R51 18" tires European vs NA specs

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TooMuchControl
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Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2020 4:41 pm

R51 18" tires European vs NA specs

Postby TooMuchControl » Sun Dec 11, 2022 6:25 pm

I'm in the process of deciding on new tires, as I have recently obtained the 18" Frontier Sport Package Charcoal Rims.

My processes are crazy and lengthy, and I'm bound, in the end to jump on the first reasonable deal, but I thought I would start to post my details in this regard. IT could take me days to weeks to decide on what to jump on.


European tire specifications - interesting

As part of this process, I found an interesting differentiation between the NA and European market places when it comes to the 18" rims / tires.

In Europe, these tires must be "V" speed rated in the 265 60 18 size.
In North America, is only calls for "H" speed rated in the 265 60 18 size.

Obvious that the applications are very different. In Europe, on the open roadways, you are going to need the V rating for the higher roadway speeds.

It's interesting that in NA, the V speed rated tire in the 265 65 18 size is extremely limited. You may only have a handful of tires to choose from.

When you drop to the normal 265 60 18, there are certainly more choices available across the many different tire types -still not very open and most of them are strictly all season tire applications - which makes sense as well. It's perhaps at this high level, we know who's who in the tire manufacturing world?

I thought it was interesting to note the differences.

Rarely hear of anyone placing V speed rated tires on the R51, but it was a normal condition for the operation of this vehicle for highways in Europe (at least on paper)


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palmerwmd
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Re: R51 18" tires European vs NA specs

Postby palmerwmd » Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:51 am

I was happy I found a tire that was both H rated and AT rated and 3peakmountainsnowflake rated
Once you add those requirements together the pool of possible tires choices shrinks dramatically.
Then on top of that add the rare size of 265 65 18 and 2 years ago when I was tire shopping I found only 1.

If adding a V rating as a fixed variable and all the fixed requirements above we might be talking about a set of zero. :P

The USDM V8 R51 is electronically limited to 130 mph (or less not sure the exact number)

Perhaps the Europe Spec V8 R51 (is there, or was there, such a thing?) was not limited?


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