Scott, others may correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the general concensus here is that you need a 5.5" wide rim to run 205/60/13 tires. Also, remember that wheel width is measured inside bead-to-bead. Having said that, MANY others here have said they can run that size no problem on stock rims. I suspect much of it depends on how hard you drive the car and whether you'll be cornering enough to possibly roll the sidewall and "dump" the air out. I'm very interested in seeing other's replies to this question as well. The 205/60/13 size is regarded by most everyone as safe to run on '75 wheels, which are half an inch wider than all previous Opel wheels on our cars.

Todd

 

All tire manufacturers list their acceptable wheel width for each of their tire sizes on their website. the easiest place to find the information is on Tire rack's website. (tirerack.com) Just select the tire brand and model you want and then double click on "specs" at the top of the screen. As a rule of thumb.
70 series require 4.5" rims
65 series - 5.0" rims
60 series - 5.5" rims
Not only do 5" rims put a lot of stress on a 60 series tire's sidewall, but they look odd.

 

correct me if im wrong, but doesnt like the 60 series and all that mean how high the sidewall is, and the first number is the width of the tire...

 

you are right that the second # is % height of the side wall and the first is the tread width adam ,they are looking into the rim width you can put them onto

 

tires

The 60, 70, 50 series of tires is the aspect ratio of the tire, height of the sidewall devided by width of the tread I believe.

Jim

 

Wheels

Make sure those wheels will clear you 75 brakes, the 75 had a wider wheel to clear the bigger brakes.

 

almost its a persentage number of the tread width so a 205 /50 /13 would have a tread of 205mm a side wall of 205 X 50 % =102.5 mm and a 13" rim size

 

Baz,
I believe that the 205 is the section width not the tread width. The tread with is considerably less. The rim sizes that I gave in my last post assumes a 13" rim and a tire that is close to the original 165R13. As the aspect ratio decreases the section width increases to keep the same overall diameter. These would be:
185/70R13 - 4.5" rim minimum width
195/70R13 - 4.5" rim minimum width
195/65R13 - 5.0" rim minimum width
205/60R13 - 5.5" rim minimum width

 

well, I guess I was just young, dumb and full of....well, young and dumb. My second GT had stock rims, 5.0" and I ran 205/60R-13 BF Goodrich radial T/A's on them as they were just out. I ran them for 60K miles and narry a problem, wore flat as a tabletop. BTW, the original T/A's were rated for 40K

 

I know alot of people run 205's on the stock 5" rim with out any problem. I wouldn't go with any wider a tire.

 

Baz,
I believe that the 205 is the section width not the tread width. The tread with is considerably less. The rim sizes that I gave in my last post assumes a 13" rim and a tire that is close to the original 165R13. As the aspect ratio decreases the section width increases to keep the same overall diameter. These would be:
185/70R13 - 4.5" rim minimum width
195/70R13 - 4.5" rim minimum width
195/65R13 - 5.0" rim minimum width
205/60R13 - 5.5" rim minimum width

afraid not its definitely the tread width we have used the metric system on radial tyres for 35 ish years since they became the normal tyre to fit to a car and we did away with cross ply and bias ply tyres

 

Baz,
It sounds like we're calling the same thing by different names. As I write this I'm looking at Bridgestone's website. A 185/70R13 tire has a Sect. Width of 7.3" which is equivalent to 185 mm and a tread Width of 5.8" which is equivalent to 147 mm. It sounds like what europeans have traditionally called tread width is now being called section width by the tire manufacturers. It could be another case of Americans messing with the English language.

 

must be