tire manufactuers get feed back from the stores that carry their brand. one of the suggestions was to have the name stamped on the tread for easy recognizability. when tires are stacked up, either on top of each other, or side by side, all u see is the tread. if the sticker is gone, not all treads are recognizable, and some treads look so similar, the only way is to pull the tire out, and read the side wall. having the brand on tread makes it easier to read. for kumhos, 3 bands = spt, weird italic style V or U shaped = AST, and different inside and outside tread = ASX. thats how i remembered them. =)the AST at first quick glance has a similar weird pattern like one of the nittos...

with a watchful eye, and some hints on how to mount them properly, ken @ advance let me mount my own 20s.

275/30/20s have more side wall, and so was relatively easy compared to 245/30/20s. dont know how he does it with just a dab of lube. dont know how he mount the 295/25/20s. thats just insanely thin!

doing stretched tires was actually EASY, but time consuming and fustrating. even with a bead blaster at 100psi, u dont always get the tires bead to catch the rim edge.

hardest by far is doing BMW's with run flats.

My god they must ride like a bag of frikken hammers. And helloooo to some serious tracking problems; these would follow every road imperfection you run over. Sweet, tires that tramline you ass right off the road, while pounding your kidneys so hard you can piss blood if you survive the accident! W00T!

Isnt the the "series" number just a percentage of the width? ie 15 series is 15% of the overall width? So the wider the tire the higher sidewall. Having the tire that wide is what makes it possible to have it so thin. You probably will never see a 205/15/15 as the rubber would be to thin to run on would it not?

Berz out.

You got it berz. A 285/30 has almost the same amount of sidewall when compared to a 225/40.

A 385/15 still has a very short sidewall - around 58 mm. I can't think of many tires that have a shorter sidewall. The sidewall height is about equivalent to a 195/30

165/30 is 49.5mm
it's common in Japan for 18 inch Kei car wheels.

whats the point???
will the car handle better? or is it for looks?

Man I thought my 355/25/19's were low...if they make something like 375/15/20 or something I would buy it

DAMN! i do NOT want to put those on!! I've done 20 series and they took FOREVER!!!

Mostly for looks - 22's are definitely not for performance. That said, lateral grip should be very good with these tires as well - no one else makes a tire that wide.

Definitely only for track. With a sidewall like that, I can imagine the rim exploding when it hits a pot hole.

lol what car would use a 22" wheel on the track?

this is just for show purposes. it's one of those first in the industry type things.

Bugatti Veyron is a serious performance car and it has 21 or 22 inch wheels with 365 tires. So it's not that far off.

the only reason why any manufactuer would come with such large wheels stock would be to fit the monster brakes that it comes with. otherwise its just a cosmetic option.

with how much HP cars are coming out with these days, going + size on the wheels matters little. the only matter is if the brakes can handle it.

Mostly for looks...also, it's awesome if you're a minitrucker...let's say your truck is set up to lay frame on 20s...well, now you can lay frame on 22s if you slap these tires on them...more bling = more better.

For other cars: you can run bigger wheels without having to modify suspension and/or trim/roll fenders, etc...

For me, I run a stupid-low static setup on mine and as much as I'd love to run 18s or 20s, I stick with smaller rims because I like being low...smaller sidewall = I could run bigger rims and not have them raise my truck :)