Originally Posted by
randysmirage
Michelin specs this size tire as fitting on a MINIMUM 5" width rim. Our stock rims are 4.5" wide. Does anyone see any problems with this?
Resident Tire Engineer checking in again here. To answer your question, and others here... I see no issues running the Michelin 175. I looked up the data on these and compared them to the Enasaves, and they are very similar. The two points where tire size matters are Section Width (tread width is irrelevant really) and OD.
The Section Width comparison:
Enasave - 6.7"
Defender - 7"
OD:
Enasave - 22.4"
Defender - 23"
The treadwear rating alone makes the Defender a hard tire to pass up... 820!!!
I'm not always a huge fan of Michelin from a ride and handling perspective, but there is no disputing their quality. If you want a tire that will last forever, and wear dead flat even the Michelin is the way to go.
Resident Tire Engineer
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.4 mpg (US) ... 18.9 km/L ... 5.3 L/100 km ... 53.3 mpg (Imp)