Different tire size recommended for front and rear????

I drive in a lot of rain & if I was buying a new tire that was not an LRR tire I would buy a good all-season tire. My 2 choices would be either the Yokohama YK580 or the Continental DWS. No need to waste money on a summer tire for a Prius. The best way to prevent hydroplaning is to slow down, it's silly to drive upwards of 90 mph in the dry, let alone with wet roads. At that speed any tire will hydroplane.

 

I personally have experience with all 3 tires, for my MR2 the Michelin would be a great choice for me. For the Prius both the Continental DWS & Yokohama YK580 are awesome tires & are very quiet. You could also install a little sound deadening to help make it more quiet.

 

I'd like to know as well.

There is nothing wrong with putting an over the top tire on the Prius. The result may be less fuel efficiency and faster tire wear but it's not like the car is going to break or freak out. If the owner has the money to spend then those two factors are irrelevant. If spending more money on one of the best tires made makes him/her feel better than it's money well spent in my mind.

 

Running different TPM tyres front and rear will through fault codes and also cause regen braking not to work on the Prius as the ECU see's the wheel speed difference as wheel slip and forces mechanical braking.

 

Just my input on the dws. I had drag 17 inch wheels and put on new conti dws 17 oem size. My mpg went from 54 to 43. I ended up selling them and put the stock 15's on. I am now in a level 5 with 17 oem and 54 mpg. So not sure if it was the rims or tires. I understand modding. I just couldnt stomach that big of and mpg hit. I think the contis were fairly noisy. I have 17 michelin on my car now. They, in my opinion, are a smoother quieter tire that performs well in rain at higher speeds. better than the conti. But they are very pricey!!

 

What was your previous car? How long did you have the DWS on before you sold them?

 

For my MR2 dry traction is most important. I want a high performance summer tire for maximum handling & I'm not concerned with any loss in MPG, so the Michelin would be a great choice.

For my Prius I want a great tire that handles well in both wet & dry conditions but I also want a tire that will last a little longer & not take a big MPG hit. A summer tire is stickier so it has higher rolling resistance which is great for my MR2, not so great for the Prius.

While the Continental DWS & Yokohama YK580 are not LRR tires, they are said to save fuel over regular all-season tires & even more over a high performance summer tire. They both provide a quiet ride, are great in the rain & dry pavement, handle well & would be great in most any area other than snow. I always recommend winter tires when temps are lower then 45F.

 

I agree, I was just pointing out that the Michelin was a waste on the Prius as a commute tire IMO. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Some of the Drag wheels are heavy, but there are others using them with the DWS & even with 18" wheels & tires getting much better MPG. Did you ever inflate them higher to see the benefit? It sounds like the MPG that you would get with 32 psi. Also, what size 17" tire was it? A 205/50R17 tire will do better then a 215/45R17 or a 225/45R17 with the narrower width.

 

Under normal circumstances I agree but he wants a full on performance tire so....

Oh, something else that has been bugging me. The OE 15" tire has a revs per mile of 829+- and the 17" wheel is rated at 844+-. The speedo with the OE 15" is approx. 1.5mph too fast. That means the 17" wheel should be even faster. Could this be part of the reason why people don't report as large of a loss with the GenIII vs. the loss on the GenII. On the GenII the OE 15" revs per mile is 855. So basically you are driving slower than you think you are with the OE 15s on both Generations but slap 17s on a GenIII and you drive even slow whereas slap 17s on a GenII and you are driving faster. Does that make sense?

 

Not only are you going faster but your driving further than you or your oddo think. I went from 195/55/16 to 205/55/16 or 855tpm to 831tpm giving a 2.8% greater distance travelled per rotation.

 

Aye and I don't know if the odometer can account for that or not. If not then those of us going with larger diameter wheels are not losing as much as we think we are. It's the opposite for the GenIII folk who upsize.

We are in need of some serious odometer testing it seems.

 

I have checked my oddo with OEM size tyres (borrowed from a friend) and my oversize and the oddo is out by 2.8% under reading with the oversize tyres.

 

Assuming 855TPM is correct for Prius gen2

1mile = 1760yds / 855tpm= 2.06 yds travelled per revolution OEM 195/55/16 tyre
1760yds / 830tpm= 2.12 yds travelled per revolution Oversize 205/55/16 tyre
gen2 tpm 855 x 2.12 = 1812.6yds distance travelled for 855 revolutions of oversize tyre
1812.6yds - 1760yds = 51.6yds travelled extra per mile
1760yds / 51.6yds = 34.1 miles to travel to gain 1 extra mile
51.6yds x 34.1m = 1759.56yds 1mile

So in 100miles per oddo with 830tpm tyres you will have travelled close to 103 miles.

Hope this makes sense.

 

Just got my best fill up with my 18" Drags and DWS tires...49.1mpg calculated. Life is good...cannot wait for summer for multiple reasons

 

So worst case scenario you travel between 10-15miles more or less on a 500mile tank depending on whether you upsized the wheels on a GenII vs. a GenIII?

GenII OE 15" or 16" revs/mile = 855 or 850
GenIII OE 15" revs/mile = 829
GenIII OE 17" revs/mile = 844

* revs/miles varies by manufacture and is not a static measurement

 

Depends which 17" size tire you use. I was looking at the revs/mile of the Yokohama Ascend & found this....

195/65R16 827 revs/mile

205/55R16 833 revs/mile

205/50R17 829 revs/mile

Almost dead on for each size.