Recommended tire size
 

First off, I know little to none about what the best tire set up is. I have pretty much settled on Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's. I have heard great things about them. Let me know if you like them or don't like them. I am replacing all 4 tires. I have a basically stock (as far as I know) 2013 Camaro 2SS convertible with a manual trans. I have owned it for a little over a year. I am getting bad vibrations due to I believe cupping in the front Falken Pro G4's which have a lot of tread left. The vibrations are getting worse. Is this always going to happen since I can't rotate a non-square setup? I have Pirelli P Zeros in the back which are bald. Current tire sizes: Front: 245 40 R20, Rear: 275 40 R20. I believe this is stock. Should I get something else? Would be nice to go a little wider and get some rim protection, but more importantly I want them to handle well, so sticking with stock is ok too. Since it's a convertible, I can't take it to the track or the strip. Sad face. I plan on getting a gen 6 coupe down the road, so I don't want to go all crazy and get a roll cage. I basically just have fun in this one. Spirited driving through twisty roads, occasional hole shots on a back road. Not interested in changing rims. So basically I want to know, if there is a better tire size for what I do with my car, or should I stick with stock? I do like the staggered look, but it would be nice to be able to rotate, but not if it deters from the fun ride.

There's a sticky thread in Wheels and Tire Talk section. Once there, click Recommended Tire Sizes for 2010 Camaro. There's a list of all recommended tires sizes. This should answer all you questions.

If you are referring to the thread started by HATTAWAY66, that thread doesn't answer my question. He just wants to go wider for looks.

The OEM sizes were 245/45 front and 275/40 rear. You can go up 1 size without any issues. You could go 255/40/20 front and 285/35/20 rear without problems on stock rims. I personally would get an alignment with the fresh tires.

Living in Lake Orion for many years, I'm very familiar with Clarkston road, and your car will handle much different with matching brand of tires, and lower profile in the rear.

Rockclimber - welcome to the forum!

You wouldn't happen to have pictures of the "Cupping" on your current tires would you? I ask because cupping is usually pretty rare for high performance tires on our cars. What is more likely is what is called feathering or heal to toe wear when you run a staggered setup on directional tires with a softer compound that you can't rotate.

As for size, I would recommend sticking with stock (245/45/20 front and 275/40/20 rear). There is really no wider size with the same 28.7" diameter available that will fit the rear wheels. 315/35/20 is 28.7" but you'll need a wider rim to fit it. I hesitate to change diameter of tires on these cars because if the variation between front and rear is significant, the car will have issues.

For brands of tires, its really more of personal preference... I am sure the firestones are fine. They seemed to have bounced back from their mid 90s ford explorer issues.

SlingShot is 100% correct that you can run the 1 step up in width. You'll get a couple of benefits from doing this but there is also some minor downsides.

Benefits are more contact patch and if you have a very sensitive butt dyno, you may be able to feel the increased torque multiplier by switching to the smaller diameter... you should get 2.8% improvement in torque multiplication.

Downsides are if you are stock ride height, you'll get a little more wheel gap of about 0.4". Also your speedo will read 2.8% higher than your actual speed... meaning when your speedo says 70, you are really going 68. That might be good if you are prone to speeding tickets though.

check out the tire size comparison if you want a good visualization of what different sizes will look like.

https://tiresize.com/comparison/

Yes. Like I said I don't know tires. You are right, I got my terminology mixed up. It's feathering on the outer edge. Where the front height of each block of tread is a different from the rear height of that same block. This is feathering correct? Am I always going to have this issue? Or is it that the Falkens are just bad tires? I will get the alignment checked and adjusted if necessary. It seems to drive pretty straight right now.

Thanks for the technical explanation of the differences! That's what I needed to hear. I would like to go wider in the rear, because of the look. I also researched the sizes I could go with, and found the 315's to be an exact dimensional change (except width of course), but ya, they won't fit. :( I'd rather not get more wheel gap, so I'm glad you explained that. The speedometer isn't a huge deal, but I'd rather it be accurate than not. I would like a little rim protection, but I guess I just need to be more careful. :)

Looks like I'll stick with stock, based on all the information you guys gave me. Maybe, when I get a gen 6, I will get new wheels, which will allow 315's. I really needed all the benefits and cons given to me and explained why. Most people just throw out numbers they have and don't explain the good and the bad. Thanks for your help!

With stock wheels, your best bet is the stock sizes, already mentioned.

Cupping suggests that you should get an alignment when the new tires are installed.

There is a huge selection of tires available in the stock sizes. Summer and all season, directional and non-directional. The original PZero tire is non directional, so can be "rotated" side to side although the staggered sizes prevent front to rear swapping.

BTW, I had minimal cupping on my PZeros and kept them for over 40,000 miles. I never rotated them side to side, either.

When the PZeros were finished, I got high performance all-season tires, which happen to be directional. In my opinion, most people would be better off with all-season tires. Summer tires do not perform well at all in wet conditions, even at "mild" temperatures like, say, 65 F.

Yes that is feathering. This is usually caused by the tire (and driving style) and not associated with alignment or worn shocks. Some tires feather far worse than others.

If you ever get cupping, Rock-It Man is correct, you at least need an alignment. But you probably need shocks too. You'll see cars that go bouncing down the road with crazy cupping on their tires.

Glad we could help.

No, the thread was started by NineBall. Go to Wheels and Tire Talk Sponsored by tire rack thread. Once there click the 3rd thread from the top that says recomended tire sizes for 2010 camaro. It has a list of all tire sizes from 18s all the way up to 24s.

Totally against the grain here OP. I have 255 on the front with 305 drag radials on the back on stock rims with no issues or wear problems.. Originally I went 295 40 20s on the back and liked the look. Do what you want. There are a ton of members running big rubber on stock rims. But if you want stock....stay stock.