Matching front & rear tires

1995 Buick with tow package. 225/75R15 on front, 275/60R15 on the back

What size do I need on the front to match the height of the rear? Or make the front a tad lower than the rear? The tires are all shot and need to be replaced. Want to keep the rear the same size but match the front to them.

Also what brands does anyone suggest? Was thinking Cooper GT’s but they don’t look to perform very well. Look nice but that’s about it.

When I bought my wagon it had a 275/60 and 255/60 combo on it. That is a 28/27 inch combo. Since my car is lowered I wanted it to set level and have shorter tires so it has 255/60s on all 4 corners. I run Cooper Cobra tires.





Use this page to check out the sizes of various tires.

https://tiresize.com/height-chart/

You need tires of the same diameter for the antilock brakes to work. If they vary too much from front to rear, the antilock does not understand the input, and will throw a code, and not work.

According to this chart I need a 235/70R15 to equate the exact tire diameter to 28 inches. Anti-lock brakes will work correctly and the car will set level unless there are suspension issues?

The 255-65 is only 0.1 inches larger, and is acceptable.

As usual let me add. That tire combo caused me a total of zero problems with the ABS.

The system on these cars is beyond ancient and barely worked new. I threw mine in the trash years ago so there is no issue.

A P-metric tire size like 275/60 means that the tire tread is 275 mm wide and the sidewall height is 60% of that.

So 275/60 is 275 mm x 60% or 275/.60= 165 mm (sidewall height in rear)

225/.75= 168.75 mm (sidewall height in front)

168.75-165=3.75 mm

3.75x2 for the sidewall height top and bottom of the wheel = 7.5 mm taller (0.3")

Substitute other sizes that will fit in front without interference.

225/70= 157.5 mm will give you a 0.6" shorter tire in front

215/75= 161.25 mm will give you a 0.3" shorter tire in front

This assumes wheel diameter is the same front and rear.

I am using cooper cobras P235/70R15's all the way around. The factory load leveling picks the back end up just right.

For what it's worth, I've been using Hankook Optimo H724 tires in a 225/75-15 size on my stock rims. I wanted the whitewalls and they have been a very good tire for me. They also make raised white letter tires. A 235/75 size will work. After that, it's a matter of personal taste.
I have seen Toyo's tires get worse in quality in recent years; I've seen structural failures of Cooper tires.

Well, that explains why my ABS light is lit up...I put a set of 235/75/15s on the back of my RMW, and I've got 225/60/15's on the front. Hey, they were free, and had great tread.

when i had my 1996 rmw (open end) I was buying tires from costco so there's not much choice in brands. First set i had the BF goodrich LT T/As on the stock rims/ stock size. They were decent on dry but when new they were easy to spin in the rain/wet pavement - not sure if posi would've made a difference.
Last set I splurged on Michelins - can't recall the specific model anymore. For the first 10K miles or so they wouldn't break lose even on wet, then they would. But they felt very good - esp in hard fast cornering. Again, stock size on original rims.
susp was HD monroe ss shocks in front and bilsteins in rear - which were still holding up well past 50K and often carrying heavy loads.

My current 93 wagon came with fresh tires - Dextero brand. I'd never heard of this brand before, found walmart carries them. Seems like a lot of people like them for some reason. Even with all new suspension (thank you Fred K!) these tires feel like they have soft/weak sidewalls by comparison and I don't feel confident on their cornering/handling.

94Woody wrote:

As usual let me add.  That tire combo caused me a total of zero problems with the ABS.

The system on these cars is beyond ancient and barely worked new. I threw mine in the trash years ago so there is no issue.

Any easy way to get rid of the abs light? Besides sticking a Harley Davidson sticker over it, which is currently what mine is doing lol. Can I pull the cluster and take the bulb.

1991BlueBertha wrote:

94Woody wrote:

As usual let me add.  That tire combo caused me a total of zero problems with the ABS.

The system on these cars is beyond ancient and barely worked new. I threw mine in the trash years ago so there is no issue.

Any easy way to get rid of the abs light? Besides sticking a Harley Davidson sticker over it, which is currently what mine is doing lol.   Can I pull the cluster and take the bulb.

There are two ways to stop the ABS bulb from lighting; remove the bulb, and fix the ABS.

Lol. I think removing the bulb on a 30 year old vehicle would be easier. I may get it scanned and see what code it’s presenting. If it’s not something simple , bulb time it is