 19". My M3P is only used on the street though, so good 245s are enough grip for me and the street performance tire selection in 245/45R18 is good.

The stock PZ4 tires did not have satisfactory grip for me though! I'm not kidding when I say my 18x8.5" wheels were a performance upgrade in every way vs the Uberturbines. (Yes in part thanks to better tires of course.)
 
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Upgrade to 265/30/20 and enjoy the OEM rims.

1. Will 265s stick out far enough that their protective lip will save the whees, and end curb rash exposure?
2. I am partial to Michelins for their superior handling of my other cars. Will that be the case for 265s on the Tesla?
3. Any idea what I will lose in range by adding 4x30mm to the contact patch?
 
3. Any idea what I will lose in range by adding 4x30mm to the contact patch?
Problem is your contact patch isn't going to change appreciably in size. For a given air pressure and vehicle weight, the contact patch will be roughly the same area for any tire. If you inflate a basketball to 10 psi, then you need 100 sq inches of area of the ball to hold up 100 lbs. The contract area will be circular in shape. If you switch to a football, you will still need a 100 sq inches area to hold up 100 lbs. The shape will now be more oval.

There will be some small variation in contact patch size due to tire structure and sidewall influence on the shape, but tire pressure and the weight on it will largely determine contact patch size of any tire.

What you does to range is not known to me. There will be some additional frontal area with a wider tire. Not sure how this may change the energy absorbed by tire deflection (hysteresis), which is what will change range.
 
Problem is your contact patch isn't going to change appreciably in size. For a given air pressure and vehicle weight, the contact patch will be roughly the same area for any tire. If you inflate a basketball to 10 psi, then you need 100 sq inches of area of the ball to hold up 100 lbs. The contract area will be circular in shape. If you switch to a football, you will still need a 100 sq inches area to hold up 100 lbs. The shape will now be more oval.

There will be some small variation in contact patch size due to tire structure and sidewall influence on the shape, but tire pressure and the weight on it will largely determine contact patch size of any tire.

What you does to range is not known to me. There will be some additional frontal area with a wider tire. Not sure how this may change the energy absorbed by tire deflection (hysteresis), which is what will change range.

But then the ideal pressure gets lower as you go wider on the tire, so then contact patch does increase. But then the area of the contact patch isn't the main reason a wider tire has more grip. But then a wider tire doesn't *always* provide more grip. But then, on our modern heavy cars, it is pretty hard to go too wide, so in a practical sense wider tires always do.
BUT butt butt