OOOPS! 1) Bought tires (235/60/14), 2) Measured rims (5.5"), 3) Found rims 1" too narrow than minimum recommended for tire.(6.5") Is this too far? (Mild SB A-body driver)

I ran 245-60-14's on 5.5in. rims for years on my Duster. They worked fine.

Thats good to hear. Thanks.

Anyone else?

I had 225/60-14 on 6" rims, I did not like it.
Max recommeded tire on 5,5" rims is 215.

I know a few guys who have 245/60/14 on 5.5" wheels without any problems. One guy has been running this combo since '89

Not enough rim width for that tire.

The trouble comes in when you inflate the tire. Too wide a tire changes the bead angle and reduces the contact area between the bead and rim allowing a greater chance of the tire losing it's seal under side loading.

I wouldn't be doing any hard cornering with loved ones in the car.

A friend ran 245/60-14" on a 5.5" rim. The pressure needed to be around 20 to 25 psi to get an even tread pattern. Handling will suffer, but traction will increase. This was in a 440 Dart with /6 torsions and 90/10 shocks, so handling sucked anyways.

BFG has a chart somewhere on their site. 235s are too wide for a 5.5" rim. They won't handle the eay they should because the sidewall is drawn to tightly inward. They won't seal as well because the bead is at an incorrect angle and the contact pattern on the street will never be as the manufacturer intended. The ideal is to have the tire towards the middle of the rim range, for better handeling use the widest reccomended rim. A 235 on a 7" rim will measure 1" more if mounted on a 8" rim.

Hey face it: It will go on but it ain't right and they more than likely will be short lived and have very poor wear and handling characteristics. The beads will be sucked in, the face will never full contact the road surface the way it is designed to(unless you run low air pressures [that alone is unsafe]). Running low tire pressure to get contact surface creates excessive heat. Hell in short it won't even look good all sucked in on the rim. Kind of like a fat lady with a too tight girdle. Oh and if I were running a tire shop I wouldn't mount them on those rims either.

Your car will handle like a drunk Water Buffaloe. That is reason enough not to do it. Think safety first.

You gotta love the 'net, 180° disagreement (as usual).

I attended a seminar on rigging, hoists, chains, cables, etc some years ago. A question arose on whether someone could weld a hoisting hook onto an item instead of bolting it. After some discussion and naysaying from some 'experts' in the crowd, the final response of that factory rep was 'Do you think you know more about our products than we do?'.

I'm sure this comment will anger the folks driving on this tire setup, but I would trust the tire manufacturers recommendations more than the heresay of individuals that may or may not have the same car, same vehicle weight, driving habits, judgment, etc, as you.