Different size tires on front vs back?

[Atty]

Had a tire blow last week and finally got it to a local tire place to get it taken care of today. Went in, I know the owner pretty well (done a lot of business with him, sent business his way, and quite a few mutual friends) and told him I wanted two new tires for the front to replace the one that blew and to even out the other side, he said ok, gave me a reasonable quote ($120 OTD, two tires, balanced, aligned, etc) and that was that.

Didn't pay too much attention until I got home (was in a hurry) but I noticed the two sets of tires are different now.

New ones on the front are 205/60's of some brand I've never heard of and the two in the rear are 195/60's Kuhmo's that I bought from him about a year ago.

Why is that? What are the effects of this? I don't much like having two different sets of tires, it looks weird, car sits different, plus most of all I was quite fond of the ride on my old tires.

Should I go back and ask for another set of the same? Not worth it? Advice please, I know nothing about tires lol.


TL;DR: Got replacement set of tires (2 on front) and they are different size than the backs (205/60 front 195/60 back.)

TIA.

 

[MJinZ]

It's called "staggered".

Useful for bigger on rear for more traction for RWD vehicles.

FWD vehicles should not use staggered configurations.

Your tire place put wider tires up front than the rear, assuming the wheel size is still the same (16s? 17s?). They screwed up.

 

[Atty]

For got to mention, it is a FWD Toyota Camry.

 

[LTC8K6]

Some cars are that way, such as those Grand Prix with the 5.3L in them...

 

[jlee]

It'll drive fine, but I would take it back. As your car is FWD, the back tires just roll. If you had, say, a Subaru.., it may cause issues with the AWD system (but I'm not entirely sure on that).

My tires (and wheels, for that matter) are staggered, but I don't have a Camry.

 

[sdifox]

staggered is for the rich people who don't rotate tires.

 

[Atty]

Well I'm aware some cars have different sets between front and back but I was always under the assumption that was due to performance (and for RWD cars huge HP/TQ ratings...)

Guess I'll go back tomorrow and inquire and request another set of of what I had on there.

 

[MJinZ]

staggered is for the rich people who don't rotate tires.

Sure they do. Left and right. ^_^

 

[SSSnail]

Sure they do. Left and right. ^_^

Ballers install directional tires. :awe:

 

[jlee]

Ballers install directional tires. :awe:

Hahah indeed.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Sure they do. Left and right. ^_^

You can't do that with unidirectional tires. My wife's car has them and we cannot rotate side to side or front to back because the rear tires are wider than the front. If we put the left side tires on the right and vice versa they'd be rotating the wrong direction.

 

[sdifox]

Sure they do. Left and right. ^_^

You are willing to take the tires off the rims and swap?

Only on fronts I guess, I don't see much point on the rears.

 

[sdifox]

You can't do that with unidirectional tires. My wife's car has them and we cannot rotate side to side or front to back because the rear tires are wider than the front. If we put the left side tires on the right and vice versa they'd be rotating the wrong direction.

You have to take the tires off the rim and swap the tires.

 

[jlee]

You have to take the tires off the rim and swap the tires.

Yep..., not worth it IMHO. I probably go through tires fast enough that it doesn't really matter much anyway.

 

[thedarkwolf]

I wouldn't worry about it. I ran my van like that for years and mine were much further apart in size than yours. Just looked stupid with tiny tires on the back compared to the front.

 

[rh71]

staggered is for people who LOOOOOVE the looks

there ya go

 

[Lotheron]

I'm surprised they gave you the bigger tires in the first place. Usually they'll put on standard sizes for your car unless that's precisely what they are and you've had smaller than stock anyhow.

 

[BassBomb]

FWD staggered is ok if you have the wider tires in front for auto-x

 

[exdeath]

What matters is the aspect ratio, or more specifically, sidewall height.

195/60 = 117mm
205/60 = 123mm

(123mm-117mm) x 2 (top and bottom sidewall) = tire is 12 mm taller. Pretty negligible, as that translates to real speed of 61.2 mph when you're speedo says 60.

205/55 isn't much different, but in the other direction.

When people refer to staggered, the width is increased and the aspect ratio is decreased to keep the tire the same height as the other tires. In other words 40% of 200 is the same as 20% of 400, same sidewall height for different width.

eg 275/40/17 & 315/35/17 = difference in height of 1 mm.

Running different height tires often causes issues with ABS.

 

[JulesMaximus]

there ya go

Or people who bought cars that came that way from the factory.

 

[zerocool84]

I only did that on my old bug cus it looked cool and dropped the front even more.